Talmud reads Torah // Toldot

When Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” He answered, “Here I am.” And he said, “I am old now, and I do not know how soon I may die. Take your gear, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open and hunt me some game. Then prepare a dish for me such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my innermost blessing before I die.” Rebekah had been listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau had gone out into the open to hunt game to bring home, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I overheard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying, ‘Bring me some game and prepare a dish for me to eat, that I may bless you, with the LORD’s approval, before I die.’ Now, my son, listen carefully as I instruct you. Go to the flock and fetch me two choice kids, and I will make of them a dish for your father, such as he likes. Then take it to your father to eat, in order that he may bless you before he dies.” Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am smooth-skinned. If my father touches me, I shall appear to him as a trickster and bring upon myself a curse, not a blessing.” But his mother said to him, “Your curse, my son, be upon me! Just do as I say and go fetch them for me.” He went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared a dish such as his father liked. Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were there in the house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on; and she covered his hands and the hairless part of his neck with the skins of the kids. Then she put in the hands of her son Jacob the dish and the bread that she had prepared.

"Take your gear, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open and hunt me some game." R. Isaac the Smith said: "your gear" alludes to the Kingdom of Babylon as it is stated (in Dan. 1:2): "THEN THE LORD GAVE KING JEHOIAKIM OF JUDAH INTO HIS HAND, WITH SOME OF THE GEAR FROM THE HOUSE OF GOD." "Your quiver" alludes to [the kingdom of] Media. As it is stated (in Esth. 9:25): SO THEY (the Medes and the Persians) HANGED (talu) HIM (Haman) AND HIS SONS ON THE TREE. "And your bow" alludes to Greek Empire. as it is stated (in Zech. 9:13): "FOR I WILL BEND JUDAH TO ME; A BOW I WILL FILL WITH EPHRAIM; I WILL STIR UP YOUR CHILDREN, O ZION, AGAINST THE CHILDREN OF GREECE." "And go out to the field" alludes to Edom (a reference to the Roman Empire), as it is stated (in Gen. 32:4): "TO THE LAND OF SEIR, THE FIELD OF EDOM."

He called Esau his greater son (Gen. 27:1). Why did he call him his greater son? To teach us that one must flatter wicked men when they are in power. Isaac foresaw that Esau’s descendants would dominate the world, and therefore he called him his greater son. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: As long as Esau is now in control you must flatter him, for My kingdom is not yet firmly established, but in the future, when My kingdom is firmly established, I will call him to account, as is written: And saviours shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau." At that time: "and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s" (Obadia 21).

"Acquitting the evildoer and condemning the righteous—the Lord detests them both" (Proverbs 17:15). Rabbi Yehosua ben Levi said: it is not because Rebecca loved Jacob more than Esau that she did this, but rather she said 'let him (Esau) not go and mislead that old man (Isaac). "The Lord detests them both," and for acquitting the evildoer his eyes went dim.

Rabbi Elazar said: One who gazes at the likeness of an evil man, his eyes become dim, as it is stated: “And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim so that he could not see” (Genesis 27:1). This happened because he gazed at the wicked Esau.

Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai said: "In the early generations they would tell this midrash: what is the meaning of "the voice is the voice of Jacob?" it is the voice of the Emperor Hadrian who killed 800 million people in Beitar. Rabbi Yohanan said: it is the voice of Jacob screaming of what the hands of Esau did to him in Beitar.

(Gen. 27:4f:) AND MAKE ME DELICACIES…. NOW REBEKAH HAD BEEN LISTENING…. [THEN ESAU WENT TO THE FIELD]. Whenever he caught (deer) and bound them, the angel would set them free and drive them away. Again he caught them, but the angel set them free. Why did he do so? Simply to drag out the hours until Jacob would go, prepare (the meal), enter his father's chamber, eat, and receive the blessings. Ergo (in Gen. 27:5) "THEN ESAU WENT TO THE FIELD TO CATCH GAME TO BRING."

(Italy, 8th-9th century)

The night-fall of the festival day of Passover came, and Isaac called unto Esau his elder son, and said: O my son ! To-night the heavenly ones utter songs, on this night the treasuries of dew are opened; on this day the blessing of the dews (is bestowed). Make me savoury meat whilst I am still alive, and I will bless thee. The Holy Spirit rejoined, saying to him: "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties" (Prov. 23:6). He went to fetch it, and was delayed there. Rebecca said to Jacob his (other) son: On this night the treasuries of dew will be opened, and on this night the angels utter a song. Make savoury meat for thy father, that he may eat and whilst he still lives he may bless thee.

“Whose tongue is not given to evil”; this is our forefather Jacob, who did not want to mislead his father in order to receive his blessings, as it is written: “Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will be in his eyes like a fraud” (Genesis 27:12).

Even though you may say Jacob lied, he did not lie. Balaam said (in Numb. 23:21): NO ONE HAS BEHELD FALSEHOOD IN JACOB. [He said] merely (in Gen. 27:19-20): "I am Jacob; ESAU [IS] YOUR FIRST-BORN."

R. Yaakov Zvi Mecklenburg (Germany, 1785-1865)

All actions may be extremely ugly at one time and somewhat praiseworthy at another [...] This is the case of Rebecca and Jacob. Cheating is very ugly for any person, be it between husband and wife or between father and son. But in a different time it can be praiseworthy, for Isaac was captivated by Esau's sweettalk, and was unaware of all of his abominations, and he therefore wished to bestow on him all of his blessings. What were Rebecca and Jacob to do, knowing all of his abominations? [...] had they remained silent, they would be transgressing the prohibition of placing a stumbling block before the blind, since Isaac was as mistaken as a blind man on the road. Letting him fall into the trap would be wrong. And had they gone and informed Isaac of all of (Esau's) misdeeds they would have gravely transgressed the terrible sin of Lashon Harah (derogatory speech) [...] So, to save themselves from all these bad options they had no other choice but to take action which would seem like lying and deceit to those who don't properly understand the matter, but is utter truth to those who have examined the matter and understood its depth.

And Rabbi Elazar says: With regard to anyone who changes the truth in his speech, it is as though he worships idols. As, it is written here, in the verse where Jacob sought to resist taking his father’s blessing from Esau: “And I shall seem to him a deceiver [metate’a]” (Genesis 27:12), and it is written there with regard to idol worship: “They are vanity, the work of deception [ta'tuim]” (Jeremiah 10:15).

"The goat will carry on itself all their sins (Avonotam) to a remote place" (Leviticus 16:22), the sins of the mild man, as it is written "and Jacob was a mild man (Ish tam)" (Genesis 25:27). "If my father touches me, I shall appear to him as a trickster (meta'tea)” (Genesis 17:12), as a dead man (met) and a wanderer (to'eh) and an idol worshiper. [...] "But his mother said to him, 'Your curse, my son, be upon me!'" Rabbi Aba bar Kahana said: (Rebecca told Jacob:) When Adam sinned wasn't his mother cursed? As it is written: "Cursed be the ground because of you" (Genesis 3:17). Rabbi Yitzhak said: (Rebecca said:) 'I must go in and tell your father that Jacob is righteous and Esau is evil. "He went and got them and brought them to his mother," (Genesis 27:14) coerced, slouched and crying.

[...] Esau came into his father's chamber, he (Isaac) said to him: "who are you who speaks to me in a loud voice?" He answered him: "I am your eldest son Esau" (Genesis 27:35). As soon as he heard his voice, he knew it was Esau, and told him: "My son, your brother came with deception and took your blessing." At that moment, Esau began to wail and say: "look what this mild man (tam) did to me. Is it not enough that he mocked me for selling him my birthright, now he takes my blessing?" From here you learn that Esau respected his elders. Rabbi Yudan said: when Israel came to wage war with him, God showed Moses the mountain on which the fathers were buried. He said to him: "Moses, tell the Children of Israel that you may not fight him. He is still owed the reward deserved to him for respecting those buried on this mountain. How do we know this? From the verse where it reads: "You have been skirting this hill long enough (Deuteronomy 2:3)."