Parsha Toldot

Some notes on todays Parsha i jotted down but didn't get a chance to share all.

Jacob not the deceiver he's made out to be

Try this translation

Quote :

Two nations are in your womb, and two governments will
separate from within you. One government will be mightier than the other, but the greater one will serve the smaller one.'

It was only Isaac's interpretation of the situation that Rebecca urges Jacob to do that has put this definition of name upon him, yet Jacob listened to his mother who had, before his birth , inquired of the L-RD why she felt such a struggle within her.

Taking the second born over the first comes many times in the Bible, we know that Joseph who was not Jacobs first born was chosen to receive the double portion instead of Reuben.

Ultimately this points to Messiah, the Second Adam.

I think I found this from Rashi

We read that Rebecca inquired of Hashem regarding her condition. The Torah mentions nothing of speaking with a doctor or with her husband, Isaac, about this matter. One might wonder, why didn't Rebekah speak with Abraham , her very spiritual father-in-law? The Torah mentions nothing of her speaking with her relatives. The Torah says, "She went to inquire of Hashem..." Genesis25:22 Rebekah recognized the uniqueness of her situation. She had already come to the understanding that this was a spiritual matter that she didn't understand. Obviously she didn't want outside influence or even the influence of close relatives so we read, "She went to inquire of Hashem." This was between Rebekah and Hashem. Rebekah maintained some very high boundaries of privacy with regards to what she was experiencing.

Once she inquired of Hashem we read nothing about the need to maintain secrecy regarding Jacob and Esau but she did ... Had Rebekah spoken about these matters it may have affected the way her sons were raised and theway they were treated. It may have created an evil opening / access within a righteous home. It may have shut Esau out from the opportunity for righteous learning and from the opportunity to make his own choices. It may have sealedn is doom before birth had his choices of learning and righteousness been eliminated.

Even though this was the situation she did not bias the development of either child by accepting the fact one would be righteous and one wouldn't. Holy reader, please keep in mind that it was Hashem Who told Rebekah the differences between Jacob and Esau. What Hashem said through Shem was impeccably reliable. Other sources would have been questionable... Rebekah
could bank on what Hashem said! It was definite! Yet, even at that, she chose not to bias the development of the children.

We observe some interesting differences between Isaac and and Rebekah regarding the raising of their sons.

We read that both Isaac and Rebekah named Esau. This implies that they were in agreement ...

We read that Isaac named Jacob. This implies that Isaac and Rebekah were not in agreement ... Based upon the Torah's description of Jacob he was not the deceiver as branded from birth by his father. The Torah pronounces that Jacob, at the age of about fifteen, was "without fault." Genesis 25:27

The Torah gives a brief explanation of Esau, at about the age of fifteen, as "a skilled trapper, a man of the field" and of Jacob as "a man without fault living in tents." Genesis 25:27 The Torah states, "Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his trappings, but Rebekah loved Jacob." This is strange! The Torah states why Isaac loved Esau-- "he ate of his trappings" but the Torah says nothing as to why Rebekah loved Jacob. However if we put the Torah's statements together with the respective parent, as they are intended to be understood, then the Torah does explain why Rebekah loved Jacob. Rebekah loved Jacob because he was "a man without fault, living in tents." End of Rashi

See it's saying, when Esau was born, that Jacob was holding his heel.

Remember babies are usually born, head first so the last thing to come out is the foot, Jacob was holding on, showing that he was part of the 'first born' and it would rightfully be his. He gained it back because Esau, was foolish and didn't have regard for his inheritance at all, he was concerned with the here and now, the flesh, 'feed me, I'm hungry' not looking towards the future of himself or his children, let alone the spiritual.

The birthright was one of priority, responsibility and inheritance. When you were the first born you would normally be first in line to receive the bulk of your fathers estate. This included the responsibility of running the family business so to speak. The whole weight of the family, business, good name, relationship to their surrounding neighbors, their security all fell upon the shoulders of the eldest. Today I guess you could compare this to the monarchy. Prince Charles being the first born has carried more responsibilities and been held accountable for the family name more so than his younger brother Andrew. He is the next in line for the throne, the family business, and all the responsibility it entails than his brother.

Basically the eldest would be taking the place of his father in all aspects including taking care of his mother should see survive his fathers in death, and only limited to not having the marital relations, but in every other aspect would replace the father. And he would be responsible for also teaching his children and mainly firstborn the family business as it would be passed down to him some day.

In Deut. the only thing that 'changes' not really , but is an add- on condition, because now something different has happened , G-ds people now will have a land to call their own, they will no longer be wandering nomads or slaves to another country. Thus Deut. sets out the land parceled off according to how many in each tribe. All received a portion which would be passed down to their children in perpetuity, all except the Levites, the
priests as their inheritance was what was the L-RD's. There is a special case brought up in Deut. about the sisters who have no brothers and about if they could inherit for their fathers portion, and it was decided they could.

Quote :

Blessings:
The end of his life blessing, Isaac gave Jacob instead of Esau - family
leadership but nothing is said about his material wealth. Or by him being the
family's leader automatically mean he had most of the wealth?

Yes, they went hand in hand, you could not run the family business without it's wealth, in this case it was owner of many herds and people, that was the wealth. As you can see by the passages, Esau was more concerned with being out in the wild while Jacob helped to tend his father's sheep, that is why he was so clever when tending Laban's sheep and how he increased from nothing to the great herd he came out from Syria with.

In the beginning of the story, we are told that Isaac favored Esau because he liked the wild meat he procured, this is not a spiritual reason to love someone, nor to pass on something so precious that was passed down to him by his father Abraham.

I believe that when Esau came in from hunting, famished, that Jacob saw this as an opportunity to get a definitive answer to what he had been suspecting about his brother all along, that he had no respect for the family business, and would bring it to ruin, he only cared about himself and being out in the wild, not the family, not the responsibilities of the herds and peoples. We can see this in the way Esau reacts after he has sated his hunger on what Jacob provided ( from the fields, the lentils) , it says he 'got
up and when on his way'. His way was not the family way, and thus Jacob secured the inheritance for the sake of the family, so as not to have it left to one who didn't care one way or another about it, it meant nothing to him.

Quote :

CJB: 27:27
“He approached and kissed him Isaac smelled his clothes and blessed Jacob with these words: “See, my son smells like a field which Adonai has blessed. So may God give you dew from heaven, the richness of the earth, and grain and wine in abundance. V 29 May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. May you be lord over your kinsmen, let your mother’s descendants bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

In regards to the blessings of Abraham, if he didn't know that Jacob was the
one chosen of the two, why didn't he give Esau those blessings? (at the end of Chapter 27). Chapter 28:1 Isaac doesn't appear to be upset with Jacob any longer & gave him this blessing (v3-4 below).

As you can see, G-d chose Jacob, and told this to Rebbecca, but Isaac was more in tuned to his love of Esau because he loved the outcome of his wild wanderings, his hunting. If you look at The blessing that Isaac thought he was giving Esau, you will see it was not what he would have wanted in the first place. The grain and wine are things that need a husbandman to attend to, planting and harvesting, and tending lovingly a vineyard. These were things that Jacob was skilled in, not Esau.

Jacob was not the one who thought this up, It was his mother because she remembered what Adonai had told her when she still carried them in her womb, that the elder would serve the younger, and she knew if Isaac was to give him the blessing and inheritance of the first born that would not happen. In fact Jacob was afraid that he would be cursed for doing this and she was willing to sacrifice and take that curse upon herself but she knew and believed what HaShem had said to her about her two boys.

At the time (even before the blessing) Esau had taken heathen wives and Isaac along with Rebekah were not pleased about this, that is why he said what he did to Jacob, I think by then he realized that even though Esau was born first that he shouldn't be passed on the family wealth, being material things as well as the promises ,made to his father Abraham.


Jacob was following his mother's order, he was being obedient to her as the commandment requires. She was going by what the L-RD had revealed to her. In reality Jacob did not take away Esau's birthright, Esau regarded it as nothing and traded it for a bowl of soup. And with that birthright comes the most best blessing, so he got what went with the birthright.

See Esau wanted the blessings, but not the responsibility of the firstborn. Jacob traded no light thing, this brought much responsibility upon his shoulders, something he didn't have to do, but because he was the more
righteous of the two , the one HaShem favored ( Jacob I loved, Esau I hated), he stepped up to the plate, so the blessing was rightfully his, although either Isaac didn't know beforehand of the trading of the birthright until now when Esau cried out about it, or he was too enamored with the hunting of his other son, and the delight his flesh took in it.

I see in their birth that with Jacob holding unto his heel, this is a picture of saying even though Esau came out first he did not come out alone, because he had another attached to him.