TOL'DOT--Seeing Clearly

In the past, whenever I read parsha Toldot, I believed it was Rebekah’s preference for Jacob that motivated her deceit of Isaac so he would give his innermost blessing to their younger son. But upon closer study, perhaps something else was motivating Rebekah. I believe she understood with more clarity than even Isaac himself how G-d’s covenant with Abraham was supposed to be passed on and she wanted to save Isaac from making a terrible mistake.

Think back to how Rebekah was chosen to marry Isaac. Abraham was so insistent that Isaac not marry a daughter of the local Canaanites that he sent his servant to the faraway land of his birth to find a suitable wife from among his relatives. This command from Abraham was so important, that once Rebekah was chosen to be Isaac’s wife, she could not delay even a day to return to Abraham and his tribe to wed Isaac. It was pretty clear that Abraham’s insistence on marrying within the tribe was the only way he could guarantee that the divine promise of posterity would be fulfilled.

Fast forward two generations, and now Rebekah’s twin boys have grown into men. Her oldest, Esau, “has no regard for the sacred institution of the first born” (Etz Hayim - Torah and Commentary) since he had given away his birthright over a steaming bowl of stew. In addition, he has married two Hittite women who become a “source of bitterness” to Isaac and Rebekah. How could Esau have such disregard for his grandfather’s primary requirement to carry on his covenant: Marry within the tribe!

The marriage of Esau to these Hittite women is so offensive to Rebekah, she claims, “I am disgusted with my life because of these Hittite women” (Gen 27:46). Rebekah is obviously deeply upset with Esau’s union with the local women. Now imagine if Esau received Isaac’s blessing...the blessing passed on from Abraham. Esau has already set the precedent that inter-marriage is not only ok, but that it is also desirable. In this early, fragile stage in Judaism, Esau is already “watering down” the faith… and we’re only two generations away from Abraham entering his covenant with G-d! Rebekah could see the slippery slope we were headed down. So she looks to Jacob, a “mild man who stays in camp” (Gen. 25:27) with his tribe, to be the one to carry on the covenant.

Rebekah hears that Isaac’s blessing of Esau is imminent. Desperate times call for desperate measures! So Rebekah proceeds to deceive her blind husband with three of his last four senses that he has remaining: Touch, Taste and Smell. Rebekah covers Jacob’s bare arms with the skins of the kids that were slaughtered to make them feel hairy like Esau’s arms. She cooks the meal Isaac has requested to his exact specifications as Esau would have done. And finally, she dresses Jacob in Esau’s best clothing so they smell of the pastures where Esau would roam rather than the reek of a flock tended by Jacob.Rebekah and Jacob are successful in their deception and Jacob receives the coveted blessing.

I believe Rebekah saved Isaac from making a terrible mistake in blessing Esau. Rebekah knew Esau was unfit to carry on the covenant. He couldn’t even follow his grandfather’s precedent for what made an acceptable marriage (at that time) to preserve their fragile new religion in it's earliest stages.

So why couldn’t Isaac see how unfit Esau was to receive the blessing? I would like to share a wonderful midrash that is referenced in “Etz Hayim - Torah and Commentary”. The midrash “recalls Isaac lying on his back on the altar at the time of the Akedah (Abraham’s binding of Isaac for sacrifice), glimpsing the light of heaven when the angel appears to spare his life, and suggests that Isaac was never able to see events on earth clearly after that (Gen. R. 65:10). Having been afforded a glimpse of heaven, Isaac was naively blind to lying and deceit on earth. He could no more recognize the transparent lies of Jacob than he could recognize the unworthiness of Esau”.