In short, Maimonides tells us that Jacob did not fight with an angel. They do not exist. And if they did, it would have been impossible to fight one of them during an entire night and beat it.

It is our last wrestling match with life and disappointment, and it is portrayed so well in the Torah story of Jacob’s Encounter with the Angel. Gen 32:25-33. (It’s good to read the back story ...

In his telling of the Jacob story, the fight is not a draw. The angel wins, but Jacob goes away, in Robert Bly’s translation, “proud and strengthened/ and great from that harsh hand.” ...

The extraordinary and astonishing episode of Jacob wrestling an angel at the Wadi Jabbok raises many questions and an assortment of conflicting answers. The text The wrestling episode is related ...

The passage that recurs in my life is that of Jacob wrestling the angel. For many artists, it is a metaphor for the struggle to subdue one’s talent so that it collaborates with one’s ambitions ...

Jacob wants to know the name of the angel. If only we could summon this angel by name when we need him! But humans are not allowed the privilege of knowing angels’ names.