After Eisav emerged from Rivka’s womb, Yaakov came out after him holding on to Eisav’sעקב (heel), and as a result, he was called יעקב. Seemingly, if this incident was the basis for choosing Yaakov’s name, it would have been more appropriate to call him עקב. Why is there a letterי appended to the front of his name? The Megaleh Amukos notes that the name Eisav (עשו) is related to the word עשוי )made), as Rashi writes that he was born complete with hair, like an older child. If so, shouldn’t he have been calledעשוי ? The Megaleh Amukos explains that when Yaakov grabbed Eisav’s heel, he seized theי that should have been placed at the end of Eisav’s name and attached it to the beginning of his name, transforming עשוי into עשו and עקב into יעקב.
Although this interpretation sounds like a linguistic play on letters, Rav Yisroel Reisman explains that it contains a much deeper lesson. In Hebrew grammar, adding the letterי to the beginning of a verb changes it from the past tense to the future tense, as in אמר (he said) and יאמר (he will say). In this sense, the letterי symbolizes the future. Similarly, Rav Gedaliah Schorr notes that the song that the Jewish people sang after Kriyas Yam Suf begins (Shemos 15:1) אז ישיר משה, which literally means, “Moshe will sing.” This was Moshe’s way of hinting to the freed slaves that Yetziyas Mitzrayim was not an end but a beginning.
A fundamental difference between a person who believes in Hashem and an atheist is that the former believes in a World to Come where his actions will have consequences. Accordingly, when he makes decisions, he thinks not only about the present, but also about the future. In contrast, the Medrash (Yalkut Shimoni 111) teaches that Eisav denied the existence of any life after death while he was still in his mother’s womb, as his sole interest was to enjoy the present with no concern for the future. Yaakov alluded to this critical difference in their respective worldviews by taking theי - the letter that represents the future – from Eisav’s name and adding it to his own, connoting his focus on the World to Come and his willingness to sacrifice ephemeral pleasures for eternal benefits.
