Parshat Toldot: Valuing Our Blessings

As is common in the book of Bereishit, we have another sibling rival begin in the weekly parsha, Toldot, between Ya'akov and Eisav (Jacob and Esau).  The differences between them are many, both on a physical and spiritual level.  And the differences are not just based on how these two figures morphed into characters in Jewish tradition, through the mouths and minds of our sages and midrashic authors.  Yitchak and Rivka (Isaac and Rebecca), the parents of these twins, are expanded upon in Jewish tradition but the Torah itself has relatively little to say about them.  Ya'akov (and Eisav), however, have much more ink devoted to them in the Torah itself.  I think this is important for many reasons, the first being the God Himself found everything in the Torah to be worthy of being put to paper.  Additionally, Ya'akov is the first person to have all monotheistic (Jewish) offspring - a key aspect to all generations of Jews.  He is also able to embody the greatest elements of his father and grandfather, gevurah (strength/judgement) and chessed (kindness).  Ya'akov is associated with the attribute of tiferet (beauty), the union of gevurah and chessed.

In this week's parsha, Toldot, we are introduced to Ya'akov and learn a lot about him through his rivalry with his twin brother, Eisav, and the way he interacts with his mother and father.  What I would like to focus on is the different values of Ya'akov and Eisav as seen through how they value the blessings of their father.

In the first few verses of the Torah portion, Rebecca feels pain from the twins struggling in her womb and she asked God about it.  God responded with a prophecy for Rebecca: 

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. (Bereishit 25:23)

It is not until the end of the portion that this prophecy comes to fruition, when Rebecca takes action to ensure that the younger son gets his father's blessing (which was supposed to be reserved for the firstborn Eisav).  In the meantime, however, we learn about the birthright of the firstborn, which Eisav sells to Ya'akov for a bowl of soup.  It is often translated that he bought it because he was "hungry" or "famished" but the Hebrew - ayeif - also means "tired."  He sold his birthright for a bowl of soup because he was too lazy to prepare something for himself.  According to the Midrash HaGadol, it was also not just any bowl of lentils -- it was food that  Ya'akov was preparing for his father, Yitchak, who was mourning the death of Avraham.  It was this bowl that Eisav greedily asked for, and Ya'akov reluctantly sold for the birthright and then prepared another for his father.   

Eisav cried out (25:32): 'Why do I need the birthright?!'  

The Heavenly Voice echoed: '...Why do you need the blessing?'  (Midrash HaGadol 25:32)

The disregard, the lack of value, which Eisav showed to the birthright is contrasted very strongly with the importance it had to Ya'akov.  The birthright was the right (and obligation) of the firstborn to look after his family -- his parents when they were old, his siblings when needed -- and carry on the family name in good standing.  But Ya'akov was the one in the home, consoling his mother and father, not Eisav.

At the end of the parsha, however, the situation is quite a bit different.  Eisav does not give up his father's blessing; rather, Rebecca and Ya'akov deceive the now-blind Yitchak into giving it to Ya'akov.  So Yitchak blesses Ya'akov:

May God 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 brother, and let your mother's sons bow to you.  Cursed by they who curse you, blessed be they who bless you. (27:28-9)

And with that, Rebecca's prophecy from the beginning of the parsha comes true.   But Eisav does not respond with the same "who cares" towards losing the blessing as he did when he sold the birthright.  [Note that many commentators do recreate Eisav's words as of an evil nature; I do not think this is the natural reading from the text itself.]

'Bless me, even also me, my Father!' he cries (27:34).  'Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing...!'  Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?!' (27:36).  And when Yitchak does not seem to have reserved a blessing, Eisav weeps (Midrash Tanchuma 2): 'Hast thou but one blessing, my Father?  Bless me, even also me, my Father!' (27:38)

Yitzchak does indeed have a blessing that he gives to his elder son.  But what I think is more important is the sense of despair we can sense in Eisav when he realizes that he has lost what was his.  We hear the echo of the Heavenly Voice...Why do you need the blessing?...and realize that it was a culmination of Eisav's past actions and slighting of the birthright that led to the blessing being taken from him.  It was not so much stolen as lost; Ya'akov and Rebecca didn't take it out of spite for him and greediness for themselves.  Rather it was because Eisav did not deserve it and Ya'akov had proved he did deserve it.  Yet I can still sympathize with Eisav in this moment.  Only when he has lost everything does he realize how valuable it was.  Like Adam and Chava in Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden), only once they ate from the forbidden tree did they realize how precious the life they had truly was.

This is something we can all conceptually understand but it is hard to really implement in our lives: we know the most important things in our lives, what is the "right" or "best" way to live.  We know that family and religion and friends are the highest priority in our life.  But during our day-to-day lives it is not so easy to always make choices that reflect what we know is ultimately the way we should be.  Work and school get in the way; we let our temper overtake us too often, get annoyed by those who only mean well.  Ya'akov, however, (like his grandmother Sarah),was always focused on the blessing in his life - his family and God.  Even when he later was manipulated into seven extra years of servitude to Lavan in order to marry Rachel he did so without complaint.  He focused on the blessings in his life, and those to come in the future.  For this reason Ya'akov was deemed worthy of the birthright and the blessing.

As an addition this week: in honor of this 17th yartzeit (anniversary of his death), I'd like to mention Reb Shlomo Carlebach.  He was another, more recent, figure that embodies a Ya'akov-like person.  He emanated inner tiferet, beauty.  His spirit and energy brought so many people closer to God; lifted up so many souls that were down.  'His message was Torah and his vehicle was music,' his daughter said.  His music transformed the Jewish world and helped bring thousands upon thousands of Jews closer to Judaism.  His reach didn't end there, though.  Hundreds upon hundreds of homeless people crowded the streets of New York for his funeral, showing their respects to someone who made their lives meaningful when most people wouldn't even spare them a second glance.  In the words of his other daughter, he showed that "it wasn't just the religion, Judaism was everything, God was everything.  And by allowing God into your life you allow yourself to open up."  The starting point is Shabbat: Mizmor Shir l'Yom haShabbat.