In Parashat Vayishlach, the Torah tells us that Yaakov Avinu was told that ולא יקרא שמך עוד יעקב כי אם ישראל יהיה שמך, that your name should not be called Yaakov anymore, but Yisrael should be your name. And concerning this pasuk, the Gemara says in Berachot דף י\"ג עמוד א' that whoever calls Avraham, Avram is over on an aseh or a lo ta'aseh, because the pasuk says ולא יקרא עוד שמך אברם, that your name should not be called Avram, and therefore someone does call him Avram is over on the aveirah, because the Torah said you should not. But then the Gemara asks, if so, the same should be concerning Yaakov, and anybody who calls Yaakov, Yaakov, not Yisrael, should be over on the issur where the Torah says ולא יקרא שמך עוד יעקב, that your name should not be called Yaakov. And the Gemara answers that there's a difference between the name Yaakov and the name Avraham, because by Avram we find that after Hashem changed his name from Avram to Avraham, the Torah never again calls him Avram, always calls him Avraham. But by Yaakov, even after Hashem changed his name from Yaakov to Yisrael, the Torah itself nevertheless calls him Yaakov again. So obviously, Hashem did not mean that you should never again call him Yaakov, but the Torah meant that he has another name, not only Yaakov but also Yisrael. But the question that arises here is, what is actually the difference between the two? Why is it that by Avraham, after his name was changed from Avram to Avraham, he never again was called Avram, which means that now his name is only Avraham, while by Yaakov, even though his name was changed from Yaakov to Yisrael, he nevertheless is still called Yaakov? Why is it so?

So it says in Likutei Torah, it's also hinted in the Chizkuni in פרשת לך לך, קפיטל י\"ז פסוק ה', that the two names, Yaakov and Yisrael, represent two levels and two types of ways a Yid is able to serve Hashem. Concerning Avram and Avraham, the name Avram does not represent any being concerning a Yid's avodas Hashem, and therefore, after his name was changed from Avram to Avraham, this is his name. But Yaakov, since Yaakov and Yisrael both represent two different types of Yidden and two different ways in serving Hashem, therefore the name remains that he is called Yaakov and he is called Yisrael, because by Yidden there is a time when a Yid is supposed to be in the level of Yaakov, and certain times in the level of Yisrael. Or some people are in the level of Yaakov, some people are on the level of Yisrael. What is the difference between Yaakov and Yisrael? So we know that the name Yaakov comes from the word עקב or עקבה, which means cheating. As Esav said that did you call him Yaakov because he cheated me? So the name Yaakov represents the fact that Yaakov Avinu got the brachos from Yitzchak through cheating. Really Esav was supposed to get the brachot, and he cheated Esav, and he got the brachot. While the name Yisrael represents that he got the ברכות בשררה ובגלוי פנים. As Rashi says in this week's פרשה, קפיטל ל\"ב פסוק כ\"ט, that he got the brachot with a שררה ובגלוי פנים, with happiness, and it wasn't in a form of cheat. Another difference we see in the name of Yaakov and Yisrael, Yaakov is made up of two words: י', עקב. The word עקב means the heel. Yisrael is made up of two words: לי, ראש, which means the head. Also we find that Yaakov is usually connected to the concept of עבד, like the לשון אל תירא עבדי יעקב, which means that Yaakov is an עבד, a servant of Hashem, but Yisrael is connected to the concept of ben, of a son, as the pasuk says בני בכורי ישראל, my firstborn son Yisrael.

The explanation to all this is that Yaakov represents a person or a time when a Yid is supposed to cheat the world, so to speak, cheat the yetzer hara in doing the right thing. And this refers to a time when a Yid is involved in his gashmiusdike physical needs. When a person does a mitzvah, then he doesn't have to cheat anybody, doesn't have to cheat the yetzer hara. He does a mitzvah, and the whole concept of a mitzvah is a spiritual matter, you do it only because Hashem wants you to do it, so there is nothing to hide. But when it comes to get involved in physical matters which are not mitzvot, for instance, the person is eating and drinking and doing business, etc., etc., there sometimes you have to cheat. What is the concept of a cheater? A cheater, a ramai, is a person who doesn't reveal his intention. He goes along with the one that he is against, and he seems to be doing what that person wants, but when it comes to the point of the inyan, then he does what he wants, which is the opposite of what the other person, who you showed the whole time that you're with him, the opposite of what he wants. And so too is sometimes the approach of a Yid to all his physical needs, for instance, his eating and drinking. and sleeping and business, etc., etc. You're supposed to do it l'shem Shamayim, but superficially it doesn't seem so. Superficially, it seems as if you are involved in gashmiyut. Superficially, it seems as if you are doing these physical needs just like, l'havdil, a non-id, a non-Jew does, a goy does. Nevertheless, in essence, what you are doing is that you are doing this lishmah shamayim. So this is the concept of a Yid being a ramai, being a cheater. He cheats the yetzer hara, he cheats the gashmiyut, he uses the gashmiyut, which seems to be that he is doing it because he wants the gashmiyut, but in essence he's doing it lishmah shamayim, for the sake of Hashem. Or, as the pasuk says, בכל דרכיך דעהו, in all your ways, in the ways of the person, he knows Hashem. And this is similar to saying that Yaakov Avinu got the brachot through cheating. What were the brachot? The brachot were that Hashem should give you מטל השמים, from the dew of the heaven, משמני הארץ, from the fat of the land, etc., etc. And in the simple peshat, and we know that אין מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו, the pasuk doesn't go out from its simple peshat, we are dealing here here with gashmiyusdike things. So what happened was that he had to cheat these gashmiyusdike things out of Esav. Esav represents gashmiyut, the evil of the world, and Yaakov had to cheat these gashmiyusdike things out of Esav. Also we know that in order to get the brachot, Yaakov had to get dressed in the begadim, in the garments of Nimrod, as it says in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, פרק כ״ד, Bereishit Rabbah פרשה ס״ה, ס״ז, and Rashi brings it down in the parshah in pasuk, in קפיטל כ״ז פסוק ט״ו. Nimrod was the person that המריד את כל העולם כולו עליו במלכותו, he had the whole world revolt against Hashem, as the Gemara says in Eruvin דף נ״ג עמוד א׳, and Rashi brings it down in Bereishit, קפיטל י׳ פסוק ח׳. So Yaakov Avinu had to get dressed in the begadim of Nimrod in order to get the brachos. So this all represents the fact that a Yid gets dressed into the gashmiyus, and seems to be going along with gashmiyus, and nevertheless he cheats the gashmiyus out of the world and he uses it l'shem Shamayim.

The level of Yisrael, which represents that Yaakov Avinu got the ברכות בשררה ובגילוי פנים, that refers to a person who, at a time that he doesn't have to cheat the gashmiyus and use it l'shem Shamayim, that is when he reaches a level that openly and superficially his doing these gashmiyusdike things is a mitzvah, is a service of Hashem. Similar, for instance, to the mitzvah of אכילת שבת, when you eat on Shabbos. So even though you're eating and drinking, involved in gashmiyus, but here you don't have to cheat and use the גשמיות לשם שמים, but doing the gashmiyus itself is a mitzvah, because Shabbos it's a מצוה לענג באכילה ושתיה, you're supposed to have pleasure on Shabbos from eating and drinking. So this is a time or a inyan that you don't have to cheat the gashmiyus out of the world, so to speak, but you are openly involved in ruchniyus. And this is the meaning that Yisrael shows, that he got the brachos, which are גשמיות, בשררה ובגילוי פנים openly, that he didn't have to cheat the brachos out of Esav, but the ברכות לכתחילה were given to Yaakov. The brachos, which is gashmiyus, l'chatchilah is a ruchniyusdike thing. And this is why Yaakov is יוד עקב, and Yisrael is the inyan of לי ראש. Because the person, the time when you are in the madreigah of Yisrael, you are in a much higher madreigah. The madreigah of Yaakov is a much lower madregah. Therefore, Yaakov is connected to עקב, עקב which is the heel of the person, which means it is a very low madregah, but Yisrael is the head, it is a higher madregah. Also does the word Yisrael have the words ישר א-ל? The word ישר means straight, you're straight with Hashem. Because the level of Yisrael is when you serve Hashem straight, you don't have to cheat, which is a crooked way, which is עקוב, the word עקוב also means to be crooked, but this is a straight way. While the one that's in the level or the time where you are in the level of Yaakov, it is not a straight way, you have to go crooked in order to get it out of the gashmiyut. And this is also why Yaakov is connected to eved, and Yisrael is connected to ben. Eved is a lower madregah. A person who is in the level of a slave to Hashem, it's a lower madregah. A slave is a person, as the Gemara says, עבדא בהפקירא ניחא ליה. An eved wants to be hefker, he wants to be free. He doesn't want to be restricted, he doesn't want to be limited. He would rather get involved in all his physical pleasures. But, since he has the yoke of his master, he's not able to do that. So he has to force himself, overcome his desires, and do what his master wants. But a son to a father or to a mother, he does for the parents and what the parents want with pleasure. This is really what he wants. A real good son is a person who wants to do what his parents want. He doesn't have to force himself, to overcome his desires in order to do what they want. But a real ben does what they want on his own. And this are the two levels of Yaakov and Yisrael. Yaakov is one that he has to fight the gashmiyut, because superficially the gashmiyut is gashmiyut, but he has to overcome that and turn that into ruchniyut, do it leshem Shamayim. But Yisrael is a person that lechatchilah his avodah is that the gashmiyut is not gashmiyut, the gashmiyut lechatchilah to him is ruchniyut. That is like a son that he doesn't have to overcome his desires in order to do the will of the father, but that's lechatchilah his own will.

Generally speaking, this is the difference between the level of a Yid during the week and the level of a Yid on Shabbos. During the week, when the kedushah is not so strong, so then the level of a Yid usually is in the level of Yaakov, in the level of eved. A Yid is involved in gashmiyus, has to go to work, make a living, and doesn't have much time to spend in learning Torah and davenen, so therefore a Yid at that time is in the level of Yaakov. On Shabbos, when the person is not allowed to work, so then a person has more time to learn Torah and do mitzvos, to daven, and also at that time it is easier for a Yid to do the gashmiyus that he does in a ruchniyusdike way. On Shabbos, when he eats the seudah, he doesn't have to fight his yetzer hara that tells him that this is really a gashmiyusdike act, and to nevertheless do it l'shem Shamayim. Even superficially, openly he knows that he is doing a mitzvah. And the same applies to all the other physical inyanim that a person does on Shabbos. At that time, he openly sees it and does it in a form of kedushah. So on Shabbos, a Yid is in the level of Yisrael. And this is why the minhag is that Motzaei Shabbos, after Shabbos, you say אל תירא עבדי יעקב. Hashem is saying to a Yid: now that you are leaving the level of Yisrael, and you are going down to the level of עבדי יעקב, you might be afraid: who knows if I will be able to overcome my yetzer hara, and I will be able to do all the מעשיך, all of my gashmiyusdike things l'shem Shamayim? So Hashem says: אל תירא עבדי יעקב, do not be afraid, My servant Yaakov, because I will help you, you will be able to overcome it. Which means that even though it is a yeridah, he is going down to a lower level, but nevertheless Hashem promises that He will give him the strength to overcome his yetzer hara. This also fits to what it says in the pasuk in בלק, קאפיטל כ״ג פסוק כ״א: לא הביט און ביעקב ולא ראה עמל בישראל, that He did not see any aveirot in Yaakov, and did not see any hard work, any toil, b'Yisrael. And the peshat is that b'Yaakov He did not see any avon, but it doesn't mean that He did not see any amal. Only by Yisrael it says He did not see amal. Now avon means aveirot, means things which are wrong. So even by Yaakov, who is in a lower madreigah, and he has the desires, and he has to overcome them, nevertheless he says he did not see a Yid that should not be able to overcome. But it doesn't say that He did not see עמל ביעקב, that He did not see hard work b'Yaakov, because the truth is by Yaakov it is a hard work. He does have to work hard in order to overcome his yetzer hara. By Yisrael, then לא ראה עמל, then there is not even an amal, because amal means the hard work that you have to overcome the yetzer hara. Yisrael is a madreigah where he reached that he doesn't have to work hard to overcome his yetzer hara, because he reached the madreigah already where it is לי ראש, it is ישר אל, as we said before.

And this is the peshat what the pasuk says that the reason he was called Yisrael is because כי שרית עם אלקים ועם אנשים ותוכל. The word Elokim here means malachim, as it says in Targum Yonatan and the Gemara says in חולין דף צ״ב עמוד א׳. Now when we speak about malachim, sometimes we refer to the ע״ן שרים, it says, the seventy sarim, the seventy malachim, which are the controllers of all the seventy nations of the world. And as it says in sefarim, that all the gashmiyut that we get in this world has to go through the emtzaiyut, through the sarim that are in control of the seventy nations of the world. And these sarim, being they are the ones that the gashmiyus goes through, the hashpaah that comes from Hashem goes through them, so they are the ones that cover up on the godliness of this hashpaah. Because when these things come down from Hashem, they are still in a spiritual level, in a spiritual stage. When they come down to this world, they turn into gashmiyus, as it is self-understood. And how does it turn into gashmiyus? It goes through the ע״ן שרים. And this is what the posuk is saying, that כי שרית עם אלקים ואנשים ותוכל, that you were able to overcome the Elokim, these malachim, which means you're able to overcome the cover-up on the gashmiyus, that you are in a level now that the gashmiyus does not cover. If you are not in the level of Yisrael, then the gashmiyus seems to be gashmiyus, and the gashmiyus is a contradiction to ruchniyus, and you have to work hard that even though you're involved in gashmiyus, you have to keep it in l'shem Shamayim. But the level of Yisrael is that that You overcame the Elokim. And we also know that Elokim is the גימטריא הטבע, the nature. We know that the nature is also from Hashem, and that's why nature is called teva. Teva comes from the word טבעו, sunk in, because it is the koach of Hashem, but it is sunk in just like something is in the water. It's there, but you can't see it. So, too, the koach of Hashem is there in the nature, but we can't see it. It is covered up by what seems to be the inyan of teva, the inyan of nature. And this is what Elokim is. Elokim refers to Hashem the way He puts Himself in nature. So Yisrael is a level כי שרית עם אלוקים. You become the sar over Elokim, which means that to you, Elokim doesn't cover. You see in the nature the way really it is not a cover-up on Hashem, but you see it openly that this is all from Hashem. So really to you, it's not Elokim, but it's Havayah. And that's what the pasuk says: כי שרית עם אלוקים, and also ועם אנשים. Anashim refers to those people who try to cover up on Godliness. Like in this case, it referred to Lavan and Esav. And the same bichlal, it refers to those inyanim and those people who try to cover up on kedushah. ותוכל, and you were able to overcome them, that now you are on a level that these things don't bother you. Lechatchilah you look through them and you see in everything how it is from Hashem. And just like it was in the case of Yaakov, that who was the one that told him this was the sar of Esav himself, which is the malach of Esav. He was the one that agreed that Yaakov has to get the berachot, and has to get it, got it בשררה ובגלוי פנים. This means that he overcame the sar of Esav, that to him there was no more cover-up by the sar of Esav, and to him there was only kedushah. So too a Yid, when he's in the level of Yisrael, it means that he's in a level where he lechatchilah is beyond the point where gashmiyut blocks the ruchniyut, but lechatchilah when he looks at gashmiyut and does gashmiyut, it is all to him ruchniyut. To the point, like the pasuk says in Mishlei, in קפיטל ט״ז פסוק ז׳: גם אויביו ישלים איתו, and even his enemies make peace with him. And it says in Bereishit Rabbah, the beginning of פרשה נ״ד: who is the worst enemies? זה הנחש. And even the nachash that is the source of all aveirot makes shalom with the person, because a person reaches the madreigah that he is Yisrael, that he sees only kedushah and doesn't see anything which is against kedushah.