Dvar Torah for Young Members Shabbat

Tonight I’m holding a Young Members Shabbat dinner at my Shul for members in their 20’s and 30’s. It’s the second one we’ve done. I’ll be delivering a Dvar Torah. It’s based on the one I gave (and wrote about) last year when I hosted a Shabbat Dinner at home for my friends. Here it is…

This week we read Parashat Toldot. The portion is book ended by two stories that, on the surface, seem to portray Jacob taking advantage of others, an activity that is unbecoming of our Forefathers. We will see that when we delve deeper, not only is he not taking advantage of anyone, he is actually acting in a way that ensures the future of his people.

In the first account, we read “Now Jacob cooked a pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, "Pour into [me] some of this red, red [pottage], for I am faint"; he was therefore named Edom. And Jacob said, "Sell me as of this day your birthright." Esau replied, "Behold, I am going to die; so why do I need this birthright?" And Jacob said, "Swear to me as of this day"; so he swore to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and a pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank and arose and left, and Esau despised the birthright.”

The simple reading suggests that Esau was out hunting and came to Jacob “starving to death” and asked for some of the lentil soup that Jacob was making. Jacob sees an opportunity to get the birthright that usually goes to the firstborn, so he tells Esau that he will give him the soup in exchange for the birthright. Esau says “I’m starving to death here, what do I need a birthright for, give me the soup.” And the deal is made.

When studying a passage of Torah, there are always multiple levels of meaning to the text. The first level is to look at the straight reading of the text. At this level we have to ask a legal question; if Esau was starving to death, how can he enter into a contract? The key to understanding this is to remember the first fule of Torah study, the Torah is very stingy with words. Every word is there for a reason, and every word that is left out is left out for a reason. So here we have a deal to exchange a birthright for some soup, but then we read “And Jacob gave Esau bread and a pottage of lentils”, where did the bread come from? Surely the Torah doesn’t record every time someone eats bread with a meal, why record it here?

The bread is to resolve the legal dilemma. After agreeing to the deal, Jacob gives Esau some bread to satisfy his hunger. Then before giving the soup to seal the deal he asks Esau if he is sure, Esau agrees and the deal is done.

But on a deeper level, what’s really going on here?

Because of the division of the weekly readings, we loose some of the context of this episode. If we remember back to last week, the end of the parasha records the death of Abraham. This story immediately follows – this is all happening on the day of Abraham’s funeral. The lentil soup Jacob was making was the traditional food of mourning. Esau, with all his faults, was still a good person inside (story of his head), he was just confronted with the death of the greatest person he knew, when that happens, you often confront your own mortality. When he says “what do I need this birthright for, I’m going to die”, he wasn’t talking about an immediate death, he was talking generally. Esau’s live philosophy was “Eat, drink, for tomorrow we die” - a denial of the afterlife. The birthright is a spiritual blessing one that would not benefit him in his lifetime, but follow him for all eternity, what use does Esau have for that – he was interested in material goods. Going even deeper, Esau knew that the role of the first born was to be the family’s emissary in the Temple. The temple service required complete concentration – if your thoughts wavered for even a second, you would die on the spot. (That’s why there were so many High Priests in the Second Temple – they were never of good character and kept dieing on us.) Esau knew that if he (and his kin) was the family’s representative in the temple, he would not be able to do the job and would die. What does he need that tzuris for? What Esau was saying is that he has no use of the birthright; in fact he despises it and would happily sell it for even the smallest material gain (i.e. some pottage). Jacob knew that such a person could not carry on the mission of Abraham; such a person should not get the blessing of the firstborn.

Skip ahead to the end of the Parasha, and we come to the famous story of Jacob fooling Isaac into giving him the blessing meant for Esau. The simple reading is that Isaac wants to give a blessing to Esau, but Rebecca wants it to go to Jacob. Then Jacob and Rebecca conspire to take advantage of a blind, old Isaac and trick him into giving the blessing to Jacob. But this is Isaac we’re talking about, it’s hard to imagine being able to trick him.

The general understanding is that the blessing being fought over is the blessing of Abraham, to continue his mission. But let’s look at the blessing that are actually given. The text records two blessings; the first was intended for Esau (but went to Jacob), and the second was intended for (and went to) Jacob. The first blessing was: “And may the Lord give you of the dew of the heavens and [of] the fatness of the earth and an abundance of corn and wine. Nations shall serve you and kingdoms shall bow down to you; you shall be a master over your brothers, and your mother's sons shall bow down to you. Those who curse you shall be cursed, and those who bless you shall be blessed."

The second blessing was: “may the Almighty God bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and you shall become an assembly of peoples. And may He give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, that you may inherit the land of your sojourning, which God gave to Abraham."

So we see that Isaac wanted to give Esau the blessing of physical strength, and give Jacob the blessing of spiritual strength. Rebecca wanted both to go to Jacob.

Isaac knew all along that Jacob was the one to carry on the mission of Abraham, but that mission would take more than just spirit, it would take strength. Isaac was afraid that if he would give Jacob the physical blessing it would corrupt his pure spirit. So Isaac’s plan was to give Esau the physical blessing and Jacob the spiritual one; they would work together to change the world. Rebecca knew that as long as Jacob was dependant on Esau, the mission would never get completed.

When Jacob comes before Isaac pretending to be Esau, he doesn’t fool his father; Isaac knows what’s going on. Isaac says “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” These are not the words of a confused old man. Voice represents the soul, the intellect, this was Jacob’s forte. Hand represent physicality, this was Esau’s strength. By taking it upon himself and acting to get both blessings, Jacob showed Isaac that he had both the spirit and the physical will to carry out Abraham’s mission. He didn’t need Esau. So Isaac decided then that his wife was right all along and gave both blessing to Jacob. He would be blessed with both the spirit needed to change the world, and the physical assets to do it.

A mission that we all inherit and are responsible for carrying out.

Shabbat Shalom.