Midrash su Genesi 32:29

[(Exod. 12:29:) AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.] This text is related (to Is. 44:26): <HE> CONFIRMS THE WORD OF HIS SERVANT.⁶⁸PRK 7:3. R. Berekhyah said in the name of R. Levi: What is the meaning of CONFIRMS THE WORD OF HIS SERVANT? Do we not know that (ibid., cont.) HE SAYS TO JERUSALEM: YOU SHALL BE INHABITED, AND TO THE CITIES OF JUDAH: THEY SHALL BE REBUILT? It is simply that a certain angel appeared to our ancestor Jacob. He said to him: What is your name? He told him: Jacob. <THEN HE SAID> (in Gen. 32:29 [28]): YOUR NAME SHALL NO LONGER BE JACOB, <BUT ISRAEL>…. (Is. 44:26, cont.:) AND FULFILLS THE COUNSEL OF HIS MESSENGERS. The Holy One appeared to Jacob to affirm the command of his angel, AND (in Gen. 35:10) GOD SAID TO HIM: YOUR NAME IS JACOB. <YOUR NAME SHALL NO LONGER BE JACOB, BUT YOUR NAME SHALL BE ISRAEL. > In the case of Jerusalem, over which all the prophets have prophesied, how much the more <will the Holy One confirm (i.e., fulfill) their prophecies>?

(Devarim 6:4) "Hear, O Israel, the L-rd our G-d, the L-rd is One": Because it is written (Shemoth 25:2) "Speak to the children of Israel — It is not written "Speak to the children of Abraham and Isaac," but "speak to the children of Israel (i.e., Jacob [viz. Bereshith 32:29]) — Jacob merited that this pronouncement be stated to his children. For Jacob feared all of his days — Woe unto me, lest "base matter" issue from me as it did from my fathers! From Abraham there came forth Yishmael. From Isaac there came forth Esav my brother. Yishmael was an idolator, viz. (Bereshith 21:9) "And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian … 'disporting himself'" (with idolatry). These are the words of R. Akiva. R. Shimon b. Yochai says: R. Akiva expounds four things where I differ from him, and it seems to me that my view is the correct one: He says "And Sarah the son of Hagar the Egyptian disports himself" with idolatry." And I say that the reference is to the inheritance, Yishmael saying "should I not, being the first-born, take a double portion?" And for this reason Sarah said (Ibid. 10) "Drive out this maidservant and her son." And my view seems more cogent than his.

Again the angel said to him: "Let me go" (Gen. 32:26). Jacob answered him: I will not let thee go until thou hast blessed me; and he blessed him, as it is said, "And he blessed him there" (Gen. 32:29). Again he said to him: "Let me go" (Gen. 32:26). He answered him: I will not let thee go until thou tellest me what thy name is. And (the angel) called his name Israel like his own name, for his own name was called Israel. Jacob wished to prevail over the angel, and to throw him down upon the earth. What did the angel do? He took hold of the sinew of the hip, which was upon the hollow of Jacob's thigh, and he lifted the sinew of his hip (out of its place), and it became like the fat of the dead. Therefore the children of Israel are forbidden to eat of the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the animal's thigh, as it is said, "Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh" (Gen. 32:82).