d’var torah
Brotherly Love
By Rabbi Alan Iser
A Parshat Toledot
t the heart of this week’s Torah
portion is the story of the trou-
bled relationship between the
twins, Esau and Jacob.

Jacob takes advantage of a ravenous
Esau to induce his brother to sell his
fi rstborn birthright for a pot of stew.

Later, Jacob, at the urging of his mother,
Rebecca, deceives his nearly blind father,
Isaac. Dressed up like Esau, Jacob steals
the blessing, intended for his older
brother. What do the rabbis of the Talmud
make of this tale of sibling rivalry and
deception? Th ey see Jacob and Rebecca as
fulfi lling God’s will that Jacob, although
the younger brother, is the son destined
and worthy to inherit the Abrahamic
spiritual legacy.

In the rabbinic view, Jacob is a guile-
less, bookish yeshivah bachur, while Esau
is a deceptive, violent person who is
guilty of murder, theft , rape and idolatry.

Rebecca is justifi ed in her plot to steal
the blessing because she had received
a prophecy while the twins were in her
womb that the older brother would be
subservient to the younger; she is follow-
ing the divine plan.

While the rabbinic take on Rebecca’s
role is grounded in the plain meaning of
the text, one might ask why she doesn’t
inform her husband of his prophecy.

However, the rabbinic depiction of Esau
and Jacob is based on their reading into
this story of the future rivalry between
the Roman Empire and the Jews, with
Esau being deemed the ancestor of
Rome (and in medieval commentaries,
the ancestor of Christianity). So for the
Talmudic sages, the story has meta-his-
torical signifi cance.

Were the rabbis comfortable with
deception in the service of God’s design
for history? Not totally, it would seem
from some midrashic comments. Isaac,
they opine, suff ers greatly once he real-
izes the subterfuge. His trembling at this
realization, says the midrash, was greater
than his trembling when he was bound
on the altar as a sacrifi ce by Abraham.

Th e chief medieval book of Jewish mys-
ticism, the Zohar, sees Jacob’s trembling
from his own sons’ actions with Joseph
as Jacob’s comeuppance. Furthermore,
there is retribution for Esau’s suff ering
when he learns his blessing has been
stolen as he bursts into a great, bitter cry.

According to the midrash, God reacts
to Esau’s crying measure for measure,
causing the Jews to cry out in the Book of
Esther when they learn of Haman’s plot.

A straightforward reading of the Torah
without the rabbinic lens reveals Esau to
be not such a bad character. He is a rash,
immature macho man who, in the end,
reconciles with and forgives Jacob.

Jacob is not a blameless individual, as
his very name might mean overreacher
or usurper. As for Jacob, is the Torah
passing a verdict on his actions? We see
that he himself is repeatedly deceived
by Laban in giving him Leah as a wife
instead of Rachel, and withholding equi-
table payment for serving as a shepherd.

Jacob, in turn, is deceived by his own
sons when they sell Joseph into slavery
but insist that Joseph has been killed.

And does the Torah hint at Jacob’s
remorse for his stealing the blessing?
When Jacob encounters Esau again aft er
many years and off ers him a lavish gift ,
the word he uses as he urged Esau to
accept a gift (Genesis 33:11) is “birkhati”
my blessing, an unusual locution.

Is it possible that the story of Jacob
and Esau operates on two levels — the
divine plan with God’s choice of Jacob
over Esau and the human level of deceit
and moral consequences? Do the ends
justify the means, so Jacob comes out on
top, or is God’s design for history and its
execution simply inscrutable to human
understanding? JE
Rabbi Alan Iser is a senior adjunct
professor of theology and religious stud-
ies at Saint Joseph’s University and
an adjunct instructor at St. Charles
Borromeo Seminary. Th e Board of
Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia is proud
to provide diverse perspectives on Torah
commentary for the Jewish Exponent.

Th e opinions expressed in this column
are the author’s own and do not refl ect
the view of
the Board of
Rabbis. Jewish Exponent
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