Getting back to the question: why does Yaakov Avinu bear a name that connotes deception and falsehood?
The key to the answer lies in the melaveh malkah meal held on Motza’ei Shabbos. The Rishonim tell us that we have a tiny, indestructible bone in our body, called the luz, which does not derive benefit from any of the food we eat, other than that of melaveh malkah. Through this bone, we will come alive again in the time of techiyas hameisim. In the Zohar, this bone is called rama’ah, “the deceptive one.” It is compared to “Lavan the deceptive one.”
This is what the Zohar says about it:
R. Shimon said: Out of all the bones, why does this bone remain intact? Because it is the deceptive one. Unlike the other bones, it cannot tolerate the taste of people’s food. For this reason it is stronger than all the bones. This is the main bone, since the body will be built from. As it says, “Lavan Ha’arami.”
We see that eating does not necessarily bring strength. The Rambam tells us that eating a lot of healthy food does not make us healthy and strong: “Most of the illnesses that come upon a person are only because he fills his stomach and overeats, even if it is healthy food.”
A family member once recounted to me that the doctor put him on a very strict diet. He complained to the doctor that a person could die from eating so little food. The doctor responded, “You should know that no one has yet died from eating too little, only from eating too much.”
This little bone called luz does not take sustenance from what a person eats all week long, it is sustained only from the melaveh malkah meal. We would think that it should be the first to decompose, because it hardly eats. It fasts from Shabbos to Shabbos; it must be weak and puny! But in truth this is not so. It is the only bone that stays intact forever, and the person’s body will be built from it at techiyas hameisim.
This little bone manages to fool everyone. That is why it is called “the deceptive one,” and is compared to Lavan Ha’arami. The luz bone knows that eating makes one weak, while fasting makes one strong, contrary to what everyone else says.
This sheds light on the meaning of deceptiveness. You are deceptive if your life is such that you consider true what others consider false, and you consider false what others consider true.
What is Yaakov Avinu’s name in this world? Yaakov – the deceptive one. Because he fools everyone. He deceives the whole world since his truth is different from the “truth” that everyone is accustomed to. He does not live according to what the eye “sees” in this world of darkness. He lives in a completely different world. He lives with emes v’emunah.
To Yaakov, two plus two makes four only as long as Hashem so wills it. This is because Hashem’s will creates and defines reality. This is emes v’emunah.
To Yaakov, it makes no difference whether he says, “I am Yaakov,” or he says, “I am Eisav.” It all depends on which statement is in accordance with Hashem’s will: if my words are in accordance with Hashem’s will, they are true. If my words are contrary to Hashem’s will, they are false and deceptive.
Since Yaakov’s values are different from those of other people, he is called Yaakov in this world. This is because he is the biggest “liar” around. What all other people in this world say is true, Yaakov says is false. What everyone else says is false, Yaakov says is true. He lives according to a completely different truth and sees all of reality from a completely different outlook.
