6: Toldot
Welcome to TLDR Torah: a synopsis of the weekly parsha based on Robert Alter’s translation, plus a question to spur your Shabbat dinner (or any!) conversation.
Parsha Toldot (Genesis 25:19-28:9)
TLDR:
The story shifts from Abraham and Sarah to Isaac and Rebekah. Rebekah is barren for 20 years. After Isaac pleads to God, she conceives two twins. Esav emerges first, then Jacob holding his heel.
What follows are two stories about Jacob and Esav, punctuated by Isaac’s economic growth among the Philistines. The Torah uses careful language, foreshadowing, and narrative structure to shape a story where Rebekah, Esav, and Jacob play morally ambiguous roles, and Isaac a confused elder.
In the first story, a famished Esav (perhaps overdramatically, he says, “I am at the point of death”) sells his birthright to Jacob for stew.
Isaac lives among the Philistines — there’s another “this is my sister, not my wife” story — and his success causes disputes over wells. He patches things over with the King of Philistines, and founds Beer-sheba.
As if condoning what’s to come, the Torah shares that Esav marries two Hittites, “a source of bitterness” for Isaac and Rebekah.
In the second story, Rebekah overhears Isaac telling Esav about the final blessing, and directs Jacob to beat him to it. After some protest and planning, Jacob goes to his father covered in animal skins with a meat dish.
Jacob says he is Esav and Isaac blesses him. Commentators try to defend Jacob with language devices, but in the simple reading, Jacob lies to Isaac (who himself may or may not know what’s happening).
Esav weeps, begs for another blessing, and promises to kill Jacob, who flees to Haran, where his uncle lives.
Question:
Trickery throughout! No one comes away from these stories clean. When is it ok to do one morally questionable thing to achieve what you might perceive as a righteous end? Is the Torah condoning or condemning grey boundaries? And when was the last time you told a white lie that made you squirm?