Nature of the Beast – Toldot
וַיִּתְרֹצֲצוּ הַבָּנִים בְּקִרְבָּהּ וַתֹּאמֶר אִם כֵּן לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי וַתֵּלֶךְ לִדְרֹשׁ אֶת ה' (בראשית כה, כב).
In this week’s parsha we learn about the birth of Yitzchak’s two sons Yaakov and Eisav. Perhaps no parsha in the Torah is as difficult to understand as Toldot. There are so many questions that beg answering and, as opposed to many other parshas, where the pshat of the psukkim gives us a good idea what is going on, in Toldot the pshat just confuses us further.
After many years of being barren, Rivka finally conceives. It is a confusing pregnancy. Chazal in the Midrash say that every time Rivka walked past a Beit Midrash the baby would kick and every time she walked past a place of avodah zarah the baby would also kick. What kind of a baby was this, a schizophrenic? Rivka goes לדרוש את ה', according to the Mefarshim, she went to Shem to ask what was going on. If this was a birth issue, why go to Shem, why not to an experienced midwife? Her husband Yitzchak is a navi, her father in law Avraham is a navi, why not ask them? Shem asks HKB”H and relays the answer to Rivka - it is not one child, but twins. Two sons who will sow the seeds of two distinct nations, one a nation of tzaddikim and the other a nation of reshaim.
We know the famous Midrash that before birth, while still in the womb, the baby is being taught Torah by an angel. Chazal teach us that until the baby is born, the child has no yetzer harah. So you have two children in your womb, learning Torah from an angel, devoid of yetzer harah, but already one is drawn to Torah and the other to avodah zarah, and they haven’t been born yet? This contradicts everything Chazal tell us!
In the previous generation Avraham gave birth to two boys, one a tzaddik (Yitzchak) and one a rasha (Yishmael) - but this was from two different wives, one a tzaddikah and one not. Here we have both spouses tzaddikim, Yitzchak and Rivka. How is it possible that such a union could give rise to a son like Eisav?
Chazal say that until age 13 the boys were indistinguishable, they were both studying in Yeshiva. Only after bar mitzvah did their distinct personalities emerge. If they were already polarized in the womb, why did nobody notice anything different about them until they were 13?
There is a debate in the Mefarshim whether Yitzchak knew Eisav was a rasha or not, but from the pshat of the psukkim it is clear that he did know. When he sends Eisav to hunt and bring him מטעמים so he may bless him, Yitzchak goes into great detail how he must hunt and shecht the animal so that it meets the standards of kashrut. If he thought that Eisav was such a talmid chacham (as some of the Mefarshim indicate – that Eisav would trick Yitzchak with seemingly advanced halachic questions, into thinking that he was a ben Torah), then why did he need to teach him how to slaughter an animal the right way? Later when Yaakov enters the tent and Yitzchak asks him, thinking it is Eisav, “How come you returned so quickly?” he answers that Hashem helped speed things up. Yitzchak is so taken aback by this reply, supposedly from Eisav, because Eisav never used Hashem’s name ever! So he did know who Eisav was. If so, why does it say that Yitzchak loved Eisav and Rivka loved Yaakov? How could Yitzchak love a rasha? He knew that Yaakov was his spiritual heir, so why did he waste time with Eisav and not, either cast him out (like Avraham did with Yishmael), or concentrate his attentions on Yaakov?
Chazal say that the whole story of the brachot took place on Pesach. They learn this from numerous hints in the psukim, for example Rivka sent Yaakov in with two goats. Yitzchak, an old man, can eat two whole goats? Chazal say that one was a Korban Pesach and the other a Korban Chagigah. Bread (matzot) and wine are also mentioned in the psukim. Why was it necessary to give the bracha to Eisav davka on Pesach? It was the bracha intended for Eisav, not Yaakov. What is the connection between Eisav’s bracha and Pesach?
I will attempt to answer these questions using a principle from my sefer Meir Panim. It is a chilling chiddush, but at the same time, an indispensable life lesson.
To understand what is going on here we need to return to Gan Eden, to Adam and Chava.
In my shiur on parshat Breishit I describe how the נחש, the ס"מ, managed to get a foothold and trip Chava up. It all began with the fact that Adam Harishon was tardy in performing the mitzvah of פרו ורבו. This gave the נחש an opening and he eventually caused Chava to sin, to prepare a chametz bread and subsequently feed it to Adam.
This is the modus operandi of the yetzer harah, preying on people who are lax in performing HKB”H’s mitzvot. If someone is running around 24/7, diligently doing mitzvot and abiding by the Torah, the yetzer harah has a tough time tripping such a person up.
From the perushim regarding the conception of Yaakov and Eisav, it is clear that Eisav is the “baddie”, the one the yetzer harah is strong in and that Yaakov is the “goodie”, who does not make it easy for the yetzer harah to get a foothold. The yetzer harah doesn’t appear out of thin air, out of nowhere. Something must have facilitated the yetzer harah’s existence in Rivka’s womb. Chazal speak about סיגים in Avraham, contaminants from his childhood and parentage, that had to be eliminated (via Yishmael), to ensure his pure bloodline. The question is where did the element of the yetzer harah come from in this birth? From Yitzchak or Rivka?
The “intuitive” answer is that it came from Rivka. Rivka was born to Betuel, a rasha and had a brother Lavan, a rasha, so surely the negative influence must have come from her side of the family? Yitzchak on the other hand was the child of two tzaddikim, an עולה תמימה in the akeida. How could anything negative have possibly come from him?
I am going to show that the “intuitive” answer is not the correct one and that the influence of the yetzer harah in Rivka’s pregnancy davka came from Yitzchak.
In parshat Mishpatim we learn –
וְכִי יִנָּצוּ אֲנָשִׁים וְנָגְפוּ אִשָּׁה הָרָה וְיָצְאוּ יְלָדֶיהָ וְלֹא יִהְיֶה אָסוֹן עָנוֹשׁ יֵעָנֵשׁ כַּאֲשֶׁר יָשִׁית עָלָיו בַּעַל הָאִשָּׁה וְנָתַן בִּפְלִלִים (שמות כא, כב).
If two men are fighting and they injure a pregnant woman and she miscarriages, but the woman does not die, reparations must be paid to the husband of the woman.
One would think that the person who most suffers from this is the woman. She is the one who is smacked, she is the one who miscarries, she is the one who has become emotionally attached to the fetus she is carrying.
So you can say that halachically the woman is in fact the “property” of the husband, so any fiscal remuneration should be paid to him. But that is not the reason given. The reason given is that the woman is merely the “medium” for the birth. The fetus is given to her as a kind of a פיקדון to bring into this world, but the “causative factor” in the birth is the husband. He is the one who is חייב to perform the mitzvah of פרו ורבו, not the woman, for her it is רשות. Therefore the fact that the fetus dies, denies him performing this mitzvah and thus he must be compensated.
Ignore for a moment the seeming “chauvinistic” innuendos attached to the above case, what I want to derive from it is that halachically the “causative factor” in the conception is the husband, not the wife.
The case of Rivka is eerily reminiscent of the above. You have two men fighting (Yaakov and Eisav) in Rikva’s womb. Chazal say that Rivka was supposed to give birth to twelve children – the 12 tribes, but that Eisav, when he was born, caused irreparable harm to her womb and she could not bear further children. But if you are looking for a “causative factor”, the source of the presence of the yetzer harah in this conception, it is the husband – Yitzchak, not Rivka!
So how can this be? How can Yitzchak have introduced the yetzer harah into this conception?
In last week’s parsha we read –
וְאַבְרָהָם זָקֵן בָּא בַּיָּמִים וַה' בֵּרַךְ אֶת אַבְרָהָם בַּכֹּל (בראשית כד, א).
Chazal explain what בכל means – שהשליטו ביצרו. After successfully passing all 10 נסיונות and overcoming his yetzer harah on his own, HKB”H blessed Avraham by giving him total control over his yetzer harah. The yetzer harah no longer had any power over Avraham.
Later, after listing the descendants of Yishmael it says –
וַיִּתֵּן אַבְרָהָם אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר לוֹ לְיִצְחָק (בראשית כה, ה).
that Avraham gave כָּל אֲשֶׁר לו to Yitzchak. So Yitzchak, after the Akeida also achieved full control over his yetzer harah.
But what about before the Akeida?
In last week’s shiur on Chayei Sarah we discussed that until the Akeida, at which time Yitzchak was 37 years old, Yitzchak belonged to the עלמא דנוקבא, that he had a female neshama, a gilgul of the neshama of Chava. For 37 years Yitzchak was unable to perform the mitzvah of פרו ורבו, until he was “reborn” on the mizbeach בעלמא דכורא, with a male neshama. Only then did Avraham seek a wife for Yitzchak.
Forget the excuses and justifications - he was unable, Rivka had not yet been born, etc. The bottom line is that in the first 37 years of his life, Yitzchak did not fulfill the mitzvah of פרו ורבו. Yitzchak, a gilgul of Chava, had סיגים in him, just like Avraham before him.
Yes, Yitzchak was transformed on the mizbeach. He now had a male neshama, he now had full control over his yetzer harah, but the סיגים of the yetzer harah were already in place from the events prior to that! Yitzchak, the husband, the “causative factor” in the conception of Yaakov and Eisav in Rivka’s womb, was the party responsible for this negative element in the womb.
Chazal were correct, a person does not acquire a yetzer harah until he/she is born. However, everyone is born with certain genetic tendencies. Both Yaakov and Eisav were born free of the yetzer harah, but Eisav had stronger tendencies to succumb to the yetzer harah than Yaakov. Eisav was not already evil in Rivka’s womb, but she felt the presence of these tendencies by Ruach Hakodesh already before the birth. This was not a gynecological issue, asking a midwife would not have helped. Rivka mistakenly thought that she was the cause of this negative influence and therefore felt ashamed asking Yitzchak or Avraham, both nevi’im and instead approached an unconnected, third party, Shem.
When Yaakov and Eisav were born, they BOTH had the potential to become tzaddikim, Eisav just had a handicap from birth and had to work harder at it than Yaakov.
The fundamental premise of free choice is that everyone has a choice. Some just find it easier to make the right choice than others, who have to work harder at it and overcome their birth tendencies. Birth tendencies do NOT dictate the outcome of a person.
Eisav had free choice. He was raised in the same house of tzaddikim, he studied in the same Yeshiva as Yaakov, until they were 13. For Yaakov, it was like a fish takes to water. For Eisav it was like a trout swimming upstream. The Yeshiva beckoned to Yaakov, the field beckoned to Eisav.
Avraham was the attribute of chessed. Yitzchak was the attribute of gvurah, דין. Yaakov was the attribute of tiferet (a combination of Yitzchak’s gvurah and Avraham’s chessed). Eisav was like Yitzchak - gvurah. Eisav had the strength to overcome his yetzer harah, but he did not try hard enough.
This is the way the yetzer harah works. If you succumb to it, you feel guilt. Conscience is a gift from HKB”H, it is part of the צלם א-לוקים we humans were created with - it is a defense mechanism against the yetzer harah. If you do something wrong, you feel guilt and that guilt should spur you on to do tshuva and improve, thereby erasing the guilt. There is another way to erase the guilt, without doing tshuva – by convincing yourself that what you are doing is not wrong. Guilt is like a red light - you can pay attention to it or rationalize it. If you purposely rationalize it enough times, eventually there is no red light, no guilt.
That is what a rasha is – someone who purposely ignores or rationalizes the red light. “Yes, abba Yitzchak likes us to get up early to go to shul, but sleeping late makes me feel good. I spent such a long time doing kibbud av yesterday, I deserve to sleep late this morning!” You become lax in performing Hashem’s mitzvot and you give the yetzer harah a foothold. Eisav is synonymous with red lights – אדום, האדום האדום הזה, he rationalized them and removed the guilt associated with the red lights, making them “kosher”.
By the time they were 13, Eisav had already managed to douse the red light by purposely ignoring and rationalizing it. True, he had a genetic tendency from birth to go in that direction, but he could have overcome it if he had wanted and tried harder. Instead he chose the path of least resistance.
Eisav is compared to a חזיר. A pig has only one of the simanim of kashrut – a cloven hoof, but it does not chew the cud. Eisav was an expert in showing his cloven hoof. To the outside world he was a big tzaddik, but inside he became rotten. Chazal say that Eisav excelled at kibbud av and it is true. In the physical aspects of kibbud av, Eisav excelled, he spoke respectfully to his father, he hunted and brought him dainties to eat, he would physically help him around the house. However he despised what his father stood for spiritually. Outwardly he seemed like such a tzaddik, but in his heart he despised the bechorah. What kind of kibbud av is that? Like a pig showing its cloven foot to the outside world.
Rivka could discern the signs early on. She had grown up with people like that – her father, her brother. She could see where Eisav was headed and she rejected him, as she had rejected the house of her birth. Yitzchak also saw who Eisav really was, but he had something Rivka didn’t. Yitzchak had guilt, because it was from him that this tendency existed in Eisav. Eisav was gvurah like Yitzchak, but instead of using the gvurah to overcome his yetzer harah, he used it for evil purposes.
Just like Avraham loved his wayward son Yishmael and was appalled at the prospect of casting him from his house, Yitzchak loved Eisav, out of guilt and mistakenly thought that if he showered more love on Eisav it would turn him. Yitzchak could no more cast Eisav out than Avraham could Yishmael (were he not commanded to by Sarah and then HKB”H). As in the case of the remuneration to the husband for the lost fetus above, “payment” was made to Yitzchak, he became blind.
It is pure speculation to think what might have happened if Rivka had showered more love on Eisav and Yitzchak would have treated him with a heavier hand, using his middah of דין. Would Eisav have turned out differently? Developmental psychologists would have a field day with such musings, but the truth is, nobody knows!
There is another layer to this story and it relates to the principle I explained in last year’s shiur on Vayeira. Why did Avraham spend so much time and energy protecting and helping Lot? To ensure the lineage of Mashiach! Eisav turned into a rasha, however he spent 9 months in the same womb as the tzaddik Yaakov. The very proximity between the two caused something to rub off on Eisav. Yitzchak saw with Ruach Hakodesh that from Eisav/Edom there would emerge a number of converts who would be key players in the history of Am Yisrael – the navi Ovadiah, Rebi Akiva, Shmaya and Avtalyon, etc. By tolerating Eisav, Yitzchak ensured that these treasures would eventually emerge centuries later.
Perhaps nobody understands the yetzer harah better than a baker. No, it is not because bakers have a stronger yetzer harah than anyone else, it is because we constantly deal with dough! Chazal compare the yetzer harah to chametz. The yetzer harah behaves in the human body the same way chametz behaves in dough. Just like when someone is lax in performing Hashem’s mitzvot the yetzer harah gets a foothold in the person, similarly when dough is lax and left inactive, the chametz gets a foothold in the dough. There is one time a year when a baker does not allow his dough to become lax or inactive – Pesach. Matza is to bread what a tzaddik is to a person. Just like with matzot, that there is constant, diligent activity and attention, not allowing chametz to develop in the dough, so a tzaddik is constantly and diligently “crowding out” the yetzer harah with his/her constant performing of Hashem’s mitzvot.
Yitzchak was born on Pesach! The calculation is simple. The angels came to tell Sarah that she would give birth שוב אשוב אליך כעת חיה, exactly one year from now! The angels came to Avraham on Pesach (לושי ועשי עגת) and Yitzchak was born one year later.
Eisav’s problem was controlling his yetzer harah, a handicap introduced into his genetic makeup by Yitzchak. Yitzchak wanted to bless him specifically on his birthday, on Pesach, because Pesach epitomizes control over the yetzer harah, as reflected by matza. Yitzchak wanted to teach Eisav a lesson and set him on the path of righteousness. The blessing on Pesach was intended for Eisav, not Yaakov, Yaakov already knew how to control his yetzer harah.
So why did Rivka work so hard to affect a switch? Unlike Yitzchak, an עולה תמימה, Rivka grew up with family members who were experts in showing the world their cloven hoof. She recognized Eisav for who he really was. Unlike Yitzchak, Rivka was not shackled by guilt, wanting to make things right for Eisav. She knew that despite Yitzchak’s efforts, Eisav would remain a rasha, but if he received the blessing Yitzchak intended to bless him with, Yaakov would forever be subjugated to Eisav the rasha.
As it turned out, the equation of subjugation became fluid and not carved in stone. As long as Yaakov is diligent in controlling his yetzer harah, he subjugates Eisav. If Yaakov becomes lax and lets the yetzer harah control him, then Eisav subjugates Yaakov. That is the way it is to this very day.
The late HaRav Jonathan Sacks zt”l theorized that the central theme in the inception of Am Yisrael, since Adam Harishon, was sibling rivalry - Kayin and Hevel, Shem and Cham, Yishmael and Yitzchak, Eisav and Yaakov, etc. It is true that the physical manifestation of our historical conflict appeared as sibling rivalry, but at its core, it harbored something far simpler - the desire to control the yetzer harah or the lack thereof.
This is what sets Am Yisrael apart from the other nations - a constant desire to control our yetzer harah, as opposed to a constant desire to submit to and rationalize the yetzer harah. As long as we abide by the Torah and strive to control our yetzer harah, the nations of the world will be subjugated by us. When we don’t, we will be subjugated by the nations of the world. It has little to do with nature or nurture, it has everything to do with choice.
The conflict in this world, עולם הזה, at its core, is not between good and evil, it is the struggle of every human being to control their yetzer harah. Good and evil are just reflections of victory and defeat in this struggle.
