Shalom JTF Readers,
This week we are studying the action packed portion of Toldot (Generations) which contains the story of the birth of Essau and Yaakov and continues through the contested blessing which Yitzak bestowed. In the end Yaakov must flee from the rage of Essau due to the fact that Essau wanted the inheritance and despised the spiritual blessing.
This portion leads us to ask many questions. Why did Yitzak love Essau more than Yaakov even though Essau was obviously the wicked one, why was it Rebecca (Rifkva) who recognized the wisdom of Yaakov? Why did Essau, who was the real first born, despise the Bechor (First Born) spiritual responsibility?
Let us look at the parsha in a nutshell from Chabad.org:
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3178/jewish/Toldot-in-a-Nutshell.htm
Isaac and Rebecca endure twenty childless years, until their prayers are answered and Rebecca conceives. She experiences a difficult pregnancy as the “children struggle inside her”; G‑d tells her that “there are two nations in your womb,” and that the younger will prevail over the elder.
Esau emerges first; Jacob is born clutching Esau’s heel. Esau grows up to be “a cunning hunter, a man of the field”; Jacob is “a wholesome man,” a dweller in the tents of learning. Isaac favors Esau; Rebecca loves Jacob. Returning exhausted and hungry from the hunt one day, Esau sells his birthright (his rights as the firstborn) to Jacob for a pot of red lentil stew.
In Gerar, in the land of the Philistines, Isaac presents Rebecca as his sister, out of fear that he will be killed by someone coveting her beauty. He farms the land, reopens the wells dug by his father Abraham, and digs a series of his own wells: over the first two there is strife with the Philistines, but the waters of the third well are enjoyed in tranquility.
Esau marries two Hittite women. Isaac grows old and blind, and expresses his desire to bless Esau before he dies. While Esau goes off to hunt for his father’s favorite food, Rebecca dresses Jacob in Esau’s clothes, covers his arms and neck with goatskins to simulate the feel of his hairier brother, prepares a similar dish, and sends Jacob to his father. Jacob receives his father’s blessings for “the dew of the heaven and the fat of the land” and mastery over his brother. When Esau returns and the deception is revealed, all Isaac can do for his weeping son is to predict that he will live by his sword, and that when Jacob falters, the younger brother will forfeit his supremacy over the elder.
Jacob leaves home for Charan to flee Esau’s wrath and to find a wife in the family of his mother’s brother, Laban. Esau marries a third wife—Machalath, the daughter of Ishmael.
The newest (posted yesterday) from the great Rabbi Richman:
Topic: Video Study for Parsha Toldot : The Birth of Israel (Read 3213 times)