Hineini: Just as God called to Abraham, here Isaac calls to Esav, whose response is also “hineini,” which is the same as Abraham’s response to God’s call. Esav is now undergoing an ordeal, like all those who respond Hineini before their trial: Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Isaiah.
My oh my: One feature of Akeidat Yitzchak is the repeated use of relational nouns (my son, my father, etc.) Throughout this narrative, as well we will see similar terms (my son, his mother, etc.) again and again. As with the Binding of Isaac, rhese nouns remind us of what is at stake here, of the intense relationships in the room, and overall create a feeling of pathos. This web of relationships is going to be ruined and transformed.
Please: We also see the use of the term “na,” which means “please.” It appears in the command of God to Abraham at the begiOther similar phrase: focusing on “my son,” the term “na,” meaning please also occurs in the opening of the binding of Isaac.
The Mission: Isaac’s request to Esav has similarities to God’s request to Abraham in the Akeidah, a series of aspects of the request leading up to a culmination. Here it is taking the bow, going out, hunting, making a dish and bringing it to Isaac, a kind of animal sacrifice. In the Akeidah, it is take your son (your only, that you love, Isaac), go to a place, and offer hint here as an Olah/Burnt offering, which also could end in a sacrifice, depending on how one understand the mission there.
The Blessing: Just as the binding of Isaac concludes with the blessing of land and seed (the Abrahamic blessing), so this call to Esav, the first born, will also end in blessings. Which ones? We are being led to think it is the Blessing of Abraham being given to Esav. But we are being misdirected.
(א) וַיְהִ֗י אַחַר֙ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְהָ֣אֱלֹקִ֔ים נִסָּ֖ה אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֔יו אַבְרָהָ֖ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר הִנֵּֽנִי׃ (ב) וַיֹּ֡אמֶר קַח־נָ֠א אֶת־בִּנְךָ֨ אֶת־יְחִֽידְךָ֤ אֲשֶׁר־אָהַ֙בְתָּ֙ אֶת־יִצְחָ֔ק וְלֶ֨ךְ־לְךָ֔ אֶל־אֶ֖רֶץ הַמֹּרִיָּ֑ה וְהַעֲלֵ֤הוּ שָׁם֙ לְעֹלָ֔ה עַ֚ל אַחַ֣ד הֶֽהָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֖ר אֹמַ֥ר אֵלֶֽיךָ׃
Recurring phrases: relational nouns na/please, kach/take, listening to a voice (sh’ma b’koli), which occurs at the end of the Binding of Isaac (Abraham listening to God’s voice) and when Ishmael and Hagar are sent away as well (Abraham listening to Sarah’s voice, which God agrees with).
This also begins with Rebecca listening in on Isaac and Esav’s conversation. She is an active agent in this narrative along with Isaac, involving the second son in the details of the plan. Contrastingly, in the Binding of Isaac, we never hear about Sarah, where she is, what she overhears if anything.
Like Sarah, Isaac has no idea what Rebecca has heard or what she is about to do, even though Isaac plays a more active and present role than Sarah did.
Just as Abraham and Sarah do not communicate in Vayera, Isaac and Rebecca also fail to communicate, both of which lead to a serious loss. In Vayera, the rabbis assume that the news of the Akeidah kills Sarah (various ways in which that happens), Abraham and Isaac also never speak again after the Binding of Isaac. In this narrative, once Jacob leaves home, Jacob will never speak to Isaac or Rebecca again; we never see Jacob and Isaac reunite except for Isaac’s burial. We do see Jacob and Esav together, but it is a tepid reunion at best.
Rebecca and Jacob’s conversation is reminiscent of Isaac and Abraham walking up the mountain together, with this one being a little more detailed. In each one, the son is a little more in on the plan of the parent, but still confused. The child asks the parent to clarify what is going on (Where is the ram?), and at the end, the child and parent are in on the plan together, at least to some extent (God will see to the ram, my son). Aviva Zornberg, in Genesis: The Beginning of Desire, notes that after Abraham and Isaac speak through this confusing moment, they “walk together,” portraying Abraham certainly as willing and Isaac as, on some level, passively going along [maybe willing?]. In contrast, after Rebecca and Jacob go through their confusing moment, Jacob, on some level, goes along as a deceiver [maybe willing?]. In both cases, we see Isaac and Jacob’s central traits, as one who is passive and one who deceives, illustrated.
Zornberg also points out that how a biblical figure uses their voice also illustrated their core identity. Isaac, who rarely speaks, is overall a passive figure. Jacob, who speaks considerably more, is a deceptive figure. Another parallel that supports these core identities is the role of the animal that killed in each narratives. The ram is the passive replacement for Isaac as a sacrifice, while the goats serve as tools of deception for Jacob, providing both the meat for Isaac to eat and the hairy skins for him to wear.
Another deep parallel between Isaac and Jacob, as well as other comes from a motif or type scene that occurs in other places, called the Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son, where the beloved son is humiliated and then exalted. In the Binding of Isaac, Isaac is nearly killed by his father, at God’s ambiguous command, while here both sons go through something humiliating. Jacob fears that he will be found out that he is impersonating Esav, which is humiliating (based on the word metatte’a), and Esav is denied the blessing of the first born (and possible the Blessing of Abraham). Jacob and Esav will each though receive a blessing from their father (Jacob gets two, double portion for the “first born), and each will eventually find their way to increasing the size of their family, both in the end becoming nations.
This is when Isaac receives Birkat Avraham; from God, not from Abraham.
Ambiguity: Abraham, according to Ibn Ezra and other commentators, hears God’s command, but it is ambiguous and ultimately misunderstood. “Offer up him up; don’t kill him! I did not ask for that!” Here Rebecca, during her difficult pregnancy, asks God what is going on in her womb. God says: “the older will serve the younger.” Despite the word order, the three-word phrase is ambiguous. Hebrew has a flexible word order because the definite object can be marked with the word et. But there is direct object marker here, which would have clarified which son will serve the other. It could be read the way it is translated here, but it could just as well be translated in the reverse: the younger will serve the older. Both Abraham and Rebecca are acting on ambiguous information from God, and in the end, for many readers, get it wrong, but it’s ok in the end. The blessing is still passed on, even though mistakes may have made along the way.
This section contains a general parallel between Abraham and Rebecca, and a specific parallel between this moment and Abraham preparing Issac and the altar in the Binding of Isaac. In general, Abraham is a person of action, who does and does and does. Verses about him illustrate him as a person of action, with string of actions verbs: with the three stranger guests; with the debate over Sodom and Gomorrah; with buying the burial plot for Sarah; with the Binding of Isaac. Here, Rebecca once again shows that she is also a person of action (like Abraham), like she did at the well with the camels, which also contains a slew of action verbs. Here, she is like Abraham preparing Isaac; just as Abraham prepared the altar and tied up Isaac in ropes, Rebecca puts makes the meal and puts Jacob in Esav’s garments. Both Isaac and Jacob are put there by the parents to carry out God’s will - to die as a sacrifice (jeopardizing the line of Abraham), or to receive a blessing through deception (strategically continuing the line of Abraham. Each of these, as mentioned before puts the sons in humiliating situations.
Once again, parent and child in a moment of confusion. Isaac is missing something. Before with Abraham on the mountain, it was his uncertainty about what to do with the ram, and now Isaac is uncertain that this is Esav and not Jacob. Before, it was Abraham who reassured Isaac to keep going up the mountain, and now it is the son Jacob, who will reassure Isaac to keep going, despite his instincts telling him otherwise. In both instances, Isaac has good gut instincts, but is told to ignore them, or is convinced that they are in his mind, and to keep going, to be part of a plan that he is never fully privy to in advance.
Isaac also here says Hineini / Here I am. A sign that he is also undergoing a trial of sorts. Or perhaps this is a reliving of his past trial/trauma? Again, he is unwittingly part of an unfolding plan to make reality align with God’s will. Typical of Isaac, he never has his own trial. His trial is first bound up with that of Abraham, and now bound up with the trial of his twin sons.
With the Binding of Isaac, it is the knife that would have either determined if Abraham (and Isaac) succeed in the trial or not: the knife cuts or it does not cut. Here, in the Binding of Jacob and Esav, where a blessing given determines the success of the trial, Isaac plays that role: Isaac either blesses or does not bless. Here, Isaac plays a parallel to the Abraham’s knife, Rebecca’s source of blessing, like the knife a tool, a means to and end. Note that the verse in the Binding of Isaac has one verse dedicated solely to the knife in the air, Isaac also gets a lot of ink-time as he decides to give the blessing or not. [This is also about how the Binding of Isaac is such a sparse narrative, while this one has so much more details, in particular, emotional details.
We see again relational nouns, na/please over and over again.
This is certainly dragging out the dramatic moment. We thought this was decided and done, but one more prolonged moment of uncertainty, ending with the sense of smell giving Isaac that last bit of reassurance that this is Esav. Isaac is now blinded by deception. They flood all of his senses, exploiting the fact that sight is not one of them. If he was willing in the Akeidah, I do not think he is willing this time. If these are parallel situations, I do not think Isaac was willing up on the mountain either, despite the many ancient and rabbinic reading that this is the case. Jacob is now the willing son (though would he have done this without Rebecca’s insistence?), with Esav and Isaac fooled and pushed aside for the larger plan.
Wait? What?!! This is not what we thought was going to happen. Are we not supposed to hear Isaac give Jacob as Esav the Abrahamic blessing? Not here. This is just a first born blessing. Not the big one.
Hang on. But was Rebecca wrong? I am not sure. This blessing creates the reality that Rebecca assumes was given by Oracle from God she heard years ago. This son will rule over the other one. There is no language of age or birth order here in this blessing. Rebecca putting Jacob in this situation makes the Oracle the way she understood it. If she had not done this, Esav would have received this blessing, and the Oracle would have also been correct, because it was ambiguous. But does giving Jacob this blessing mean that now Isaac has to give him the Blessing of Abraham? Or was Jacob going to get that blessing regardless of this deceptive situation? We don’t know.
Up on the mountain, was Abraham right? Depends on how one understand the ambiguity of God’s command. If he had killed Isaac, he would have done what God said. If he did not kill Isaac, he would have done what God said. If he is stopped in the middle, it works as well. He was willing, but did not do it in the end. No matter what Abraham does on the mountain, Isaac would have received the Abrahamic blessing, but not in this moment. Here it is just reaffirmed for Abraham. Isaac receives it from God later on, not from Abraham. After all, they never speak again. This trail shatters the family.
The Akeidah is so sparse. After the test is done, Abraham just walks back to the two young men, and Isaac is absent. Here we have an elaborate, emotionally charged scene with Esav and Isaac where the deception is now fully understood and the trauma and humiliation inflicted is now deeply felt, by both of them. The shaking, the rage, the tears, the yelling, the heartbreak.
Isaac’s blessing is like the cut of the knife. Cut is cut. Uncut is uncut. Blessed is blessed. Actions done mean something. Isaac does give Esav a blessing, but one that is inferior in deed. It subjugates him to Jacob, but not for ever.
As far as we know, the only people in this family who will speak again to each other are Jacob and Esav twenty years later. This is the moment the family shatters in this generation.
This scene is parallel to Abraham’s solitary walk down the mountain. Where is Isaac now? Why is Abraham alone? Those details are left to the midrashic and rabbinic imagination. Here, we have details.
Esav is murderouly enraged, and is planning Jacob’s eventual murder once Isaac dies. [Esav does love him after all, and would not want his father to suffer, something that Jacob’s sons will not understand.] Rebecca introduced the plan to let Esav cool down and save Jacob’s life, and get Jacob some wives and children. She is worried that if Jacob does not leave town, she will lose both sons. But that is odd. Even if Esav killed Jacob, would she still not have one son?
But she does lose them both in one day. Esav is emotionally lost to Rebecca, and she knows that her planning and deception have humiliated him beyond repair of the relationship. If Esav kills Jacob, she will have no sons. But Rebecca feigns that the reason for Jacob to leave home is just to go back and marry from her family, not from local Canaanites, something that he will not have any choice but to accept with his many sons.
Jacob does flees home, and will only return after she has died. Her burial is also not mentioned at all. Rebecca has done what she needed to do, as best she understood, and knew that this would cost her Esav’s relationship (perhaps already strained), and now it costs her Jacob as well, not mortally, but his absence makes him as good as dead. She never summons him home again, for some reason. Esav’s rage makes his death at his twin brother’s hands all too plausible.
Here is the ultimate resolution. Our main concern here is continuity: Birkat Avraham. Isaac gives it to Jacob personally. He was never going to give it to Esav. Or was he? Have we been deceived? Does Isaac only do this because Jacob has the first born blessing, or was it always meant for him? Was Isaac never truly blind to Esav and Jacob’s differences? Rebecca has effected a power shift between her two sons, but did she fundamentally change who was to be Abraham’s inheritor?
But like the Akeidah, we end with this blessing. The promise of becoming a people in its own land. Getting there is messy. Filled with an ambiguity, loss, pain, heartache, jealousy, struggle, strained and broken relationships,