 Torah Thoughts
Torah Thoughts
This week we read the Torah portion "Toldot" (Genesis
25:19-28:9). It contains 106 verses and no commandments.
(Apologies- the JLE e-news is a little shorter than
usual owing to time constraints imposed by the forthcoming JLE Dinner.)
Overview
Last week, we concluded with a roll of the
descendants of Ishmael and their patrimony, as they exited the Torah's stage.
Our portion opens with the words "And these are the
generations of Isaac, Abraham begot Isaac". We are provided with a
terse account of the life and times of the married Isaac.
Following our first matriarch Sarah, Rebecca too has
difficulty conceiving. Isaac's heartfelt prayer was efficacious. Rebecca soon
carried twins in her womb. Their in utero contention portended a lifelong
struggle, indeed an epic cosmic duel between their descendants.
Esau emerged ruddy and hairy. Jacob followed grasping
Esau's heel as if to pull him back and replace him as the first-born. The
bloody baby Esau became a hunter and killer. Jacob, recognizing his older
brother's unworthiness, prized the birthright and blessings from Esau.
Esau returned from the field one day, hungry and
exhausted. He asked Jacob to pour into him some of the red pottage he was
cooking. Jacob tested his brother, demanding his birthright in return. Esau
acceded easily, demonstrating his lack of appreciation of the birthright.
The scene shifts. Faced with a famine, Isaac and his
family migrate to nearby Philistia after being told by G-d not to go down to Egypt.
The promise that his offspring will inherit the Land is repeated to
Isaac.
In a plot mirroring that involving Abraham and Sarah,
the exquisite Rebecca is presented to the locals as Isaac's sister. The king
discovers the truth and berates Isaac for deceiving him. He offers Isaac
protection. Isaac sojourned there, was blessed and became exceedingly
wealthy.
Esau took a Hittite wife, who was a source of great
anguish to Isaac and Rebecca.
The elderly, blind Isaac summoned Esau and asked him to
prepare venison for him and he would bless him. Rebecca overheard and devised
a plot to fool Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing instead. The plot
succeeds and in a dramatic turn of events, Jacob nets the blessings, Esau
returns and Isaac realizes what happened. Esau asks his father to bless him.
Isaac says that Jacob has been blessed to have mastery over him. As Esau
cries bitterly, he beseeches his father to bless him. Isaac responds,
"by your sword you shall live, but you shall serve your brother.
However, if his descendants are unworthy, you will cast off his yoke."
Esau hated his brother passionately. He plotted to
murder him after his ailing father's death. Rebecca realized that Jacob faced
grave peril. She could not explain this to Isaac, and thus convinced him to
send Jacob away on the pretext that the local women were unsuitable for her
son.
Isaac exhorted Jacob not to take a wife from the local
population, but to journey back to his mother's family and find a bride
there. He blessed him to be fruitful and ultimately to possess the Land.
Esau, seeing his father's distaste for the daughters of Canaan, wishing to curry favor, chose a wife from among
the daughters of his uncle Ishmael.
HAFTARA
The Haftara of Toldot is from Malachi 1-2:7. The
Haftara begins with a prophecy emphasizing G-d's love for the Jewish People,
the descendants of Jacob. The prophecy speaks of Divine hatred toward Esau.
Esau, the symbol of the adversary of the Jewish People in every generation,
will amass power and build himself up, but G-d will ultimately destroy him.
As the generations pass, we see the spiritual heirs of Esau rear their
heads to oppress G-d's beloved nation. In each case these foes,
as invincible as they may seem, especially when compared with their
vulnerable victims, are erased from the face of the earth, to remain as
mere curiosities in the history books.
Having said that, G-d reminds the descendants of Jacob
of their mission. It is the realm of Esau to put on a superficial act of
moral rectitude. Those Jews who brought blemished sacrifices, or revealed
hypocrisy and disrespect in other ways, would never deign to treat a
ruler of flesh-and-blood thus. There is a specific warning to the Kohanim
(members of the priestly caste) to be faithful to their mission to elevate
the people and be G-d's representatives by serving as moral examples.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Baruch Price
Technical
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