From time to time I hear people criticizing Yankev/Yisroel* for not being a great person, and thinking this is some sort of own of the Jews for looking up to this guy. It’s a bad argument for a number of reasons.
For one, he’s our ancestor, so that’s why we look up to him. It’s not because he’s perfect. Secondly, the whole point of Judaism is that people are capable of good and bad, that we are given free choice and that we can always change, and we can always continue to make mistakes, that to err is human.
Finally, what culture has perfect role models? Certainly not Christianity, whose hero canonically refuses to help a Canaanite woman at first, humiliating her for a long period before finally healing her. Certainly not the Greeks or the Romans, whose heroes routinely do immoral things above the ability and inclination of Yisroel. Who then?
* I’m using Ashkenazi spellings in a deliberate effort to fight the homogenization of Hebrew reading traditions; the Sephardim call him Yaakov/Yisrael while English speakers call him Jacob/Israel. If this bothers you, sorry to hear! We live in a complex world with a complex history, and trying to make it simpler is futile.
