Toldot - Complex Authenticity

Is Jake a fake?

Hmmmmm……

There is simply no way of doing this right. There is so much in this parasha and so much that demands unpacking that once one begins pulling a thread, and Tevye said, where does it end, where does it end?

This week’s parasha is the first of seven parshiot that encompass the life of Ya’akov and close the boof of Beginnings, though most of the last four focus on the life of his son Yosef. Through the dilemmas that Ya’akov faces and the decisions he makes, the consequences he suffers, we are able to build an image of a human soul. It is almost as if Ya’akov has left his DNA on the letters of the text. His life is not always admirable. Sometimes external conditions force him to actions, sometimes he is motivated by desires and becomes a victim of his own designs. We are not here to construct a hagiography of Ya’akov. Rather we are trying to understand the complexities and depths of his soul, because in this one person the Torah is trying to show us something of our own. If we are looking for pretty pictures that will comfort, we should look elsewhere. Summing up his life to Pharoah, Ya’akov says: Few and evil have been the days of my life, nor have I achieved as have my fathers. Bleak.

Just to emphasize something I mentioned in passing. As Jews, we are rarely known as the children of Avraham, much less the house of Yitzchak. Rather, we are called by the name of the third generation, Bet Ya’akov, Bnei Yisrael. That being the case, there is something essential in the character of Ya’akov that defines who we are as Jews: his struggle with Esav is our struggle with Esav, his life in exile is our life in exile, his courageous fight for self-knowledge is ours. As the Talmud says, the deeds of the fathers are signs for their descendants. This is nowhere more relevant than in studying the life of Ya’akov.

More than that, the life of Ya’akov defines the historical narrative of our people. We are challenged to see our long narrative in terms of the narrative of this single person, the dynamic flow of his life as a recurring pattern for our understanding of what it means to be a Jew. Limits of time and space will not permit me to go as deeply into this story as I would want, so I encourage you to look for insights elsewhere, approaches that will differ from mine or perhaps reinforce some ideas I hope to explore here.

We are going to examine two stories from this parasha: first the story of the sold birthright and then the story of the stolen blessing. These stories are intertwined. Esav wails: first he took my birthright and now he has stolen my blessing. The words themselves, birthright (bechora) and blessing (bracha) are closely related, and as one story opens the parasha and other closes it, they provide literary bookends for this week’s study. Let’s begin with the first story, paying attention to how the text, sparse as biblical texts are, helps us to understand the characters involved in a most equivocal way.

This is the story of Yitzchak, son of Avraham. Avraham begot Yitzchak.

Yitzchak was forty years old when he took to wife Rivka, daughter of Betuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Lavan the Aramean.

Yitzchak pleaded with Hashem on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and Hashem responded to his plea, and his wife Rivka conceived.

But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, “If so, why do I exist?” She went to inquire of Hashem,and Hashem answered her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
Two separate peoples shall issue from your body;
One people shall be mightier than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”

When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb.

The first one emerged red, like a hairy mantle all over; so they named him Esav.

Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esav; so they named him Ya’akov. Yitzchak was sixty years old when they were born.

The first verse stands out because of the seemingly unnecessary repetition of the relation of Avraham and Yitzchak. Perhaps the text is trying to emphasize that Yitzchak walks in the way of his father. I don’t think this should be taken for granted. Just the opposite, even if Yitzchak was a tacit participant in the Akeda, a subsequent alienation seems clear. After the traumatic moment of Avraham stretching out his hand and grasped the knife… the text indicates that Yitzchak did not return to Beer Sheva with his father. We never see the two together again – aside from at Avraham’s funeral. Yitzchak seems blessed with wealth. We still don’t see in Yitzchak the passion and sense of mission that drove his father. Perhaps he is seeking a normal life, a single family camp engaging in cattle and agriculture alongside his neighbors in Gerar.

Over time, rejection and revelation bring him to the way of Avraham and text tells us, Yitzchak ben Avraham, the family. And Avraham gained his spiritual continuity in Yitzchak.

We are building characters here, people.

What defines Rivka? Doubled in her verse is that she is an Arami. The first thought is that this must be positive, as Avraham was insistent that Yitzchak marry a girl from his former home where he still had family. Why he should insist on such is not obvious. Both Canaanites and Aramim worshipped idols. Yet the evil of the Canaanites seemed excessive. We see it in the story of Sdom and ‘Amora, in the list of social and sexual sins of the locals listed in Vayikra, and the notion that the Canaanites indulged in the highest evil of all, child sacrifice. The immorality of Aram was of a much more pedestrian type. The name Arami is an anagram of the word Rama’I, which means “deceiver.” It is true that Rivka proved her generous bonafides when she drew water for Avraham’s servant and his camels, but there seems to be something in Rivka’s character that was shaped by her upbringing. We do see her here as a very active agent, not content to ask her prophetic husband to interpret her tumultuous pregnancy, but by going herself to seek the word of Hashem. I admit to liking the overt “drama queen” aspect of her exclamation, and we’ll hear more of that later.

And the boys. Twins they are, but not simply twins but the progenitors of two competing nations. While the English makes it clear that the elder shall serve the younger, a grammatical quirk in the Hebrew indicates that the relationship will not always be as straight forward as that – an idea we will see reinforced later in the blessing story. The first comes out as a striking redhead; red, of course, symbolizing passion, violence, blood. He is name Esav from the root of the root for doing, making. And he will become a hunter. Esav is a man of the physical world, competent, at ease, self-confident in his self-knowledge. I don’t know if this is just popular psychological claptrap, but I’ve heard it said that the firstborn often presents a well-formed personality at a young age, as s/he is raised in the proximity of their parents. The firstborn will often know what they want to do in life at an earlier age and will be more focused in achieving their goals.

Not so the second born, who is raised not in relation to their parents as much in relation to their older sibling. Any older sibling out there is familiar with the cry ”me too” when walking out the door to visit friends or go to the mall. Second born’s personalities are developed in the shade of their older sibling. They are often times more tentative, romantic, less commonsensical and more ideological. Often they are the “black sheep” of the family, and their self-knowledge develops over time, through (sometime difficult) experience. And that is Ya’akov, who’s name means one who follows, clinging on as he did to his brother’s heel as they exited the womb.

What does Esav want in life? His father’s love, which he has earned and receives. What does Ya’akov want in life? To be Esav. And he also gets his wish!

When the boys grew up, Esav became a skillful hunter, a man of the outdoors; but Ya’akov became a mild man, and stayed near the tents.

Yitzchak favored Esav because he had a taste for game; but Rivka loved Ya’akov.

Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esav came in from the open, famished.

And Esav said to Ya’akov, “Give me some of that red stuff to gulp

down, for I am famished”—which is why he was named Edom.

Ya’akov said, “First sell me your birthright.”

And Esav said, “I am at the point of death, so of what use is my birthright to me?”

But Ya’akov said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Ya’akov.

Ya’akov then gave Esav bread and lentil stew; he ate and drank, and he rose and went away. Thus did Esav spurn the birthright.

There is a certain literary irony here which is too good to pass up. Esav is the hunter coming in from the field, wanting to satisfy himself with some “red stuff.” Red stuff? Reminiscent of blood? Ya’akov is not a hunter, but he can prepare a blood colored stew for his father. Or is he a hunter? Maybe he was preparing a blood-colored stew to entrap his hungry hunting brother. It’s interesting that Esav is called Edom (red) not for his hair or coloration, but because of that stew he is about to purchase for his birthright.

One can learn about each brother here. Esav is impulsive, irresponsible, short-sighted, and it is what is sitting in front of him that has the most value. But what of Ya’akov? We might attempt to “understand” him, “excuse” him. Perhaps he knows of the prophecy that was vouchsafed to his mother. Perhaps he is using his superior wit to even the uneven playing field of Esav’s might. Can a person really elevate himself to the status of being firstborn, or is Ya’akov intending the double portion of inheritance that goes with that status. It’s unclear, but there is every reason to feel uncomfortable about how effortlessly Ya’akov fleeces Esav from a patrimony, acquiring a part of his Esav-ness. In Vayika we are commanded not to put a stumbling-block before the blind. Rashi comments: blind in some way. Ya’akov takes advantage of Esav’s blindness and trades him stew (he throws in the bread for free) for his birthright.

Next story:

When Esav was forty years old, he took to wife Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite;

and they were a source of bitterness to Yitzchak and Rivka.

When Yitzchak was old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called his older son Esav and said to him, “My son.” He answered, “Here I am.”

And he said, “I am old now, and I do not know how soon I may die.

Take your gear, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open and hunt me some game.

Then prepare a dish for me such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my innermost blessing before I die.”

Rivka had been listening as Yitzchak spoke to his son Esav. When Esav had gone out into the open to hunt game to bring home,

Rivka said to her son Ya-akov, “I overheard your father speaking to your brother Esav, saying,

‘Bring me some game and prepare a dish for me to eat, that I may bless you, with Hashem’s approval, before I die.’

Now, my son, listen carefully as I instruct you.

Go to the flock and fetch me two choice kids, and I will make of them a dish for your father, such as he likes.

Then take it to your father to eat, in order that he may bless you before he dies.”

Ya-akov answered his mother Rivka, “But my brother Esav is a hairy man and I am smooth-skinned.

If my father touches me, I shall appear to him as a trickster and bring upon myself a curse, not a blessing.”

But his mother said to him, “Your curse, my son, be upon me! Just do as I say and go fetch them for me.”

He got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared a dish such as his father liked.

Rivka then took the best clothes of her older son Esav, which were there in the house, and had her younger son Ya-akov put them on;

and she covered his hands and the hairless part of his neck with the skins of the kids.

Then she put in the hands of her son Jacob the dish and the bread that she had prepared.

He went to his father and said, “Father.” And he said, “Yes, which of my sons are you?”

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esav, your first-born; I have done as you told me. Pray sit up and eat of my game, that you may give me your innermost blessing.”

Yitzchak said to his son, “How did you succeed so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because your God Hashemgranted me good fortune.”

Yitzchak said to Ya-akov, “Come closer that I may feel you, my son—whether you are really my son Esav or not.”

So Ya-akov drew close to his father Yitzchak who felt him and wondered. “The voice is the voice of Ya-akov, yet the hands are the hands of Esav.”

He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esav; and so he blessed him.

He asked, “Are you really my son Esav?” And when he said, “I am,”

he said, “Serve me and let me eat of my son’s game that I may give you my innermost blessing.” So he served him and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank.

Then his father Yitzchak said to him, “Come close and kiss me, my son”;

and he went up and kissed him. And he smelled his clothes and he blessed him, saying, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of the fields that Hashem has blessed.

“May Hashem give you
Of the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth,
Abundance of new grain and wine.

Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow to you;
Be master over your brothers,
And let your mother’s sons bow to you.
Cursed be they who curse you,
Blessed they who bless you.”

No sooner had Ya-akov left the presence of his father Isaac—after Yitzchak had finished blessing Ya-akov —than his brother Esav came back from his hunt.

He too prepared a dish and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may give me your innermost blessing.”

His father Yitzchak said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, Esav, your first-born!”

Yitzchak was seized with very violent trembling. “Who was it then,” he demanded, “that hunted game and brought it to me? Moreover, I ate of it before you came, and I blessed him; now he must remain blessed!”

When Esav heard his father’s words, he burst into wild and bitter sobbing, and said to his father, “Bless me too, Father!”

But he answered, “Your brother came with guile and took away your blessing.”

[Esav] said, “Was he, then, named Ya-akov that he might supplant me these two times? First he took away my birthright and now he has taken away my blessing!” And he added, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”

Yitzchak answered, saying to Esav, “But I have made him master over you: I have given him all his brothers for servants, and sustained him with grain and wine. What, then, can I still do for you, my son?”

And Esav said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!” And Esav wept aloud.

And his father Isaac answered, saying to him,
“See, your abode shall enjoy the fat of the earth
And the dew of heaven above.

Yet by your sword you shall live,
And you shall serve your brother;
But when you grow restive,
You shall break his yoke from your neck.”

Now Esav harbored a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing which his father had given him, and Esav said to himself, “Let but the mourning period of my father come, and I will kill my brother Ya-akov.”

When the words of her older son Esav were reported to Rivka, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esav is consoling himself by planning to kill you.

Now, my son, listen to me. Flee at once to Haran, to my brother Laban.

Stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury subsides—

until your brother’s anger against you subsides—and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will fetch you from there. Let me not lose you both in one day!”

Rivka said to Yitzchak, “I am disgusted with my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like these, from among the native women, what good will life be to me?”

So Yitzchak sent for Ya-akov and blessed him. He instructed him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from among the Canaanite women.

Up, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and take a wife there from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

May El Shaddai bless you, make you fertile and numerous, so that you become an assembly of peoples.

May you and your offspring be granted the blessing of Abraham, that you may possess the land where you are sojourning, which God assigned to Abraham.”

Then Yitzchak sent Ya-akov off, and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, mother of Jacob and Esau.

When Esav saw that Yitzchak had blessed Ya-akov and sent him off to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, charging him, as he blessed him, “You shall not take a wife from among the Canaanite women,”

and that Ya-akov had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram,

Esav realized that the Canaanite women displeased his father Isaac.

So Esav went to Ishmael and took to wife, in addition to the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, sister of Nebaioth.

Sorry for burdening you with such a long reading, but this is an organic narrative, so quoting this verse and that just doesn’t work. You need the whole thing in front of you, and I know how tiresome it is to get up and find the book and then find the story….. hey – I’m lazy too. We all are! Except for Rivka! Just like her mother-in-law Sarah (who she never met, of course) Rivka is a person who does not mind putting herself in the driver’s seat to protect…who? Ya’akov? The spiritual continuity of the Jewish people? Maybe even…Esav?

First we need to realize what Yitzchak has as a patrimony that he can pass on to his sons. On the one hand, he has the enormous wealth he accumulated in Gerar, and he’s probably grown since then. And on the other, he has the spiritual mission and the Blessing of Avraham that Hashem has confirmed to him twice already.

Which he was planning to give to Esav?

From what Yitzchak says to Esav, it’s impossible to know – a blessing of my soul could mean anything. But Rivka heard an unequivocal message, it was the blessing of Hashem that Yitzchak intended to give to Esav. Yitzchak was not simply blind in his eyes, he had been blinded by his love for Esav. It wasn’t that she didn’t love Esav. She had grown up in Aram with guys like Esav. Ya’akov was different. What she loved in Ya’akov was what she loved in her husband. The spiritual in him was drawn from the blessing of Avraham and it was present in both Yittzchak and Ya’akov. That blessing was not right for Esav, just as Esav was not right for that blessing.

How Rivka took it upon herself to be a catalyst for Hashem’s design is a measure of her emuna. She had received a message that the younger would be preeminent. She knew that meant to carry the mission and relationship to Hashem forward. And all the nations of the earth will be blessed though you. She felt personally responsible for making this happen, and she saw how it could be done.

Yes, we can feel uncomfortable with her methods. We can be shocked at Ya’akov lying to his blind father. We can sense Yitzchak’s uncertainty: and in the end, does he know who he is blessing? There are many commentators who write that Yitzchak saw through the guise and blessed Ya’akov as he knew it was Hashem’s will. There are those who point to Yitzchak’s reaction when Esav comes in and announces his presence: Yitzchak was seized with a very violent trembling, indicating shock and the realization he had been fooled.

My teacher, Nehama Leibowitz would pause at this point and ask on what basis Yitzchak could identify which son stood before him. The answer, of course, is through his senses, of which he had four, not five. What did his senses tell him? Hearing – Ya’akov. Touch and smell – Esav. And taste? What did his sense of taste tell him?

Rivka, of course. Domesticated animals taste different than wild game, and of course he should recognize his wife’s cooking. Rivka is sending a message: this is Ya’akov. He is the one to be blessed. Bless him.

Read like this, Yitzchak’s subsequent trembling could be seen as his realization of the hostility this event would set between the brothers, especially Esav’s (not unreasonable) hatred for Ya’akov. We also see Yitzchak’s acquiescence to his wife’s actions, and perhaps a moment where Yitzchak transcended his Blindness to really see Ya’akov, until now a figure of passivity in his eyes. He sees that even though he is involved in a deception, Ya’akov has inner strength as well, derived from the strength of his mother.

In this reading, Yitzchak knows who he is blessing.

Are there indications that he doesn’t know?

Let’s return to the idea that Yitzchak has two possession he can pass to his sons: aspects of the material world like wealth and strength, and a spiritual inheritance called the blessing of Avraham. Which was he planning to give to each, respectively? Was he really so blind as to think that the spiritual blessing should go to Esav, as Rivka inferred?

In the lead-up to Yitzchak’s blessing, he is inspired by the smell of Esav’s clothes, the manly feel of his hands, the food he is eating (in this reading, Yitzchak does not sense Rivka’s message). And he blesses from his heart, a blessing of material wealth, power, and protection:

Of the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth,
Abundance of new grain and wine.

Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow to you;

This is the blessing reserved for Esav, given here with a full (but mistaken) heart to Ya’akov.

Now Esav enters, the denouement, the anger – but at this moment, more the pain of fleeced brother. One would have to be an unfeeling cad not to feel Esav’s heartbreak and empathize with him. Even so, Yitzchak, having given Esav’s blessing to Ya’akov, will not turn around and punish Esav even more by blessing him with the blessing reserved for Ya’akov. Rather, eventually, he blesses Esav with essentially the same blessing he had already given, of material wealth and (eventual) physical dominion:

See, your abode shall enjoy the fat of the earth
And the dew of heaven above.

Yet by your sword you shall live,
And you shall serve your brother;
But when you grow restive,
You shall break his yoke from your neck.

(I’ll break his neck, swears Esav under his breath)

Finally, as Ya’akov is being send to Padan-Aram, Yitxchak blesses Ya’akov, knowing that this is indeed Ya’akov before him:

May El Shaddai bless you, make you fertile and numerous, so that you become an assembly of peoples.

May you and your offspring be granted the blessing of Abraham, that you may possess the land where you are sojourning, which God assigned to Abraham.

The spiritual inheritance is passed on.

Yet we as readers are left mystified: did Yitzchak know or not? What does this mean for Ya’akov’s future, his relationship with Esav, with the truth (Give truth to Ya’akov! – says Hosea the prophet), with his spiritual development. Indeed, how do we reconcile in our minds that the continuity of the Israelite mission is now resting on the shoulders of a man who has shown himself to be, well, not the kind of Jewish boy you’d want your daughter to bring home. Not one that, at this point, you’d choose to be the standard bearer of our nation.

And as far as readings go – these are just two of many. The entire tableau in the tent…sometimes when I read it, it seems like a farce, as if all are playing roles and Rivka is giggling behind the tent, Yitzchak saying in make-believe wonderment : the voice is the voice of Ya’akov but the hands are the hands of Esav! All this was being staged for the sake of Ya’akov – and why? I leave you to ponder, but I think you see how the scene reads well as farce.

The Torah wants us to hold all these readings in mind at the same time, I believe. To hold them all and validate them. Contradictions are not set against each other, but form a part of a holistic package that expose another facet of each player, each utterance, each deed. To my understanding, this is both the challenge and the beauty of learning Torah, because this is also something true about life and the world. Next week, we will take a further step in understanding Ya’akov – and ourselves.