Parshat VaYishlach: Jacob and Esav’s – A Reunion

This year, I have continued my commentary on the Jacob-Esav encounters that take place in this week’s parsha, which I began in last year’s post “When PrayersCollide.” 

In Chapter 22 of Bereishit (Genesis), Jacob and Esav have a spiritual collision, an encounter that is outside of physical boundaries and showcases the power that prayers can have.  Chapter 23 follows with the physical encounter of the two brothers, the first time they have seen each other in 20 years.  This is an encounter that certainly is influenced by the twins’ history – both during their younger years (growing up in Isaac and Rebecca’s home) and the prayer-encounter that occurred just the night before their reunion. 

“He [Jacob] himself went on ahead (of his camp) and bowed low to the ground seven times until he was near his brother.”  And Jacob, weary of a further attempt on his life by his brother Esav, attempted to calm his brother’s anger.

“Esav ran to greet him.  He embraced him and, falling on his neck, he kissed him; and they wept.”  But Esav, having recognized God’s will, submitting to Jacob’s physical and spiritual destiny to be blessed ahead of him, greeted Jacob as a beloved brother.  Jacob, moved by Esav’s warm welcome, relaxes and finally displays his joy at seeing his brother after such a long separation.  Momentarily, the two brothers forget their differences and enjoy each other’s company.  But the moment is fleeting.

“Looking about, he [Esav] saw the women and children.  ‘Who,’ he asked, ‘are these with you?’”  As the immediate excitement of seeing his brother subsided, Esav desires to meet his brother’s new family.

“He [Jacob] answered, ‘The children with whom God has favored your servant.’  Then the maids, with their children, came forward and bowed low; next Leah, with her children, came forward and bowed low; and last, Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed low.”  And the fleeting moment of lightheartedly basking in each other’s presence passed.  Jacob’s wariness returned, as he humbled himself, calling himself Esav’s “servant.”  And as instructed, his wives and children also showed great deference to their brother-in-law and uncles. 

“And he [Esav] asked, ‘What do you mean by all this company which I have met?’  And Esav innocently asks, ‘Why have you given me so much of your livestock?  I, too, have plenty for myself and all my household.”

“He [Jacob] answered, ‘To gain my lord’s favor.’”  To make sure that your wrath of twenty years ago did not still linger, that you did not desire to kill me and all those travelling with me.

“Esav said, ‘I have enough, my brother; let what you have remain yours.’”  Despite all you have taken from me – my birthright and my firstborn blessing – I have nonetheless worked to provide for myself and my household.  I no longer hold those against you; I recognize the Divine will that I will not overcome you.  Yes, I have moved on from my younger years and have finally reached an internal peace; you owe me nothing.

“But Jacob said, ‘No, I pray you; if you would do me this favor, accept from me this gift; for to see your face is like seeing the face of God, and you have received me favorably.  Please accept my present which has been brought to you, for God has favored me and I have plenty.’”  “Please,” says Jacob, “Accept what I have offered to, in some small way, atone for all that I have taken from you.” For while Esav had accepted defeat, had accepted the loss of his birthright and the loss of his blessing of the firstborn, and had even accepted that Jacob’s prayer won Divine favor over his own…Jacob felt remorse that he had usurped the birthright and the blessing, he felt sorrow that his brother, who had now began the process of teshuva (repentance), was not able to have those blessings himself. 

“And when he [Jacob] urged him, he [Esav] accepted.”  And when Esav saw that Jacob’s persistence would not end, he accepted the gifts of his brother. 

“And [Esav] said, ‘Let us start on our journey, and I will proceed at your pace.’”  And Esav prepared to remain reunited with his brother, to travel to Seir side-by-side. 

“But he [Jacob] said to him, ‘My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; if they are driven hard a single day, all the flocks with die.  Let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I travel slowly, at the pace of the cattle before me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.’”  But Jacob did not wish to remain with his brother, Esav.  “Go ahead of me,” he urges his brother, “for I will follow you at a slower pace.”  Although Jacob’s intention were not to see his brother again, for they had been individually successful while apart and he was unsure if such success was possible together; he was unsure if his brother could remain at peace with him.

“Then Esav said, ‘Let me assign to you some of the men who are with me.’” So Esav offered Jacob some of his men, fearing that Jacob would not follow him to Seir, and wishing that he and his brother could finally live in harmony. 

“But he [Jacob] said, ‘Oh no, my lord is too kind to me!’”  But Jacob, knowing that he would not be seeing his brother again, would not accept Esav’s men.

“So Esav started back that day on his way to Seir.  But Jacob journeyed on to Succot, and built a house for himself and made stalls for his cattle; that is why he place was called Succot.”  So the two brothers again parted ways, to live in their separate lands, and only to be reunited again at the time of their father’s death:

“And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriat-Arba – now Hebron – where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.  Isaac was a hundred and eighty years old when he breathed his last and died.  He was gathered to his kin in ripe old age; and he was buried by his sons Esav and Jacob” (Bereishit 35:27-29).   

At this point I wonder of the importance that both Esav and Jacob buried their father, Isaac.  Earlier in the Torah we see that both Isaac and Ishmael participate in burying their father, Avraham, as well.  What is the significance of both pairs of brothers – the one destined to be a patriarch of the Jewish people and the other a rather un-esteemed (fairly or unfairly) character – coming together to bury their fathers?  In both instances, the Torah immediately follows the burial with a listing the descendents of the “lesser” son (Ishmael and Esav, respectively).  Why is it that their lineage is worthy of mention at this time?  I believe it is because despite the many bad traits these two characters display, they are fulfilling the important commandment to honor their parents (father, in this case).  For all their faults, they are able to let go of their gripes with their more-favored brothers for the sake of their fathers whom they have the obligation to bury and respect, even in his death. 

Parshat Vayeitze: Raising Some Questions

While reading parshat Vayeitze this week, there were a few segments that generated questions for which I have not found a satisfying answer.  I have laid out my thoughts below:

“Every Speckled and Spotted Animal…Such Shall be my Wages” 

After serving Lavan for 14 years for his two daughters, Jacob is finally ready to return to his homeland in this week’s parsha (v. 30:25).   But, Lavan is able to convince Jacob to stay and continue pasturing Lavan’s flocks; his “wages” for the rest of his service will be “every speckled and spotted animal – every dark-colored sheep and every spotted and speckled goat” (Genesis 30:32).  Lavan deceives Jacob by removing the streaked, spotted, and speckled goats from his flocks, leaving Jacob with hardly any left as a wage for his service.  Jacob’s response to this trickery is his own form of trickery:

Jacob then got fresh shoots of popular, and of almond and plane, and peeled white stripes in them, laying bare the white of the shoots.  The rods that he had peeled he set up in front of the goats in the troughs, the water receptacles that the goats came to drink from.  Their mating occurred when they came to drink, and since the goats mated by the rods, the goats brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted young.  But Jacob dealt separately with the sheep; he made these animals face the streaked or wholly dark-colored animals in Lavan’s flock.  And so he produced special flocks for himself, which he did not put with Lavan’s flocks.  Moreover, when the sturdier animals were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the troughs, in full view of the animals, so that they mated by the rods; but with the feebler animals he would not place them there.  Thus the feeble ones went to Lavan and the sturdy to Jacob.  So the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks…. (Bereishit 30:37-43)

The first thought that comes to mind when reading this is incredulity at the seemingly absurd way in which Jacob created speckled and spotted flocks for himself.  But I recall a similar concept in Medieval/Renaissance Christian Theology (from a college art class) that lead to the patronage of many baby and child paintings in wealthy and even average households (it was very rare at the time for non-wealthy families to commission paintings but this shows the prominence of the belief was not limited).  They believed that if a husband and wife were to look at a painting of an angelic child when the child was conceived, their children would become angelic, church-going children.  This idea has obviously been discredited and removed from official church theology (To my recollection this was only Protestant theology, to which the Catholic Church did not subscribe to).

Did our Patriarch, Jacob, really believe that unique goats and sheep could be conceived if they looked at stripped rods or dark sheep?  We know that Jacob became prosperous, but did this action have any effect?  Jacob later attributes the prominence of speckled and spotted flocks to God, but this is only after the fact.  And if it was in fact due to God that these flocks produced speckled and spotted animals, why did Jacob need to place stripped rods by their watering troughs?

“When morning came, there was Leah”

When Jacob first came to Haran and was taken in by Lavan, he made a deal to serve him seven years for his daughter, Rachel’s, hand in marriage.  At the end of the seven years, Jacob said to Lavan: “Give me my wife, for my time is fulfilled, that I may cohabit with her” (Bereishit 29:21).  The deceitful Lavan, however, tricked Jacob into marrying his oldest daughter, Leah, instead of Rachel.  “What is this you have done to me!?  I was in your service for Rachel!  Why did you deceive me?”, Jacob asks Lavan when he discovers that he was tricked. 

Much attention has been paid by the Rabbis to the cunning way in which Jacob was tricked by Lavan and to Jacob’s reaction, and this situation has been used to explain the way in which fate works itself out sometimes.  But what I wonder is, what was Leah thinking?  It was not just Lavan but also Leah that deceived Jacob.  Leah knew that she was marrying a man who had just worked seven long years for her sister, Rachel.  What makes the story even more odd is that the Midrash tells us Jacob and Rachel expected this trickery and had developed special signals that Rachel could use under the Chuppah (wedding canopy) to let Jacob know if it was really her.  When it came time for Leah to go the Chuppah, however, Rachel told her of these secret signals so that Leah would not be ashamed or embarrassed (if Jacob realized she was the wrong sister and refused to marry her).  Here I am left wondering why Leah let it get to this point; why she didn’t refuse to go under the Chuppah? 

On the point of Leah actively being involved in Jacob’s deceit, Genesis Rabbah states:

[Jacob asked Lavan], “Why are you extinguishing the lamps?”  They answered, “What do you think, that we are disgraceful like you (to engage in relations by the light of a lamp)?”  All that night he called her “Rachel,” and she answered him.  In the morning, “there was Leah!”  He told her: “What is this, you are a deceiver, the daughter of a deceiver!”  She retorted: “And is there a scribe [teacher] without pupils?  Did not your father call you ‘Esav,’ and you answered him?  You, too, called me ‘Rachel,’ and I answered you.” 

In this response, Leah was following Jacob’s model – and Jacob was falling into the same trap of his father Isaac in not recognizing what was demanded of the present reality (in this case, that Leah was meant to mother some of the 12 tribes).  (I wrote of Jacob/Esav and Isaac here last week.)  It could be that Leah recognized she was destined to be one of the matriarchs and therefore was comfortable deceiving Jacob, knowing it was ultimately for the best.  [Aside: Wait, has a soap opera been made out of this script yet?  I think it’d be a hit….]

But we are still left wondering about Leah’s state of mind.  When Leah has her first son she says “she named him Reuven, for she declared, ‘the Lord has seen my affliction; it also means: now my husband will love me’ (Bereishit 29:32), even though ‘he loved Rachel more than Leah’” (29:30).  Later when Rachel asks for some flowers that Reuven picked for Leah, Leah retorts: “Was it not enough for you to take away my husband, that you would also take my son’s mandrakes” (Bereishit 30:15).  How quickly she forgot that it was she who took away Rachel’s husband, not vice versa.  Based on the rough married life she seemed to have – which should easily have been predictable given the situation – I am still left wondering why Leah went to the Chuppah, supplanting her sister.  By reading classic commentators, it is made to seem as if only Lavan was the progenitor of deceit.  But why didn’t Leah speak up?  Rebecca spoke for herself in saying she would leave to marry Isaac; was Leah not able to speak for herself in the same way?  Or was her action one of self-sacrifice for the future of the Jewish nation? 

“…the Lord shall be my God”

To begin Vayeitze, Jacob has a dream on his journey to Haran.  Through this dream (which I discussed here last year.) God comes to Jacob and he awakes to the startling realization that “Surely the Lord is present in this place, and I did not know it” (Bereishit 28:16).  This stimulates Jacob to pray as follows:

Jacob then made a vow, saying, If God remains with me, if He protects me on this journey that I am making, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safe to my father’s house – the Lord shall be my God.  And this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, shall be God’s abode; and of all that You give me, I will set aside a tithe for You.  (Bereishit 28:20-22)

This prayer is full of conditions…Jacob making conditional deals in his prayer to God.  Yet God has just revealed to Jacob: “Remember, I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (v. 28:15).  So why did Jacob need to make conditions if he already had been assured of God’s protection and that he would return to his father’s land? 

The simplest response is summed up by Rabbi Dr. Raymond Apple (Great Synagogue, Sydney): [Jacob’s] ‘if’ is not conditional, but a prayer: ‘Please, God, may it be thus, that You will be with me, guard me and be my God.’ 

I can certainly relate, as I have also used “ifs” in my own prayers but intend them more along the lines of how Rabbi Apple interprets Jacob’s prayer.  But why would the Torah expect us to interpret Jacob’s words differently than the way they are actually written? 

Rabbi Ira Stone provides one of the most satisfying responses: Jacob did indeed start his prayer with uncertainty, a tentative faith.  But his prayer does not contain an “if…then” statement.  Jacob is transformed by his prayer encounter with God.  He recognizes the foolishness of placing conditions upon God, recognizes that he must take responsibility for what happens in his own life, and also recognizes that he is not alone as God is always present.  This is why the direct translation of the text is “if I return safe to my father’s house and the Lord shall be my God…the “and” conveys the transformation Jacob undergoes from the start of his conditional prayer until the conclusion of his prayer.  It doesn’t say “if this…then the Lord shall be my God” but rather declares that “Yes…I have come to the realization that the Lord is my God.” 

But this leaves the question of the timing of Jacob’s prayer.  Since God has just approached him in a dream and promised him so many blessings, shouldn’t his prayer be one of thanks?  Why does his prayer begin as a conditional one and only later turn to a conviction that God is with him?  Jacob realized in the previous verses he was surrounded by God’s awesome presence…did this feeling of God depart so quickly?  Or was Jacob (who declared “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the abode of God.”) unsure if God would be with him in other places as well, but then realized that God’s presence was not limited to any one location?

Thoughts and responses are always welcome.

Happy Thanksgiving and Shabbat Shalom

Parhsat Toldot: The Deceit of Isaac

Every year, I am troubled by the deceit Rebecca and Jacob display in quite blatantly lying to Isaac to steal the blessing of the first born away from Esav and ensure that Jacob is blessed in his stead.  To be sure, Rebecca was told by God that Jacob (the second born twin) was the one that deserved this blessing…but do the ends (i.e. Jacob receiving the blessing) justify the means (deceiving her husband/Jacob’s father)? 

There are many prevalent Torah commentaries that justify Jacob’s actions.  Some, seemingly contrary to the text’s straightforward reading, claim that Jacob did not lie at all.  According to these commentators who seem to be rationalizing Jacob’s actions away, Jacob didn’t say to his blind father, I am your son, Esav, your first-born (Genesis 27:32).  Rather, he said: It is I.  Esav is your first-born (Genesis Rabbah 52).  While I don’t deny that this may be true, I am not a fan of this apologetic explanation that does not really address the Torah’s text directly.  Jacob quite clearly tells Esav, after realizing that Jacob stole his blessing: Your brother came with guile and took away your blessing (Genesis 27:35) (although the same commentators reinterpret this phrase so as to not implicate Jacob in any misdoing). 

Rabbi Yehuda Zoldan of Bar Ilan University takes a different approach, based upon writings of the Vilna Goan, Sforno, and Rav Kook.  In their commentaries on Malachi I (the haftarah associated with Parshat Toldot) they take a much more universal, long-term approach to what Jacob and Esav represent throughout history in Judaism.  Rav Kook states:

It is not the absorption and destruction (of the nations) that is the goal of Israel’s being a light unto the nations, just as we [the Jews] do not intend general destruction of the world and all its nations, but rather their repair and their elevation, the removal of their wickedness, which will then join them to the source of Israel, to shower them as well with droplets of light.  Of this process it is written, But I will clean out the blood from its mouth and the detestable things from between its teeth.  Its survivors, too, shall belong to the Lord (Zecharia 9:7).  If this is the practice even regarding idol worship, all the more so for religions that are partially based on the foundations of the light of Israel’s Torah.

The Vilna Gaon writes on Malchi 1:3 that the hatred of Esav is only “in reference to the minor parts of Esav”:

The brotherly love between Esav and Jacob, between Isaac and Ishmael, will surpass all the tumult brought on by the evil embedded in the uncleanliness of a dead body…will overcome it and replace it with light and eternal loving-kindness. 

In this take on the Jacob-Esav dichotomy the two people are viewed as existentially connected.  Yet there are sharp differences, none highlighted more so than in Esav’s outburst of anger after getting his blessing stolen by Jacob: “I will kill my brother Jacob” (Genesis 27:41)!  Despite this, intrinsically both figures are destined to be united.  Unlike Isaac and Ishmael, who stemmed from separate wombs and were largely raised apart, Jacob and Esav originated from the same womb and grew up together.  This togetherness is how Jacob, Esav, and their descendants were supposed to live.  The Talmud states in Megillah 6a on the verse of Zecharia above (“Its survivors, too, shall belong to the Lord”):

These are the synagogues and study halls in Edom (= Esav).  ‘They shall become like a tribe in Yehuda, and Ekron shall be like the Jubusites.’  These are theaters and circuses in Edom in which the leaders of Yehuda are destined to teach Torah to the multitudes. 

The Sages recognized the potential for Esav to join to the tribe of Yehuda, to be students of Torah.  This also seems to be alluded to in Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezzer, which tells us that Esav’s head was buried in the Cave of Machpelah with our three forefathers and mothers, presumably due to his righteousness (but he was not fully righteous, as the rest of his body was buried outside in the Field of Machpelah). 

It is this approach to Jacob and Esav (Israel and Edom) that I believe can lead us to a more honest answer of the reason Jacob deceitfully stole the blessing of the firstborn from his brother, Esav.  Rabbi Zoldan has extrapolated from this approach that Isaac desired to bless Esav because he believed that the unification of Jacob and Esav envisioned by the Sages might come to pass in his lifetime.  Rebecca, however, was more practical and able to see the reality of the present situation in which she recognized Esav’s evilness (not that he was fully evil, but that parts of him were) and that Jacob was destined to be the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.  On top of this vision, was the fact that God told her “the older [Esav] shall serve the younger [Jacob].” 

I would like to add, however, that even with this knowledge, Rebecca recognizes that her plan to deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob is not fully laudable.  Jacob worries that a curse, rather than a blessing, will be brought upon him for deceiving his father.  His mother therefore says: “Your curse, my son, be upon me!  Just do as I say and go fetch them [the game] for me” (Genesis 27:12-13).  Therefore the Jewish nation that comes forth from Jacob and his wives are not burdened with a curse; rather Rebecca assumes the curse upon herself to leave Jacob pure and obtain what she knows to be an ultimate good.  This curse, presumably, could be removed only when Edom becomes like Yehuda in future generations.  

Parshat Chayei Sarah: Isaac and Rebecca

Similar to the majority of Bereishit (Genesis), this week’s parsha is full of stories.  But unlike the rest of the Torah up until this point, Parshat Vayeira expounds upon Avraham’s servant’s search for a wife for Isaac in detail.  Throughout the past month, the Torah has raced through Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, the Tower of Babel, and numerous stories of Avraham and Sarah.  This week, the Torah seems to be catching its breath.  Until this week, everything is compact and brief and requires many details to be filled in by the oral tradition, sages, and future commentators.  So why does the Torah relay the search for Isaac’s wife in such detail (and even repeat a part of the story twice!)?  The Torah doesn’t even mention Avraham’s youthful years and discovery of monotheism…why is Eliezer’s (Avraham’s servant) search for Rebecca, Isaac’s wife, given at such length?

Parshat Vayeira does not contain any mizvot (although there are very few commandments in all of Genesis), which makes this parsha entirely story-based.  There must be some other lessons that can be learned from this story.  I think that Eliezer’s first conversation with Rebecca at a watering teaches us one significant lesson:

She [Rebecca] went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.  The servant [Eliezer] ran toward her and said, “Please let me sip a little water from your jar.”

“Drink, my lord,” she said, and she quickly lowered her jar upon her hand and let him drink.  When she had let him drink his fill, she said, “I will also draw for your camels, until they finish drinking.” 

Eliezer had been searching for the woman who would give both him and his camels water on their journey, and this was the woman he knew was meant to be Isaac’s wife.  Why was this action the specific one he was looking for?  And exactly what vital character trait does this action represent? 

Each of the patriarchs represents a different trait.  Isaac is most commonly associated with gevurah, strength, which references his devotion in serving God even through self-sacrifice.  One of the primary ways in which people show their devotion to God, however, is the way in which we interact with others.  It is not possible to be truly and fully devoted to God, without having God’s presence in your life impact the way in which you interact with others.  Dedication to God doesn’t stop with prayer (i.e. conversation with God) but extends to our conversation with others; it doesn’t stop with keeping Shabbat, but extends to up-keeping your commitments to family, friends, and others.  Dedication to God encompasses all of one’s actions – speech and deed.  From the way in which Rebecca acted towards the servant Eliezer, calling him “my lord” and letting him drink and letting his camels drink, despite the inconvenience it may have caused her in both time and loss of water, which likely was not overly abundant, Eliezer knew that she also showed the attribute of gevurah.  She behaved in such a manner towards people, because of her reverence for God.  But she also displayed the attribute of Chessed, kindness, which Avraham, Eliezer’s master and Isaac’s father, is most prominently known for.  Not only did she display this act through the way she treated Eliezer, but also graciously opened her house (her father’s really) to him and his cammels, warmly offering food and shelter for the night. 

It was these actions of Rebecca that guided Eliezer to pick her as Isaac’s wife.  And it is a woman such as this for whom Isaac was able to “find comfort after his mother’s death” (Bereishit 24:67)…and, as we are told during the creation of woman, it is for a woman with Rebecca’s character that Isaac became a “man [who] leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh” (Bereishit 2:24). 

Shabbat Shalom.