{"id":187250,"date":"2022-11-22T15:24:26","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T20:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/?p=187250"},"modified":"2022-11-22T15:24:26","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T20:24:26","slug":"brotherly-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/brotherly-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Brotherly Love"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rabbi Alan Iser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Rabbi Alan Iser<\/p>\n

Parshat Toledot<\/p>\n

At the heart of this week\u2019s Torah portion is the story of the troubled relationship between the twins, Esau and Jacob.<\/p>\n

Jacob takes advantage of a ravenous Esau to induce his brother to sell his firstborn 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.<\/p>\n

What do the rabbis of the Talmud make of this tale of sibling rivalry and deception? They see Jacob and Rebecca as fulfilling God\u2019s will that Jacob, although the younger brother, is the son destined and worthy to inherit the Abrahamic spiritual legacy.<\/p>\n

In the rabbinic view, Jacob is a guileless, bookish yeshivah bachur, while Esau is a deceptive, violent person who is guilty of murder, theft, rape and idolatry. Rebecca is justified 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 following the divine plan.<\/p>\n

While the rabbinic take on Rebecca\u2019s role is grounded in the plain meaning of the text, one might ask why she doesn\u2019t 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-historical significance.<\/p>\n

Were the rabbis comfortable with deception in the service of God\u2019s design for history? Not totally, it would seem from some midrashic comments. Isaac, they opine, suffers greatly once he realizes the subterfuge. His trembling at this realization, says the midrash, was greater than his trembling when he was bound on the altar as a sacrifice by Abraham.<\/p>\n

The chief medieval book of Jewish mysticism, the Zohar, sees Jacob\u2019s trembling from his own sons\u2019 actions with Joseph as Jacob\u2019s comeuppance. Furthermore, there is retribution for Esau\u2019s suffering when he learns his blessing has been stolen as he bursts into a great, bitter cry. According to the midrash, God reacts to Esau\u2019s crying measure for measure, causing the Jews to cry out in the Book of Esther when they learn of Haman\u2019s plot.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 equitable 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.<\/p>\n

And does the Torah hint at Jacob\u2019s remorse for his stealing the blessing? When Jacob encounters Esau again after many years and offers him a lavish gift, the word he uses as he urged Esau to accept a gift (Genesis 33:11) is \u201cbirkhati\u201d my blessing, an unusual locution.<\/p>\n

Is it possible that the story of Jacob and Esau operates on two levels \u2014 the divine plan with God\u2019s 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\u2019s design for history and its execution simply inscrutable to human understanding?<\/p>\n

Rabbi Alan Iser is a senior adjunct professor of theology and religious studies at Saint Joseph\u2019s University and an adjunct instructor at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. The Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse perspectives on Torah commentary for the Jewish Exponent. The opinions expressed in this column are the author\u2019s own and do not reflect the view of the Board of Rabbis.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the heart of this week\u2019s Torah portion is the story of the troubled relationship between the twins, Esau and Jacob.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13119,"featured_media":162799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,39],"tags":[],"section":[14014],"coauthors":[3545],"yoast_head":"\nBrotherly Love - Jewish Exponent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/brotherly-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brotherly Love - Jewish Exponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At the heart of this week\u2019s Torah portion is the story of the troubled relationship between the twins, Esau and Jacob.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/brotherly-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Exponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jewishexponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-22T20:24:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Iser.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"- -\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jewishexponent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@jewishexponent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"- -\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/brotherly-love\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/brotherly-love\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"- -\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2b4dcb6e7c4cff9f4475dac4c089f655\"},\"headline\":\"Brotherly Love\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-22T20:24:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-22T20:24:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/brotherly-love\/\"},\"wordCount\":711,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/brotherly-love\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Iser.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Judaism\",\"Torah Portion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/brotherly-love\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/brotherly-love\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/brotherly-love\/\",\"name\":\"Brotherly Love - 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