A Worthy Custodian of Wealth – Toldot
The parsha begins with the birth of Yaakov and Eisav. Yitzchak’s wife Rivka gives birth to twins. The first out of the womb is a boy covered in red hair, his face has a beard and his mouth has a full set of teeth! “They” call him Eisav from the word עשוי meaning “fully formed”. Next is his brother, whose hand is clasped around Eisav’s ankle, apparently trying to prevent him from coming out. He (Hashem) calls him Yaakov, from the word עקב, meaning “heel”.
Until age 13 the two brothers are indistinguishable in personality. They both study Torah with their father and in the beit midrash of Shem and Ever. After they turn barmitzvah however, their individual characters begin to emerge. Eisav is an איש ציד, a hunter and a man of the great outdoors, while Yaakov is an איש תם, יושב אהלים, a mama’s boy, who sits in the tent and learns. Yitzchak loves Eisav כי ציד בפיו. According to Chazal ציד means to ensnare – he would ensnare Yitzchak with his mouth by pretending to be a big tzaddik. For example, Eisav saw that Yitzchak was very into ma’asrot, so he would ask him “Abba, how much does one separate ma’asrot from salt?” Yitzchak would think – “Wow, he obviously knows all the halachot about regular ma’asrot, he’s asking me advanced questions, beyond the regular halacha, he must be a big talmid chacham!” Rivka, who grew up in a home of scoundrels, saw straight through Eisav and instead loved Yaakov.
One day, two years later when the boys were 15, Eisav comes in from the field exhausted and he sees Yaakov cooking a pot of red lentils. “What is this?” he thinks, “Has Yaakov suddenly started taking up cooking?” Yaakov informs him that their grandfather Avraham has passed away and he is cooking the seudat havra’a. Eisav very “politely” asks Yaakov הלעיתני נא “please” feed me from these red red lentils. Why is Eisav so polite to Yaakov? Eisav is never polite, not even to his father Yitzchak. Later after Yaakov has “stolen” the bracha, Eisav returns and tells Yitzchak his father “Get up and eat”, there is no politeness, no “נא” anywhere in sight!
Yaakov’s response to Eisav - “Sell me your bechora!” - your birthright. Eisav, a rasha, thinks to himself “What do I need the bechora for? I’m going to die anyway, what good can it do me? Take it, it’s yours!” Yaakov makes Eisav swear, which he does and in return Yaakov gives Eisav bread and lentils to eat.
Bread? Who asked for bread? Eisav asked for the lentils, why did Yaakov give him both the lentils and bread? Was there some kind of special offer that week - “buy a plate of lentils, get a FREE challah”? This Torah closes this episode telling us that Eisav despised the bechora.
We now skip forward 48 years in time.
Yitzchak is getting old and his eyesight isn’t what it used to be, so he tells his elder son Eisav “I’m getting old, I don’t know when my time is up. I want you to take your hunting gear, your bow and arrow and go out in the field and hunt something for me. Take it and make me a dish of tasty food, the kind I love and give it to me to eat so I may bless you before I die”.
The Torah says that Yitzchak’s sight was not so good, but what about his mind? Was he so far gone that he didn’t know who Eisav was? that he wants to give him the bracha in preference to Yaakov? Remember, this is Yitzchak Avinu we are talking about!
Rivka overhears this conversation and as soon as Eisav leaves, she quickly calls her son Yaakov and repeats what she heard. She commands Yaakov to “go take” two goats and give them to her so that she can prepare the dish that Yitzchak likes, so that Yaakov, “pretending” to be Eisav, will give Yitzchak the food and Yitzchak will bless him instead of Eisav.
Yaakov isn’t too keen about this scheme.”אולי ימשני אבי, OK Yitzchak doesn’t see so well, but what if he touches me? he will discover that I am Yaakov and not Eisav, because Eisav is hairy and I’m not, then instead of blessing me he will curse me!”
Yaakov is worried about Yitzchak touching him? He is about to launch into a major deception and that’s what he is worried about, being caught out? And what happens if he is not caught out, would that be OK? We know the punishment for גניבה is much worse than for גזל. A גזלן is more violent, he goes out in broad daylight, armed to the teeth, not caring who sees him. A גנב is much more subtle, he sneaks around in the dark, steering clear of people. So why is the punishment for a גנב worse? Because he is worried about what people will say, he doesn’t care what Hashem will say! Yaakov is worried about Yitzchak touching him? What about Hashem? What about lying and deceiving? Each of the Avot had a special attribute - Yaakov’s was אמת, truth. Where is תתן אמת ליעקב here?
Rivka is immutable and Yaakov has no choice but to obey her. Rivka prepares Yitzchak’s favorite dish. She then dresses her “small” son Yaakov (he is 63) in Eisav’s clothes that were in the house and puts the two goatskins on Yaakov’s arms and his neck. She then gives Yaakov Yitzchak’s favorite dish and bread she has made and sends him into Yitzchak. This is the second time in the parsha when bread was offered but not asked for. Eisav asked for lentils but he got bread and lentils. Yitzchak asked for מטעמים, his favorite dish, but he got bread and his favorite dish. What is the story with the bread here? Is bread compulsory? Like, “whoever doesn’t have bread – doesn’t get any dessert”?
Yaakov then reluctantly enters Yitzchak’s tent dressed in this “Purim” costume. Yitzchak says to him “who are you my son?” Yaakov responds אנכי שעו בכרך עשיתי כאשר דברת אלי, קום נא שבה ואכלה מצידי בעבור תברכני נפשך. Yaakov uses the word "נא" Please get up! That immediately arouses Yitzchak’s suspicion, Eisav never said “please”! “How come you returned so quickly?” asks Yitzchak. “Because Hashem aided me in my hunt”, Yaakov replies. If Yitzchak never heard Eisav saying “please”, he certainly never heard him use Hashem’s name! He is suspicious that something is not right, but he cannot see, so he says “Come here so that I may feel you and make sure I have the right son here!” Yaakov approaches and Yitzchak feels him and says “The voice is the voice of Yaakov but the hands are the hands of Eisav”. Yitzchak again asks Yaakov “Are you my son Eisav?” and Yaakov replies “אני”. Yitzchak says, “OK, let me eat so I may bless you!” Yaakov gives his father the food and also gives him wine (Yitzchak never asked for wine either). Then Yitzchak says “גשה נא ושקה לי בני” come here so I may “kiss” you. Later when the real Eisav returns and Yitzchak has to concoct some compensatory bracha, there is no kissing Eisav. Even, after that when Yitzchak gives Yaakov a blessing before he leaves for Lavan, he doesn’t kiss Yaakov. So what’s with the kissing here?
Yitzchak then blesses Yaakov, “thinking” he is Eisav - a purely material blessing - oil, grain, wine, sovereignty etc. Eisav then returns with his food and enters Yitzchak’s tent. Yitzchak is terribly afraid ויחרד יצחק חרדה גדולה עד מאד. We know the rest of the story – the blessing has already been given, so no bracha for Eisav! Eisav hates Yaakov and plots to kill him when Yitzchak dies.
This perplexing story has many unanswered questions that beg further investigation.
We will begin with a Gemara in Bava Batra (25b). הרוצה להחכים ידרים ושיעשיר יצפין - whoever wants to get smart will go south and whoever wants to get rich will go north. No, it doesn’t mean that there are more talmidei chachamim in Eilat and more tycoons in Metullah! The Gemara is referring to two of the Keilim in the Heichal, the Menorah and the Shulchan Lechem Hapanim. The Menorah was located on the southern end of the Heichal and the Shulchan on the northern end.
The Menorah is a symbol of spiritual blessing. It is a veritable “pipeline” through which the holy Torah is disseminated throughout the world, through the lights of the Menorah.
The Shulchan Lechem Hapanim is a material blessing. It too is a “pipeline” through which HKB”H’s שפע עליון, blessing of abundance is distributed throughout the world. When the Mishkan and the Batei Mikdash stood, not only was Am Yisrael blessed with unimaginable prosperity, so was the entire world - because of Am Yisrael. This is why the kings from all over the world had to visit the Beit HaMikdash on Sukkot, to thank Hashem for the bounty they enjoyed, because of Am Yisrael.
After this introduction, let us examine our story a little more deeply.
Eisav was a hunter, but he had a problem! Every time he tried to hunt, out popped Nimrod, a kind of the hunting “superhero” and put a spanner in the works for Eisav. “Sorry you can’t hunt here, this is my territory!” Eisav was no pushover, but he never managed to overcome Nimrod. Eisav, decided to ask his “brainiac” brother Yaakov for advice. Yaakov told him that Nimrod’s strength eminated from a special fur coat that he wore. This coat, was not made from some animal skin, but was made by Hashem Himself for Adam Harishon, after the sin of the eitz hada’at. Chazal say that this coat represented bigdei kehunah, since the verse that mentions it – ויעש ה' א-לוקים לאדם ולאשתו כתנת עור וילבשם – has 8 words, corresponding to the 8 bigdei kehunah of the kohen gadol.
When Adam Harishon died, he passed this coat on to his son Shet. Shet passed it onto Metushelach, who passed it onto Noah. Noach intended to pass it onto Shem who inherited the kehuna, but Cham stole it and gave it down to his son Caanan and that is how Nimrod got hold of it. Shem (or Malkitzedek) was a –כהן לא-ל עליון but he forfeited the right to the kehuna when he met Avraham after his battle with the 5 kings and blessed Avraham before blessing Hashem. Avraham then acquired the kehuna, so by all rights the coat belonged to him.
Armed with this knowledge Eisav challenged Nimrod to a duel, Sumo wrestler style (sans the coat). Without his secret weapon, Nimrod was no match for Eisav and Eisav killed him. Eisav thought – “Grandpa Avraham was supposed to inherit this coat from Shem, now I have it, I will give it to him!” He returned home exhausted after killing Nimrod only to discover that Avraham had died that same day. The Midrash says that HKB”H had mercy on Avraham and he died before he could see the kilkul of his grandson and thus could die בשיבה טובה as Hashem promised him.
So Eisav says to Yaakov הלעיתני נא. He wasn’t saying “please” נא, but rather was saying the rashei teivot נ"א. Nun for Nimrod and Aleph for Avraham. In other words, “I’m holding here the bidgei kehuna that were meant for Avraham. Since Avraham is now dead, they will be coming to me as the bechor!” (before the kehuna was transferred to Aharon and his descendants, it was the bechorim who used to do the avoda). Yaakov, the talmid chacham knew that Eisav had forfeited the kehuna, because he had killed a man (Nimrod). If a kohen kills someone they cannot do avoda. So he tried to dissuade Eisav from pursuing that path. He explained to Eisav that in order to be a kohen, first you had to …. serve Hashem, which Eisav was not interested in. It was also fraught with hazards, if you got drunk, if you were not meticulous in the korbanot - it was curtains for you! Eisav, who thought that the coat was some kind of “secret weapon” or talisman, when he now understood that in order for it to work, he had to change who he was and become everything he despised, callously discarded it and renounced the bechora to Yaakov. The coat then ended up being stored in Yitzchak and Rivka’s home.
Now we get to the part with the blessings.
Yitzchak may have been blind in his eyes, but he was not “blind” mentally. Not only was he of full mind, he was Yitzchak Avinu! with nevuah and ruach hakodesh. He knew exactly who his two sons were. Eisav may have tried to pull the wool over his eyes, but you cannot pull a fast one on Yitzchak Avinu!
Yitzchak all along intended to give two brachot, one to Eisav and another to Yaakov, two completely different brachot.
Yitzchak Avinu understood that the ikar is the ruchniyut of olam haba, not the gashmiyut of olam hazeh. Right from the get go he intended to give Yaakov the blessing of ruchniyut as indeed he did at the end of the parsha. He does NOT want to give Yaakov the blessing of gashmiyut, because not only is it not the ikar, it is a stumbling block to the ruchniyut. So he decides to give it to Eisav, like his father gave Yishmael and the “other side of the family” matanot for olam hazeh, but the olam haba goes to Yaakov, it was always meant to.
Yitzchak is not worried about Yaakov managing materially in this world. HKB”H takes care of His own and He will take care of Yaakov, like He did with Avraham and like He did with Yitzchak himself. Yaakov doesn’t need a special bracha for material wealth, he will get it anyway.
But Rivka knew something that Yitzchak didn’t know. She knew what it meant to grow up in the home of resha’im. When resha’im get their hands on wealth and power, what do they use it for? for themselves and to destroy the rest of the world! Rivka was not worried about her son Yaakov and his descendants being taken care of materially, that was included as part of Yitzchak’s blessing always intended for Yaakov (at the end of the parsha). What Rivka was worried about, was not Yaakov, but - THE REST OF THE WORLD! If the rest of the world is to survive, you cannot bequeath the blessing of wealth to evil people. Only if you place it in the custodianship of Am Yisrael, will the rest of the world prosper – because of Am Yisrael.
So she devises a scheme to show Yitzchak that his intention with Eisav is wrong and that the blessing of gashmiyut cannot be given to Eisav as he will use it to destroy the world and not to sustain it.
Yitzchak’s two blessing the spiritual one and the material one are essentially the blessings of the Menorah and the Lechem Hapanim in the Beit Hamikdash.
The Lechem Hapanim was a blessing of gashmiyut, material wealth in olam hazeh, but the Lechem Hapanim, material wealth, was nothing on its own. It needed a Shulchan so that it could be distributed throughout the world and sustain the world. Eisav could never be a Shulchan, because he was a hunter. A hunter never sits down and eats at a table. He is always on the move, looking over his shoulder for tigers jumping out of the bush, or snakes by his feet! That is where the term צידה לדרך comes from, from the word ציד, always eaten baderech, never at a shulchan.
Our story of Yitzchak’s blessing occurred on Pesach. On Pesach the Heavenly “stores” תרעין פתיחין are opened and there is extra special material abundance. Yitzchak wanted to give the blessing for gashmiyut specifically at this special time. From Yitzchak we learn that where material blessings are involved, you need a physical something for the blessing to rest upon. That is why he told Eisav to make him מטעמים. This principle was continued later with the Lechem Hapanim on the Shulchan. In order for HKB”H’s blessing to take hold, it needed the physical Lechem Hapanim to be on the table TAMID! This is also why when we say birkat hamazon we return the bread to the table, so that the bracha will have something physical on which to rest – it cannot rest on an empty table.
Rivka tells Yaakov, bring me two goats – one for Korban Pesach and the other for Korban Chagiga. That is why Yaakov says to his father “stand up and sit down and eat” קום נא שבה. Make up your mind … stand up, or sit down? The Korban Pesach was eaten standing up מתניכם חגרים נעליכם ברגליכם, all ready to leave Egypt. The Korban Chagiga is eaten sitting down! Rivka dresses Yaakov in the coat of Adam Harishon – Yaakov is now the Kohen!
Rivka wants Yitzchak to realize that Eisav is not the right custodian for the blessing. He is not a Shulchan for the Lechem Hapanim.
Is Yaakov worried his “father” will touch him אולי ימשני אבי. Where do we have another use of this word? לא ימושו מפיך ומפי זרעך (ישעיהו נט, כא), in reference to the Torah. Yaakov is not worried that Yitzchak will ימוש, he is worried that Hashem will! Yaakov is worried that perhaps Hashem will look at his descendants and wonder if he is indeed worthy of being a custodian for this material blessing! Yaakov has reason to be worried והייתי בעיניו כמתעתע – the word תתע Chazal say means avoda zarah (see Hagar in my shiur on Chayei Sarah). Yaakov’s descendants repeatedly worshipped avoda zarah (think of the eigel hazahav etc.) Yaakov is worried that Hashem will not find him a worthy custodian of this bracha! Instead of getting a bracha he may be cursed instead, as it happened before with Adam Harishon – ארורה האדמה בעבורך.
Rivka’s response is עלי קללתך בני. According to the Zohar Hakadosh Rivka was a gilgul of Chava. Chava’s sin was caused by the deceit of the nachash and it caused the destruction of the world. The only way to be metaken that - is using another deceit, middah kenneged middah against the nachash. Rivka continues שמע בקולי - ולך קח לי. We have a similar phrase in the Torahויקחו לי. Rivka’s answer to Yaakov’s concerns is: אתה – קח לי, בניך – ויקחו לי. You (Yaakov) take the two goats, your descendants (Am Yisrael) ויקחו לי תרומה to make a Beit Hamikdash! In the Beit Hamikdash, bizchut zeh that you took the two goats, there will be another two goats – שעיר לה' ושעיר לעזאזל. Yes, unfortunately Am Yisrael will sin, but the two goats will atone for their sins.
Rivka gives Yaakov BREAD and מטעמים. Yitzchak didn’t ask for bread. Firstly it was Pesach and the bread were matzot for Pesach, but there was a deeper message here that only Yitzchak would understand, which we shall soon see.
Yaakov enters Yitzchak’s tent.and says אבי! Later when Eisav enters the tent he says יקום אבי. Straight away Yitzchak notices the respectful greeting of Yaakov vs. the brusque greeting of Eisav. Yitzchak immediately knows that is Yaakov! Yitzchak asks Yaakov מי אתה בני, not “who are you”, but – “what is your status” that you are here claiming the bracha of gashmiyut?
Yaakov is incapable of lying, there is not a single lie that leaves his lips. He says אנכי שעו בכרך I have replaced Eisav as your bechor! I have always done what you bid me (unlike Eisav). Rise to eat the Korban Pesach and then sit to eat the Korban Chagiga! Yitzchak asks מה זה “What is this that you have recently discovered?” (that Rivka has revealed to you). Yaakov answers כי הקרה ה' א-לקך לפני” Hashem has commanded me לפני - that the Blessing of Wealth’s worthy custodian is he whose descendants will build the Beit Hamikdash and place Lechem on the Shulchan לפני תמיד! Yitzchak has now understood what Rivka is trying to do, but he wants to verify Yaakov’s status as the bechor, so he asks Yaakov to approach so he may touch him. Yaakov approaches Yitzchak and touches him. He feels the begged of Adam Harishon - Yaakov is now the Kohen, wearing the bidgei kehuna!. Yitzchak “feels” him, he uses Ruach Hakodesh to look ahead into the future to see what will be with Am Yisrael and he doesn’t like what he sees. He says הקול קול יעקב והידים ידי עשו - you speak with the voice of Yaakov, but your actions are the actions of Eisav -Yitzchak sees the sin of the eigel hazahav. He doesn’t recognize Yaakov, this is not Yaakov making an eigel hazahav, these are the actions of an Eisav, not a Yaakov! Then Yitzchak see the two שעירות the שעיר לה' and the שעיר לעזאזל he sees that Am Yisrael will do teshuva and be mitkaper on Yom Kippur with the two goats. Yitzchak has now realized that it is Yaakov who is truly the worthy custodian of the Blessing of Wealth. He instructs Yaakov to bring him the food so he may bless him in the presence of the food, so that the material blessing will have a tangible object to rest on. Yaakov gives him the food prepared by Rivka, including the bread, the matzot, and the wine (4 cups for the seder). Yitzchak has now fully realized that this is a Shulchan as it should be, and that Eisav can never be that Shulchan. Yitzchak says to Yaakov גשה נא “Yaakov you are now the נא (Nimrod-Avraham), the kehuna has rightly been passed to you. Yitzchak continues ושקה לי , he admits his error to Rivka.
It was about Rivka that the Torah said ותרד כדה על ידה ותשקהו. It was Rivka who showed chessed to Eliezer, just as she was now showing chessed to Yitzchak so that he not make a monumental error with Eisav - that he should instead bestow the Blessing of Wealth, a bracha of chessed on the kli of chessed in the Beit Hamikdash associated with Avraham Avinu - the Shulchan Lechem Hapanim. Just like when Hashem told Avraham to listen to Sarah regarding Hagar, Yitzchak realizes that this is all Rivka’s doing and that he must listen to her. It’s not about kissing at all!
Yitzchak smells the scent of Gan Eden – the begged of Adam Harishon is finally back with whom it rightfully belongs (Yitzchak knows what Gan Eden smells like because he experienced it during the Akeida). Yitzchak now knowingly blesses Yaakov with the Blessing of Wealth – ויתן לך הא-לוקים וכו'
Then Eisav returns and Yitzchak is afraid ויחרד יצחק חרדה גדולה עד מאד. He experiences the intensity of the hatred of Eisav toward Yaakov firsthand and he prophetically sees the consequences of that hared, destruction of the 2nd Beit Hamikdash and the long galut Edom. When Avraham saw galut Mitzrayim, it was אימה חשכה גדולה נפלת עליו, with Yitzchak it is גדולה עד מאד because the galut in Egypt was only 210 years, galut Edom has already been 1949 years (and counting).
The deceit here was not directed against Yitzchak, it was directed against Eisav! HKB”H wanted to be metaken chet Adam Harishon, so he sent Eisav out on an “errand” to get him out of the way to give Rivka a chance to be metaken the sin of Chava with the eitz hada’at and to punish the nachash middah kenegged middah – just as the nachash deceived Chava, HKB”H deceived the nachash’s messenger in this world - Eisav!
Oh yes – remember when Eisav asked Yaakov for lentils and Yaakov gave him BREAD and lentils? Yaakov was giving Eisav a subtle hint. Lentils is a food of mourning, associated with death. For you Eisav, the blessing of bread and wealth is DEAD! It has been taken from you and given to me, its rightful and worthy custodian.
Shabbat Shalom
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Showbread Institute
www.showbreadinstitute.com
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