Musar su Genesi 27:29

Some of the proud vaunt themselves in the exercise of this blameworthy quality, because they delight therein (and try to excuse themselves by) arguing, that the soul inclines to distinction, and finds lowliness irksome. Again, they hold that domineering (supremacy) strengthens it, while submission weakens it, and were there no domination, the world would not be well adjusted.¹ Guttmann ("Saadya," pp. 276, 277, note 2, Emunoth we-Deoth, x. 9) points out that Gabirol closely follows the teaching of Saadya with respect to the love of dominion ; it is worthy of notice that Gabirol quotes the same scriptural passages. S. Landauer (pp. xix.-xxi. of his introduction to the Arabic text of Saadya's work) holds that this chapter, the tenth, is a later addition to the book; cf. D. S. A. Taubeles ("Saadia Gaon," Halle, 1888, p. 32, note 43). They further say that the prayers of the excellent had the attainment thereof in view when they said (Gen. xxvii. 29), "Let people serve thee and nations bow down to thee."

(Ibid. 5): "And Joseph dreamed a dream… (8) …Will you reign over us?": Scripture expatiates upon the dreams to rationalize somewhat the extreme hatred of the brothers to Joseph to the point of wanting to remove him from the world: They assumed that he desired to reign over them, for which reason he had brought "evil report" of them to their father, so that he should remove them from his presence [as Rashi explains (Ibid.): "for his dreams and for his words" — "for the evil report that he had brought to their father." And the robe that his father made him served as "supporting evidence" that he had accepted his report], and that perhaps, G-d forbid, he would agree with Joseph, so that he [Joseph] would be a "master" over them, as in Isaac's blessing to Jacob (Ibid. 27:29): "Be a master to you brothers, and your mother's sons will bow down to you." Or, [they thought,] G-d forbid, that he [Jacob] would banish them altogether, as Noach said (Ibid. 9:25): "Cursed is Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers." Therefore, they took counsel on how to rid themselves of him.

The reason Jacob had to be called Israel is to teach us that he had a dual task. First he had to remove the influence of evil. We should not think that tricking Esau was unethical; on the contrary, it was part of the process of neutralizing spiritually negative influences. Next, as Israel, his task was to help positive spiritual forces to assert themselves, and for him personally to achieve ever closer affinity to G–d. The name Jacob was never discarded, not even after he was given the name Israel. The reason for this is that even the name ישראל contains elements of the name יעקב. We have demonstrated that the עקב part equals the number 172, the number of words in the Ten Commandments, whereas the letter י before is the link to them. We have also pointed out that Jacob's function as יעקב is the principle of היום לעשותם, whereas the function of ישראל is the מחר לקבל שכרם, receiving the reward for the מצות in the Celestial Spheres as alluded to in the name ישראל. The name יעקב contains numerous allusions to a variety of moral imperatives, some of which we have already mentioned. When Isaac said to Jacob, in his blessing: הוה גביר לאחיך, "be your brother's superior" (27,29), this was a command to subjugate the אדומי, the evil urge represented by Esau. Jacob was to do this in his capacity of יעקב. This is analogous to the Mishnah in Avot 4,1 we quoted earlier.