Toledot - in Classical Rabbinic Interpretation - Genesis Chapter 27

Genesis Chapter 27

Rabbi Hama bar Hanina taught that our ancestors were never without a scholars’ council. Abraham was an elder and a member of the scholars’ council, as Genesis 24:1 says, “And Abraham was an elder (זָקֵן, zaken) well stricken in age.” Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, was an elder and a member of the scholars’ council, as Genesis 24:2 says, “And Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all he had,” which Rabbi Eleazar explained to mean that he ruled over — and thus knew and had control of — the Torah of his master. Isaac was an elder and a member of the scholars’ council, as Genesis 27:1 says: “And it came to pass when Isaac was an elder (זָקֵן, zaken).” Jacob was an elder and a member of the scholars’ council, as Genesis 48:10 says, “Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age (זֹּקֶן, zoken).” In Egypt they had the scholars’ council, as Exodus 3:16 says, “Go and gather the elders of Israel together.” And in the Wilderness, they had the scholars’ council, as in Numbers 11:16, God directed Moses to “Gather . . . 70 men of the elders of Israel.”

Rabbi Eleazar taught that Isaac’s blindness, reported in Genesis 27:1, was caused by his looking at the wicked Esau. But Rabbi Isaac taught that Abimelech’s curse of Sarah caused her son Isaac’s blindness. Rabbi Isaac read the words, “it is for you a covering (kesut) of the eyes,” in Genesis 20:16 not as kesut, “covering,” but as kesiyat, “blinding.” Rabbi Isaac concluded that one should not consider a small matter the curse of even an ordinary person. Alternatively, a Midrash interpreted the words “his eyes were dim from seeing” in Genesis 27:1 to teach that Isaac’s eyesight dimmed as a result of his near sacrifice in Genesis 22, for when Abraham bound Isaac, the ministering angels wept, as Isaiah 33:7 says, “Behold, their valiant ones cry without, the angels of peace weep bitterly,” and tears dropped from the angels’ eyes into Isaac’s, leaving their mark and causing Isaac’s eyes to dim when he became old.

Rabbi Eleazar taught that deceptive speech is like idolatry. Rabbi Eleazar deduced the similarity from the common use of the word “deceiver” to describe Jacob’s deception his father in Genesis 27:12, where Jacob says, “I shall seem to him as a deceiver,” and to describe idols in Jeremiah 10:15, where idols are described as “the work of deceivers.”

But the Gemara cited Jacob as the exemplar of one who, in the words of Psalm 15:3, “has no slander on his tongue,” as Jacob’s protest to Rebekah in Genesis 27:12, “I shall seem to him as a deceiver,” demonstrated that Jacob did not take readily to deception.

Rabbi Johanan taught that when Jacob explained his rapid success in obtaining the meat by saying in Genesis 27:20 that it was “because the Lord your God sent me good speed,” he was like a raven bringing fire to his nest, courting disaster. For when Jacob said “the Lord your God sent me good speed,” Isaac thought to himself that he knew that Esau did not customarily mention the name of God, and if the person before him did so, he must not have been Esau but Jacob. Consequently, Isaac told him in Genesis 27:21, “Come near, I pray, that I may feel you, my son.”

Reading Isaac’s observation in Genesis 27:27, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed,” Rav Judah the son of Rav Samuel bar Shilat said in the name of Rav that Jacob smelled like an apple orchard.

Rabbi Judah ben Pazi interpreted Isaac’s blessing of Jacob with dew in Genesis 27:28 merely to pass along to his son what God had deeded to his father Abraham for all time. And Rabbi Ishmael deduced from Isaac’s curse of those who cursed Jacob and blessing of those who blessed Jacob in Genesis 27:29 that Jews need not respond to those who curse or bless them, for the Torah has already decreed the response.

Rabbi Judan said that Jacob declared that Isaac blessed him with five blessings, and God correspondingly appeared five times to Jacob and blessed him (Genesis 28:13–15, 31:3, 31:11–13, 35:1, and 35:9–12). And thus, in Genesis 46:1, Jacob “offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac,” and not to the God of Abraham and Isaac. Rabbi Judan also said that Jacob wanted to thank God for permitting Jacob to see the fulfillment of those blessings. And the blessing that was fulfilled was that of Genesis 27:29, “Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you,” which was fulfilled with regard to Joseph. (And thus Jacob mentioned Isaac then on going down to witness Joseph's greatness.)

The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer saw in Isaac’s two blessings of Jacob in Genesis 27:28–29 and 28:1–4 an application of the teaching of Ecclesiastes 7:8, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning.” The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer noted that the first blessings with which Isaac blessed Jacob in Genesis 27:28–29 concerned dew and grain — material blessings. The final blessings in Genesis 28:1–4 concerned the foundation of the world, and were without interruption either in this world or in the world to come, for Genesis 28:3 says, “And God Almighty bless you.” And Isaac further added the blessing of Abraham, as Genesis 28:4 says, “And may He give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you.” Therefore the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer concluded that the end of the thing — Isaac’s final blessing of Jacob — was better than the beginning thereof.

Interpreting why in Genesis 27:33 “Isaac trembled very exceedingly,” Rabbi Johanan observed that it was surely unusual for a man who has two sons to tremble when one goes out and the other comes in. Rabbi Johanan taught that Isaac trembled because when Esau came in, Gehenna came in with him. Rabbi Aha said that the walls of the house began to seethe from the heat of Gehenna. Hence Genesis 27:33 asks, “who then (אֵפוֹא, eifo)?” for Isaac asked who would be roast (leafot) in Gehenna, him or Jacob?

Rabbi Hama bar Hanina interpreted the question “who then?” in Genesis 27:33 to ask who then intervened between Isaac and God that Jacob should receive the blessings. Rabbi Hama bar Hanina taught that Isaac thereby hinted at Rebekah’s intervention.

Reading Genesis 27:41, Rabbi Eleazar contrasted Esau’s jealousy with Reuben’s magnanimity. As Genesis 25:33 reports, Esau voluntarily sold his birthright, but as Genesis 27:41 says, “Esau hated Jacob,” and as Genesis 27:36 says, “And he said, ‘Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he has supplanted me these two times.’” In Reuben’s case, Joseph took Reuben’s birthright from him against his will, as 1 Chronicles 5:1 reports, “for as much as he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph.” Nonetheless, Reuben was not jealous of Joseph, as Genesis 37:21 reports, “And Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand.”