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.