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Imagine a world where only one person
believed in God. That’s the way
that the world used to be. In Parshat Toldot,
we get introduced to the world’s
second monotheist, Isaac.
Isaac’s wife, Rebecca, would have two sons,
twin boys. And this wouldn’t be
your average pregnancy.
The twins inside of her were running
after each other, they were beating each other,
they were crushing each other.
When she would walk past a house of idolatry,
one of the twins would start kicking
from one side. When she would walk past
the house of Torah study, the other twin
would start kicking from the other side.
She asked all the women in her village,
"Why am I like this?" And none of the women
in her village had an answer, so she had to
go ask God. And God told Shem the Prophet,
“You have two nations within you.
They’re always going to be fighting each other.
Eventually one is going to serve the other.
The elder is going to serve the younger.”
The older one would come out all
covered in hair and all colored red.
And he would grow up to be wicked,
a spiller of blood, a hunter, and his name
would be Esau. The younger twin would
come out completely hairless and would be
a dweller of tents, someone who
was connected to God. Someone who
was connected to spirituality. He would be
a righteous man, and his name
would be Jacob. Usually, all
the spiritual blessings that a father will bestow
onto his children go through the first-born.
That’s called the birthright.
The birthright was mainly a spiritual benefit.
It didn’t necessarily come with money
or inheritance rights. It was the transmission
of the spiritual energy from the father
to the children. And with the birthright,
the child would have a lot more spiritual power
than without it. Jacob realized that Esau
was the first-born and he, being wicked,
wasn’t deserving of all these
spiritual blessings.
His wife Rebecca realized that too.
So Rebecca decided to come up
with a scheme by which Isaac would give
the birthright to the righteous son Jacob
and not the wicked son Esau.
But to do that without Esau’s knowledge
would be stealing. So Jacob,
realizing that Esau didn’t see all of
the spiritual blessings, which would come
from the birthright, convinced Esau
to sell the birthright.
Now something that’s so precious
with such a spiritual power, you would think
would go for a high value. Esau sold
his birthright for one bowl of soup.
And it was at that point, once he realized
all of the things that he had given away
for so little, that Esau began to despise
the birthright, and it was then he began
to despise his brother Jacob and began to plot
to kill him. A running theme throughout
Parsha Toldot is the idea that’s expressed in
the third chapter in the book of Proverbs,
“Trust in God, and do not rely on your own
understanding." Isaac marries Rebecca.
After that, ten years of him sitting and waiting
and hoping his wife is going to get pregnant.
He asks God, she gets pregnant with twins.
During her pregnancy, Rebecca goes around
and asks everyone else why is she going
through her weird crazy pregnancy with
these twins who are fighting. She asks God,
she finds out what’s going on in her body.
Isaac thinks that his older son is going
to be the spiritual progenitor who’s going
to carry the birthright. God has a different plan.
He ends up giving the spiritual blessing
to the younger son who deserved it
the whole time. We don’t have all the answers
and when you start to rely on
your own understanding, that’s when you start
to have problems and that’s when things
don’t go your way.