Israel - Isreal? Who cares, right?

I care.

This is another one of my pet geography peeves, the misspelling of "Israel".

It is not "Is-real";

It is "Isra-el".

And there is a good reason for this.

"El" means god. Specifically, "El" is the true God, the God of the Hebrews, and thusly, of Christians and Muslims. Other forms exist as "Elohim" and "Eloah".

When we break apart Israel into its constituent parts, Isra and -el, we get this: "something" + "God". What does Isra mean?

Isra means "he who struggles" or "he struggles." When we add the two together, we get:

Israel, or, "he who struggles against God," or " he who struggles with God." And that is certainly what the Hebrews did, struggled against God, throughout Exodus and Leviticus.

This is a lot different than Isreal, "is real."

I can find Israel on a map. I don't know where Isreal is.

Now that we know about El, we can use it to figure out some names.

Michael (micha-el): he who is like God
Raphael (rapha-el): healing God
Gabriel (gabri-el): devoted to God