Jacob (Israel)

Genesis tells that Jacob (Yaakov) was born holding his twin Esau's heel (akev), bought Esau's birthright for a bowl of lentil stew, and took their father's blessing in disguise. Fleeing to his uncle Laban in Haran, he dreamed at Bethel of a ladder with angels ascending and descending (Genesis 28). He worked seven years for Rachel, was given Leah instead, and worked seven more; from Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah came twelve sons and a daughter, Dinah. Returning after twenty years, he wrestled a mysterious man until dawn at the Jabbok ford and was renamed Israel, "for you have striven with God and with men and prevailed" (Genesis 32:29), leaving him with a limp. He made peace with Esau, lost Rachel at the birth of Benjamin near Bethlehem, and at 130 went down to Egypt, where he died at 147 after blessing his sons (Genesis 49). He was buried in the Cave of Machpelah.

His new name became the name of the whole people, the Children of Israel, and in 1948 of the modern state. The wrestling scene is the source of the kosher rule against eating the sciatic nerve (gid hanasheh, Genesis 32:33), still observed today, and the Talmud credits Jacob with the evening prayer, Maariv.