Yaakov Avinu, also called Israel, is the third of the Patriarchs of the Jewish people. The son of Yitzchak and Rivkah and grandson of Avraham and Sarah, he was the twin brother of Esav, born holding his brother's heel. According to Jewish tradition he was born on the eve of Sukkot in the year 2108.

The Torah describes him as "a simple man, dwelling in tents". He acquired Esav's birthright and, with his mother's help, received his father's blessing. Threatened by his brother, he left on his parents' advice for Charan, to his uncle Lavan; on the way he dreamed of the ladder set between earth and heaven.

In Charan he married Leah and Rachel, Lavan's daughters, working fourteen years for them and then six more. From Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah were born his sons, the fathers of the tribes of Israel. While preparing to meet Esav again he received the name Israel, which became the name of the whole people. Tradition credits him with instituting the Arvit (evening) prayer.

On learning that Yosef was alive and ruling Egypt, he went down there with his family of about seventy souls, met and blessed Pharaoh, and gave Yosef's sons a share in the inheritance of the land. Before his death he asked his sons not to bury him in Egypt but with his fathers in the Cave of Machpelah.

According to Jewish tradition he died on the eve of Sukkot in the year 2255, at the age of 147. Embalmed by the Egyptians, he was carried in a great procession to the land of Canaan and buried in Hebron, in the Cave of Machpelah.