Two nations in one womb
Yitzchak married Rivka at forty. The twins were born when he was sixty (25:20, 25:26). For twenty years they had no children, and they prayed.
Look at the verse in Hebrew. The same root comes twice: vaye'tar, Yitzchak pleaded, and vaye'ater, Hashem accepted the plea. Then the pregnancy turns out to be hard.
What does "pushed against each other" mean? Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, France, 1000s, the classic commentary on the Torah) brings the Midrash:
Rashi adds that she went to ask at the house of learning of Shem, Noach's son. The answer she got is the key to the whole parsha:
Keep that last line in mind: "the older will serve the younger." Rivka heard it. The Torah never says whether she told Yitzchak.
A man of the field, a man of tents
The Torah describes the twins in one verse.
Rashi explains when the difference showed up:
Why did Yitzchak love Esav?
"The hunt in his mouth": whose mouth? Targum Onkelos (the classic Aramaic translation of the Torah) says Yitzchak's: Esav brought him meat to eat. Rashi brings the Midrash too: וּמִדְרָשׁוֹ בְּפִיו שֶׁל עֵשָׂו, שֶׁהָיָה צָד אוֹתוֹ וּמְרַמֵּהוּ בִדְבָרָיו, "its midrash: in Esav's mouth, because he would trap him and fool him with his words."
But that is not the whole picture. Esav also honored his father more than almost anyone. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, one of the leaders of the Sages, said so about himself:
Both are true at the same time. Esav fooled his father with clever questions, and Esav honored his father in a way that one of the greatest Sages could not match. Notice the royal clothes. They come back later in the parsha.
Did you notice the verbs? "Yitzchak loved Esav," in the past. "Rivka loves Yaakov," in the present.
The day Avraham died
A tired hunter, a pot of red stew, and a birthright sold for one bowl. Step through the day.
A birthright (bechorah) is the special place of the firstborn son. Esav was born first, by moments. Yaakov came out holding his heel (25:26).
Three wells, three Temples
Yitzchak digs. The neighbors fight. Why does the Torah tell us the name of every well?
There is a famine, and Yitzchak lives among the Philistines in Gerar. He grows rich, and they push him out. First he opens his father's old wells:
Then he digs new ones. The Ramban (Nachmanides, Spain, 1200s) asks why the Torah spends so many verses on wells:
Three wells in a row: Esek, Sitnah and Rechovot, with the Temple each one stands for under it.
Yitzchak did not win either of the first two wells. Both times, he moved on and dug again. The third time he said, "Now Hashem has made room for us."
The garment from Eden
On the /ark page we followed the garments God made for Adam into Noach's ark. Here is the rest of the trail. Step through it.
A word on these teachings. The Torah itself only says "the precious garments of Esav." That they were Adam's garments comes from the Midrash: Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 24 and Bereishit Rabbah 63:13. Rashi brings only part of it, as a second explanation of the word chamudot: that Esav wanted them from Nimrod. His first explanation is simpler: הַנְּקִיּוֹת, כְּתַרְגּוּמוֹ דָּכְיָתָא, דָּ"אַ שֶׁחָמַד אוֹתָן מִן נִמְרוֹד, "the clean ones, as Onkelos translates it; another explanation: that he wanted them from Nimrod."
The voice and the hands
Yaakov walks in to his blind father, dressed as Esav.
Did Yaakov lie? Rashi reads the sentence with a pause in the middle: אָנֹכִי הַמֵּבִיא לְךָ וְעֵשָׂו הוּא בְּכוֹרֶךָ, "I am the one bringing this to you, and Esav is your firstborn." Read Rashi's way, each half is true. Still, Yaakov knew what his father would understand, and the Torah does not hide how hard this was for him. When Rivka told him her plan, he said, "Maybe my father will feel me, and in his eyes I will be like someone fooling him, and I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing" (27:12).
Yitzchak is not sure. He calls Yaakov close and feels his hands:
What gave the voice away? Not the sound, says Rashi, but the way he talked:
Esav's words come a few verses later, when he walks in with his own meal: "Let my father get up" (27:31). Same request, different voice.
Bereishit Rabbah reads the verse as a promise for every generation. The nations once asked a non-Jewish philosopher, Avnimos HaGardi, how they could beat the Jewish people. He told them to go past the shuls and the houses of learning. If they heard children's voices learning there, they could not win:
Common questions
Short answers, with sources.
Why did Yaakov cook lentils?
Rashi says Avraham died that day, and Yaakov cooked the first meal for his mourning father. Lentils are round, and mourning is a wheel that comes around to everyone (Rashi 25:30; Bava Batra 16b). The Gemara there also mentions eggs, and an addition printed in Rashi says this is why a mourner's first meal starts with eggs: they are round, and like a mourner, they have no "mouth."
Why did Yitzchak love Esav?
"Because of the hunt in his mouth" (25:28). Onkelos: Esav fed him. The Midrash in Rashi: Esav "trapped" him with questions that sounded very careful, like how to take maaser from salt. And Esav honored him in royal clothes, more than Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel honored his own father (Bereishit Rabbah 65:16).
What were Esav's "precious garments"?
Rashi gives two answers: clean clothes (as Onkelos translates), or the clothes Esav wanted from Nimrod (Rashi 27:15). Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 24 says these were the garments God made for Adam and Chava, which reached Nimrod after the Flood. Bereishit Rabbah 65:16 adds that Esav wore them to serve his father.
What do the three wells mean?
The Ramban (26:20) says they hint at the three Temples. Esek ("fighting") is the First Temple, which our enemies fought until they destroyed it. Sitnah ("hatred, accusation") is the Second, which faced accusations all its days. Rechovot ("wide spaces") is the Third, which will be built with no fight.
Did Yaakov lie to his father?
Rashi reads "I am Esav your firstborn" as two sentences: "I am the one bringing this to you," and "Esav is your firstborn" (Rashi 27:19). Yaakov was afraid his father would see him as someone fooling him (27:12). Rivka told him, in Onkelos's translation, that she had been told in a prophecy that no curse would come on him (Onkelos 27:13).
What happened to Adam's garments in the end?
According to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 24, when Yaakov came out from his father after the blessing, he said Esav the wicked was not worthy to wear them, and he dug a hole and hid them in the ground.
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