In the story of Jacob wrestling with the Angel, Rabbi Richard Hirsh tells us that this story could be seen as "more psychological, and suggests that Jacob is struggling with himself in his "dark night of the soul." Jacob stands at the same river he crossed many years ago in flight. He is engaged in what psychologist Erik Erikson might call the struggle between "ego integrity and despair"; its outcome is contingent on being able to take one's personal history and have it make sense as a unified story....The struggle is an internal one, and the adversary is a stand-in for the discordant parts of life that all people struggle to accept. Perhaps that's why this story continues to retain its power."
