The pasuk tells us in connection of Yaakov fighting with the malach that his name was changed to Yisrael because כי שרית עם אלה-ים ועם אנשים ותוכל, for you have striven with the Divine and with man and have overcome. Based on this he should be called תוכל, since he overcame the malach.
Struggling with challenge is what life is about. It is because of this Yaakov was called ישראל because it means to struggle or strive as in כי שרית, for you have striven. He is not called Tuchal because that means to prevail and be victorious.
We must internalize this as this is why we are called בני ישראל, since it is about the struggle. The Torah doesn’t focus on results as then we would be called Bnei Tuchal. The name בני ישראל spotlights our efforts. Try your best to succeed—strive, struggle and battle. And never despair.
Ashrei beings אשרי יושבי ביתך עוד יהללוך סלה, praiseworthy are those who dwell in Your house, may they always praise You. A deeper meaning in these words: Who are the fortunate ones (אשרי), the ones who dwell in Hashem’s house (יושבי ביתך)? The answer is עוד, those who push themselves a little and exert more effort. Those who are trying to grow to the next level spiritually.
R' Shlomke Zvhiller once approached a sinful Jew and said, “I am jealous of you because each time you stumbled spiritually, you thought to yourself, ‘Maybe I shouldn't do this.’ You may have ultimately succumbed, but those times that you delayed in stumbling registered in Heaven!
On the words עזר כנגדו, I will make a helper against him, Rashi cites the gemara זכה עזר לא זכה כנגדו, if he is fortunate, she is a helper and if he is not fortunate, she is against him. The Yasrus Yaakov cites R' Chaim of Kossov (1768-1854) who says the following explanation. Even if you fail in overcoming your yetzer hara, you still get credit for the struggle and the trying. Now we can understand the aforementioned chazal in a different way. A person constantly struggles. If he is fortunate (זכה), he defeats the yetzer hara, and so it’s an עזר. On the other hand, if he is not fortunate (לא זכה), and doesn’t overcome the yetzer hara, then for opposing and fighting (כנגדו) yetzer hara he receives reward.
