Parshat Toldot: The Twins Story - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb

[Music] [Applause] yes it brought back Rebecca for for Isaac and they got married I was 40 years old when he took Rebecca the daughter pursue the aramean from sisterwife's himself I'm not gonna comment on all of that and they had no children so Isaac entreated him Hashem opposite his wife it could be opposite it could be concerning no questions whether she was Davin he also thought she was bad a sham allowed himself to be entreated by his wife but Rebecca conceived as you will see this took twenty years because he's when they get when they give birth when she gives birth he's 60 okay now I come something very important a little bit tricky and subtle and it'll be very important for later on the children agitated within her all right that already tells you that she's pregnant with twins twins right and she said if so now the strict translated the Hebrew was even more drastic than the English why do I exist mama said I know she why do I exist at all she's in despair she's in utter despair she went to acquire Hashem okay query for you guys test quiz time does she know that she's pregnant with twins why why should she know today ultrasounds often reveal shocking surprises there's more than one in there right this is the way for the mother to know so when it says the children agitated within her and she was in distress it doesn't mean she's in distress because two twins are fighting inside that's not what she's in distress she doesn't know that his two twins fighting inside now the question is what does she know or what does she think I'll come back to that that's the first question that arises don't confuse what the text tells us with what she knows texted telling us but she doesn't know that and she's an utter despair now she goes to acquire Michelle she how come she's taking a trip why doesn't she ask her husband you know he's not just Philip from down the street he's the son of Abraham he's a great man solving the Sun and he certainly will be a prophet he went through the akkada write this pseudo sacrifice somehow she couldn't get any satisfaction at home he couldn't help her I'm out assuming she did ask and because she he couldn't help her so she went that's where so that's a good question and I'll tell you the next words it says Hashem said to her now here you can instruct your professors of Biblical Hebrew there is a medical tradition that she went to shame who was still alive and he told her I the English reader will say he says he said to her don't push it off on somebody else but in Hebrew the lammott can mean to say about not to say to when the Jews make a break for it from Egypt and they don't come back it says buy em apparel Livni Israel no real cream Haim by mid bar booking them a bit back part it says Vera lives near ale there three days go on start talking to them they aren't there it means pyro said about the Jewish people the lamb it can mean about doesn't have to mean to and the oral tradition says I'm not sure that there aren't two opinions here rhythm tradition I think about you please is that okay it wasn't direct prophecy to her she she got it from Shane who was a prophet obviously he's one of those three children God spoke to them but what you end up with is that this message which we're going to study now and in 23 this message is coming to her and not to him and then I'll extend that in a moment but what are the Shem say about her two nations are in your womb two regimes that means like nations with their own authority from your inside to be separated the might shall pass from one regime to the other in other words they'll be competition and when one's up the other hope will be down and the elder shall serve the younger this one you can write in your diary she knows from before they're born the older one has to serve the younger one so much later when there's a whole interaction as to who should get what then what kind of blessings and so forth and so on she has this information and he does not now the alert a live reader will ask okay it came to her it came to her but why shouldn't she tell him she asked him he didn't have an answer now came third so even on the surface she asked him and didn't get it from him she went to shame and got it for shame she can conclude because well who doesn't want him to have it because the girl wanted and wanted him to have it he would have given it to him and he was giving it to me there's also a general rule that if God tells something to one profit that profit doesn't tell it to another profit on the grounds that the other one is already a profit because roja wanted them to know he tell them direct either way what you get in the end here is that she knows and he doesn't and that's going to be very important now let's come back to the words on the page so she didn't know she had twins she felt some kind of agitation with inner this agitation was so devastating she said I don't know why I exist the whole life is worthless because of this agitation and then she gets the message oh they're twins and they're gonna struggle with one another y'all this will serve the younger and now she's happy oh okay fine I can live with that no problem nope no and no evidence whatsoever of continued despair or continued inquiry or anything what was the problem for which this was the solution why is she happy now I don't know of any we're certainly nothing in the verses to indicates this I heard a wonderful explanation from my mom table the real focus when we were privileged to have a lot of contact when we were in Baltimore as I have told the some of you when you have a question which is answered by an explanation that always leaves open the possibility there are other explanations if the question is answered by a deduction then that nails it as the right answer but this that's his explanation there could be other explanation as well but he explains it as follows where there's a major rush which says that when she went past a place of Torah study she felt pressure within her as if wanting to come out when she went past a place of idol worship she felt pressure within her as if wanting to come out so that's the experience that she has which creates her despair now she learns that it's twins and each one wants to go in a different way and now she's happy so the problem was cetera by table that she thought it was one and it's much worse if it's one than if it's two why is it must worse if it's one than if it's two so he quoted a famous incident in Tanakh when Elijah the Prophet challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest it's happened in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa he said you guys believe in this nonsense and I represent the creator of the universe let's see who's right we'll make a contest we'll each build an altar well at least put an animal on the altar with wood I won't put any fire and we'll ask the one we believe in to send fire from heaven and we'll see who gets an answer so they do that they build an alternate they put fire wood on top and they put their animal on top and then he says you're the many and I'm only one you start call out to your I will end your the gods that you believe in and hasn't sent fire from heaven they do so the whole day and nothing happens so then he says totally my alter ego to alter puts wood on top and he puts the animal on top and then he says that people bring water and they drench the entire altar with water and then three rivulet surround that they'll also drench the whole thing is soaking in water and then he says Hashem please answer me it sent fire from heaven and fire comes out from heaven and it burns up the animal in the wood and evaporates the water and scorches the rock said and the people are very very impressed and I say the famous words which we have in our prayers of various places a sham who were looking a sham is God Jemma's God now in the middle of this process Elijah says to the people how long are you going to straddle the fence i'm messiah tempo sleep or stay Asifa which means jumping from one side to the other how are you gonna straddle the fence if you believe in a Shem then dedicate yourselves 100% to us yet and if you believe in vow dedicate yourselves 100% to Bob now the naive reader thinks hmm is that a kosher Jewish I should go for it of course our Jewish philosophy I understand that if he dedicate yourself to God it would be a hundred percent dedicated to God but you're gonna pledge allegiance to bow you should pledge allegiance 100 percent about what's the point of that Polly that is very simple Elijah saying to them what kind of people are you are you people of principle when you make a choice you did get yourself to it for that reservation you accept it you pledge allegiance to it or are you straddling the fence sometimes this is sometimes that when in Rome the road when it assets and you have no principles of your own the difference is this if you are people of principle then you believe in a share dedicate yourself to 100 percent you believe in power dedicate yourself to power 100 percent because in two hours you're gonna see the palace false I'm gonna prove it to you and then you'll be dedicated to a chef hundred percent so I don't mind what your initial orientation is because I'm going to prove the truth but if your people without a backbone there are two types of people vertebrates and jellyfish if you're a jellyfish if you have no backbone if you cram yourself into any shaped container because you have no shape of your own what difference will it make if I prove it today tomorrow also you'll shift back and forth between the two position and that's exactly what happened a largest demonstration did not end the power worship Baal worship went on for centuries so this is the difference between a dedicated person versus what I call a jellyfish now back to Rebekah she doesn't know she has twins she goes past the place of of her study she's pressure to come out she looks better place of idol worship for you pressures to come out she thinks it's one she thinks she's giving birth to a jellyfish that's why she's in despair because al ever amount to anything Jim says to her that's not the situation situation is twins and one is naturally oriented this way what is actually oriented that way and that satisfies her because she knows that even the one who is naturally oriented in a wrong direction it can be turned around and if it'll be turned around then he'll be 100% dedicated to the right direction that's the message of comfort in what she hears from Hashem just one second and I want to add to this something which many people misunderstand Esau was not created to be evil Esau was not created to be evil there was no predestination he could have done better indeed there are even sources that describe what would have happened there would have been four patriarchs and not three like they were for matriarch right and he would he would have a full-fledged Jew and his children we were part of the Jewish people so he wasn't pre-programmed to fail many sources talked about that in fact that there was a division of labor set up Jacob was supposed to bring holiness and purity into the world and Issa was supposed to chase impurity and evil out of the world this was a division of labor that's why he was created with an affinity to the evil in the world defendants of course that's his workplace that's his sphere of creativity's is your responsibility of course each site has its dangers each side has its as its challenges it's not a soft thing to do to bring holiness and impurity into the world the vashem Tov and the maggot of is rich on their deathbeds the last things they said was the quoted a verse which says don't cause me to fail with pride I'll be a reg'lar gather because they brought so much holiness and goodness and and and impurity into the world the last gasp of the Sutton would be aren't you great look what you accomplished you really did all that good and that would destroy the whole thing would destroy the whole thing so it's not a that simple thing to bring holiness and purity into the world it has is for it's it's temptations of failures also but that was supposed to be the division of labor Esau failed in his job the result of which was we had to take over his job and therefore the measure says that I that Jacob gets his place in the world to come and Esau's also meaning he had a place in the world to come reserved for him and he could have had it Jake we gots both and Esau gets Jacobs placing to him a place to get him if he would fail and his own as well he saw ends up getting double Jahannam and and Jacob end up getting double gotten double double share the world to come why because Jacob rose to and succeeded in his challenge and he so failed with his chance but it was not pre Kroger into ego that's why there's a comfort in this to Rebecca because she's told they have their initial orientations but both could be good growth could be could be successful that's to me that's a wonderful explanation of the story as I said it's long an explanation there could be other explanations as well but it certainly does explain the story when the term to bear grew fold to behold there were twins in her womb the first one emerged read entirely like a hairy mantle so they named him he saw now it's not exactly obvious what the word esau has to do with being red and covered with hair the word esau in hebrew is related to action the iron sin is the two main letters of the verb to do Iseult i see ya and as we'll see he's gonna be characterized in terms of his hands in terms of in terms of action and these characteristics are being read and hairy are associated you know other biblical texts like with King David others with people of action people whose focus is more performing changing the world impacting the world in a demonstrative way rather than let's say thinking and speaking and teaching I said an example which is a different type of accomplishment after that his brother emerged with his hands grasping on onto the heel of ISA they called his name yatta Yakko Yakko was from the word I cave which means he'll now let me just try this out on you 26 starts after that his brother emerged with his hand grasping onto the heel of Esau any words there that you think you could erase with no loss how about after that so turn cater behold the first one emerged it says in 25 the first one emerged and then suppose the last one said and his brother emerged or and another one emerged I'm of course would mean he's second caused it but otherwise describe this first what does it say after that whenever you have words like that it's telling you a reason is that just sequence it's telling you a reason Jacob is coming after him and then he's holding on to his heel how dramatic so there it's Jacob is somehow sort of trailing along behind and holding on and holding on to his heel but tickets the lowest part of the body right now as we will see it's a Shem over and over again the first section of Jacob's life everything he gets he gets by taking it away from somebody else everything that's his that belongs to him that's his by right he has to get by taking it away from somebody else that's his first position in life eventually he's going to get another name what's his other name Israel yes I'll write the word Israel the first part of it is SAR which means a prince to a prince things come without his running to get it to Prince it belongs this is what he graduates into but the first section of his life he's below he's behind he's following and he gets what he get now that's there's a reason why he has to do that Jacob has a kind of dual identity and not only Jacob but this identity that Jacob has his dual identity is implanted on the Jewish people throughout history sometimes we're on a level that's called Yaakov and sometimes were a level called you swirl the both names remain with him both names are used for the Jewish people throughout history and divides up the conditions that we are in the different periods of history so Jacob becomes the template for the entire future of the Jewish people and he starts out like this way that the circumstance of his birth perfect portray this in very dramatic fashion Isaac was sixty year olds when he when he went she boarded the lights grew up Esau became one who goes hunting man of the field your translator put in his partial notes here but in the Hebrew is no but Jacob was a wholesome man abiding intense here there's a bit a little bit of staying a biblical scholarship when you have parallel structure you're meant to associate the features in the elements in the structure and it's supposed to study them how they're related to one another to see whether their correspondence is obvious them it isn't obvious you have to work on it let's take a look you have two passages here with a tripartite structure each one has three elements first is a name you saw second is hunting activity and third is his locus a man of the field the second trio Jacob is a name Holcim is something about the kind of person he is an abiding intense this is locust is where he is environment so in both cases the first element is a name in both cases the last element is where he is Dennis the middle element that doesn't look so obviously parallel in Esau's case it's hunting which is an activity how he makes a living how he provides for himself and in Jacobs case it's moral quality wholesome tell me Tom now I just said that the middle qualities aren't directly parallel because in the case of Esau it's hunting in the case of Jacob it's a moral quality of being wholesome I'm not really describing to correctly am I look more carefully and do better than I did yeah what does it say about Esau he knows hunting there's a hunter does he went hunting that would be description of action no sudden things description of knowledge knowledge is internal is what you have what you are not what you do so now already the gap isn't so big and Jake it's still Jacobs of all quality and he saw it's not a moral quality but it's an inner knowledge now let's work on he sauce case and see if we can't push it more in the direction of a moral quality he knows hunting hmm what does it mean to know hunting if you're gonna hunt animals that includes Birds you know what quality must you have in order to hunt what patience that's what I take Alisa class think about that I don't know when there's no speech yesterday to me before you must have patience I wonder one day if there aren't ways of hunting they don't require I don't know that's an interesting thought what else must you have I'll just I won't disqualify what you're saying where else must you have what kind of cleverness in particular what kind of cleverness must you have taken ok track the animals but in tracking this part of the art of tracking is to make sure that's closer make sure the animal doesn't know you're tracking him right because if he knows you're tracking him you lost it he's gonna make a run for the hills right so you've got to be able to deceive gonna set a trap better not be an obvious trap better but look like regular terrain right if you're gonna go hunting birds hide in lumber and the bushes on the birds can't see you don't make sound they'll hear you right we're camouflage so they don't see you you've got to be able to deceive all successful hunting requires deception so when it says that check that Esau knows hunting that includes he has the ability to deceive now we're getting closer to a moral quality and it's the perilous structure that pushes you that way you have two names two environments and in the middle he has something which looks like unrelated no it's not unrelated it's not unrelated think more carefully about it you'll see that it is really and there's what colossi this is a quiet classical comment not just giving you the textual background for the comedy the most natural way to take the puzzle is that the became gosani saw and that should add lead you to ask so what was he before became one who knows hunting for that apparently he wasn't Jacob didn't become he just was and this I think is part of the background for a famous comment of a channel for Hirsch now he says the Edition that I saw in the Edition it says that it's a statement in the rabbinic literature I have not been able to find it but often enough there are manuscripts which get lost and some people have it some people don't because we don't have his manuscripts he says that Rebecca and Isaac failed I didn't change the night order for any purpose Isaac and Rebecca failed in the way they brought them up they treated them the same they treated them both as budding Torah scholars and they trained them in the elevated elements of the way of Torah living that was a terrible mistake II still needed a different treatment a different training a different inspiration different education he quotes the famous verse kind of law Peter Coe trained the child according to his own way his way not everyone gets the same way and that was part of the fish so they tried to train him in the way that Jacob was going it didn't take and he became involved in hunting because what they were giving him didn't take he criticizes them as making a mistake in the way in which they tried to bring them up at any rate that's that now the next verse is very short and very deep very difficult Isaac loved Esau for game was in his mouth and again your translator is expressing his reaction and Rebecca loved Jacob let's go piece by piece Isaac loved Esau for game was in his mouth in whose mouth taken who's he oh he says it's the game was in Isaac's mouth you interpreted Esau his mouth so let's try to figure it out I lost his son he loves his son because he has a flashing diet wow look at the amount of steak he's I love my son he's just a big steak eater you know that's that's throwing that he probably probably that's a stretch right here he's a hunter right he's a hunter he provides his father with fresh game and because he serves his father in that way his father loves him just one second nothing and then there's no I think there's no question that this is corrected and all this arts I know it's not a simple commentator who says the game is in E sauce now let's take it that the first part of the sentence says Isaac loved Esau because Esau feeds his father fresh game okay now it's moved in the second side Rebecca loved Jacob Beckham loved Jacob can you deduce infer anything about her feelings for Esau from that statement report the first and second statements in the verse are not parallel at all in the first it gives a reason the second test doesn't give a reason that's very important we're not a position yet to fully understand it but that's very important okay put that on the side but keep that to keep that in mind let's go back to my question my question is from words Rebecca loved Jacob can you conclude anything about her feelings for Esau her feelings for you so let me give you a parallel let's see if I can make this clear I'm telling you about two students in my class Peter and Paul Pierre does all the homework and his answers to questions are excellent and he expresses himself well in class in his original ideas and Paul always comes on time did I imply anything about Paul's status I think so about all that praise to say about Peter yeah well I could say about Paul's that he comes on time that sounds like um there's nothing else to say having said everyone I said about Peter here the text testifies she loves Jacob stop if she loved both of them or certainly she loved them equally then he should have said she loved Jacob and Esau maybe even Esau and Jacob after all the subject here is both of them they're both in the same sentence it isn't as if we're reading Jacobs biography and then we're talking about things that happened to Jacob it happened to me that his mother loved him then are you wouldn't be able to conclude anything at all but all the stories about both of them the very sentence we're talking about has esau in it to say she loved Jacob and leave esau it's gotta mean at least she doesn't love esau as much now let's go back to the first half now it's time for a trick question the first half says and you've already given the answer the the first half says that Isaac that Isaac loves Esau only Esau Jacob's left out shall we conclude that Isaac loves you so I'm not Jacob I'm telling you the second half which says the Rebecca loves Jacob excludes Esau what about the first half it's just Isaac loves loves Esau should that exclude Jacob so of course people here get nervous no no we can't say that but you kind of see that we got to play fair either using one name excludes the other one or it doesn't I'm gonna tell me in the second half it excludes Esau then the first day I mean smooth Jacob you can't you can't deny that the verse has to be treated in a parallel fashion and your preferences for Jacob and everything else we're doing shots I'm shot to put them on the Shelf have to follow the book and see where the book leads okay but now he's already given the answer to that what's the answer to what the question I'm asking it's Jacob excluded from the first Afrin I gotta be he's gotta because it says only Esau not Jacob is excluding him from the first half somehow demerit is this somehow critique doesn't make him less know cuz the first half talks about love for a certain purpose love for a certain reason this is love because he gets fresh game I call it lunch love my love for lunch the only one Isaac loves for lunch is Esau that's true Isaac does not love Jacob for lunch he definitely doesn't the first part of the sentence isn't describing a fatherly love for a son it's talking about Isaac's love for Esau because he feeds them fresh game that's exclusive that relationship Isaac has only diesel and not to Jacob but so what that's not a loss on Jacobs part he's not a hunter there's a freedom game in the first place it's not relevant to him whereas the second half where it says Rebekah love Jacob and as he pointed out there's no purpose play that's motherly love to the love of a parent for a child and she it said for Jacob but not for Esau that's that hits that means somehow she regarded he saw as inferior and not not worthy of the same kind of love this verse is extremely extremely deep that's gonna be very important setting up what's gonna happen in the next chapter not right away van I said you know that there's a rabbinic comment which is close to what you're saying because the base of biffy's which is translated here as in his mouth that particle that letter BAE's can be used for someone who's using something as a tool and they read it as Esau hunted his father with his mouth he used his mouth to hunt his father and what they say is he used to ask his father super firm questions gee dad I know we're supposed to take a tenth of our food then give it to people who represent God must I take a tenth of salt also it's all the food dad you know I know ice breaking I might a mistake so I sprinkle it on my steak so maybe it's also food clever whatever questions like that as a way of pretending to be very pious No and from that you already learned what preferences Isaac demonstrated in the house why would II so try to get his favor with that kind of question because you know the father likes that kind of question he knows what his father's oriented to his father cares about father cares about serving God see she pretends also to be serving God to get his father's favorite you can do it you can learn a lot from for things like that but that's I would say a secondary meaning here having known that he's a hunter so it means he was hunting any and he provided it comes out now as an orientation for the later you have to remember that Isaac has a certain connection to Esau we don't know anything about Isaac's feeling for Jacob positive or negative it's not mentioned here his certain connection has to do with hunting I hinted to you already is because he's serving his father for us honoring and serving your father is one of the biblical Commandments it's one of the Commandments in the Ten Commandments so it's not a small thing and that's going to be a big important a big element in how he how he relates it yeah and then that would mean that he was now there I think this is this measure I just mentioned to you here again one mustn't be simplistic about it does it mean that Isaac was fooled maybe not maybe not it it means that he looked at his son and he says my son is trying to make an impression on me he wants me to treat him well allow me to favor him right how's he doing it well he's pretending to be pious well at least he knows what I stand for he's not winning race car races and bringing the trophies home and say dad love me no he's asking about taking my sip from salt so already there's a recognition there so he could it could even work without his being deceived it's not obvious that he was deceived very very careful I have to learn this all the time over and over over again I'm a miser man often points out to me that I just made free association of free assumptions or free conclusions and with a little more critical thinking you could see that the conclusions where you go one step beyond what's written you have to be triply suspicious of yourself that you that you invented it [Music] [Applause]