Known as the “chosen one” of the “Avot,” the “Founding Fathers” of the Jewish People, son of Yitzchak father of the Twelve Tribes. Yaakov struggled with Esav, who was the ancestor of Amalek, and of Edom, who would persecute the Jewish People through the ages, in the guise of the Romans and, after their mass conversion to Christianity, in the time of Constantine, of the Christian Church. He himself had twelve “righteous sons,” with his two wives, Leah and Rachel, both belonging to the Imahot, the “Founding Mothers”, and two concubines, Zilpah, Leah’s hand-maiden and Bilhah, Rachel’s hand-maiden, who became the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Called the “Master of Truth,” Yaakov ironically felt it necessary to achieve some of his goals by methods in which absolute truth was not necessarily the route that he chose.
