Toledoth: the antisemitism of envy

This parsha is antisemitic. Not only does it describe  some origins of hating Israel, it supplies some of the motivation for it. 

Esau and Jacob  are competing even  as fetuses ( fourth declension).  Competition, and its emotional analog envy, precede birth. Jacob is so  named for clinging to Esau's heel [the place that the devious  serpent bites to kill the gullible human] at birth.  The rivalry is in the DNA. [ DNA changes very little over time and is almost indestructible.]

The story quickly turns to the sale of the birth rite. Esau returns from hunting - an exhausting  and risky undertaking.  Often, no game is captured. Were it not for the gatherer Jacob, there are times that Esau could starve.  Jacob feeds him lentils ( which are toxic eaten raw) and bread ( a product of early technology) and  with that bought the right to be the firstborn. Jacob bought  fate with technology.  The Torah tells us that Esau devalued his primogeniture. The meaning  of this is revealed later, when Jacob exercises the option he purchased with a meal. 

The crux of the parsha is Isaac's blessing.  Isaac knows about fateful sibling rivalry.  His competition with Isaac looks, outwardly,  less mortally combative,  since Ishmael is the son of the lesser wife.  But both sons are tested with life-threatening trials [ banishment to the desert, sacrificial candidate] before they come to a truce  at the burial their father Abraham.


 Isaac's blessing expresses the rivalry of brothers for the future. One will rule over the other.  So he says:  יַֽעַבְד֣וּךָ עַמִּ֗ים וישתחו [וְיִֽשְׁתַּחֲו֤וּ] לְךָ֙ לְאֻמִּ֔ים הֱוֵ֤ה גְבִיר֙ לְאַחֶ֔יךָ וְיִשְׁתַּחֲוּ֥וּ לְךָ֖ בְּנֵ֣י אִמֶּ֑ךָ   Let peoples serve you, And nations bow to you; Be master over your brothers, And let your mother’s sons bow to you. . and so it was declared to Rivka when she perceived the fetal rivalry. שְׁנֵ֤י גיים [גוֹיִם֙] בְּבִטְנֵ֔ךְ וּשְׁנֵ֣י לְאֻמִּ֔ים מִמֵּעַ֖יִךְ יִפָּרֵ֑דוּ וּלְאֹם֙ מִלְאֹ֣ם יֶֽאֱמָ֔ץ וְרַ֖ב יַעֲבֹ֥ד צָעִֽיר׃  Two nations are in your womb, Two separate peoples shall issue from your body; One people shall be mightier than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.

Jacob, in an act of deception receives the coveted blessing.  Did he not buy it from Esau?  Clearly Esau did not think so.  When he sold the right to be first born, he did not mean this, and he says so. הֲכִי֩ קָרָ֨א שְׁמ֜וֹ יַעֲקֹ֗ב וַֽיַּעְקְבֵ֙נִי֙ זֶ֣ה פַעֲמַ֔יִם אֶת־בְּכֹרָתִ֣י לָקָ֔ח וְהִנֵּ֥ה עַתָּ֖ה לָקַ֣ח בִּרְכָתִ֑י  [Esau] said, “Was he, then, named Jacob that he might supplant me these two times? First he took away my birthright and now he has taken away my blessing!”He calls the capture of the blessing a second "Jewing" perpetrated by his heel of a  brother.  Esau had sold Jacob something cheaper, but it is not clear to me what that was... if not this. 

Isaac blessed the deceiver. He accepted him as Esau.  Isaac was blessing the concept of Esau, the wolf ( or fox)  in goat's clothing.  He confirms the blessing going to Jacob.  Jacob  had truly bought the Esau identity, the desperation of the famished hunter. 

With his blessing, Isaac creates an eternal struggle between the descendants of Jacob ( who would always control the banks and the media and the revolutionary movements) and those of Esau ( who would rule whenever Jacobs progeny fell).  He creates the persecuted Jew. 

There is another theme in the parsha.  Isaac digs wells, Philistines claim the wells and Isaac moves on because of the threat.  Ultimately, he finds a well that is not contested.  The wells are a hidden treasure with an element of science

Maybe fate is not a zero sum game. 

Chayei Sarah: The Test

The test devised by Abraham's servant seems easy.  

וְהָיָ֣ה הַֽנַּעֲרָ֗ אֲשֶׁ֨ר אֹמַ֤ר אֵלֶ֙יהָ֙ הַטִּי־נָ֤א כַדֵּךְ֙ וְאֶשְׁתֶּ֔ה וְאָמְרָ֣ה שְׁתֵ֔ה וְגַם־גְּמַלֶּ֖יךָ אַשְׁקֶ֑ה אֹתָ֤הּ הֹכַ֙חְתָּ֙ לְעַבְדְּךָ֣ לְיִצְחָ֔ק וּבָ֣הּ אֵדַ֔ע כִּי־עָשִׂ֥יתָ חֶ֖סֶד עִם־אֲדֹנִֽי׃

let the maiden to whom I say, ‘Please, lower your jar that I may drink,’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels’—let her be the one whom You have decreed for Your servant Isaac. Thereby shall I know that You have dealt graciously with my master.”

 It looks like a test of hospitality to strangers.  Yes, it calls for an extravagant generosity, but the servant was tasked with finding someone appropriate to the masters favored son, someone who deserves to spawn the next step in an eternal legacy of kindness and concern for strangers. . 

But imagining the scene, especially in the context of the other well stories, reveals something of how difficult this test was. 

Here is this caravan of 10 Lexus camels, laden with finery , accompanied by a retinue. The able bodied leader asks the young girl for a drink of water. Why isn't he getting it himself?  Perhaps there is some physical or mental handicap that is not visible  and she is applying  Hanlon's razor  ( a mental model that teaches us not to always assume the worst intention in the actions of others.)  Serving a servant, under these circumstances, requires an extraordinary degree of magnanimity. 

Alternatively, since he and his group, are foreigners, and well water is a very precious resource, he did not have access to the well, while Rebecca, the local girl, did.  This situation is suggested by the preceding conflict between Avimelech and Abraham, in which they resolve a conflict over wells with the treaty of Be'er Sheva.  From its placement in the narrative, I speculate that Hagar's lack of water may have resulted from the actions of Avimelech's minions on wells that Abraham expected her to encounter.  In the next parsha, we have further conflicts over wells causing Yitzchok to move . 

Yaakov's encounter with Rachel takes place at a well, possibly the same well in Charan.  In that story, the well is generally not opened until the entire community is present, but Yaakov opens it for Rachel and her sheep.  Needing a well for sheep implies a shortage of available water and makes the well a precious community resource.   How could Rebecca allocate water to a group of strangers... and their camels? 

When Moshe meets the daughters of Yithro at the well in Midian, he is the hero who chases  away the molesting shepherds. The well is dangerous place for young women.  How could Rebecca endanger herself for  these strangers? 

Monday is the yahrzeit for my mother.  She was also tested in the extreme.  When the escapees from Treblinka, including my father, appeared to her while she was hiding from the Nazis it was quite the test to share the family that helped her survive with them.  She also passed. 

Vayerah: the glimmer of hope

Lets start with the most celebrated story in the parsha, the story that is part of the liturgy, the akeida, the binding of Isaac.  Avraham is told to take this very special son, the miraculous one, the son designated by Gd to be the legacy and offer him as a Holocaust.  Abraham is commanded to do an absurdity. To violate the most fundamental principles, to violate the covenant of the children of Noah.

 He proceeds with dispatch.  But when he instructs the assistants who to wait  at the foot of the mountain, he says that he and the boy will return (22:5).  Rashi quotes the Midrash Tanchuma: the statement implies that Abraham נִתְנַבֵּא שֶׁיָּשׁוּבוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם  prophesied that they would both return.   When Isaac asks the obvious question: Where  is the sheep for the sacrifice, Abraham answers: E will see to the sheep.   This statement is taken as  a communication that if there is no sheep, Isaac will be the slaughter. But it also means what it says.  There is another way out of this predicament: E will provide a sheep.  And that is just what happens!

This story is the epitome of the religious experience.  The extremely improbable, the black swan, intervenes and saves the day.  When the adventure is recounted, we find that the original message was misunderstood. Communication with the Divine is cryptic.

The parsha begins with a puzzling story of messages.  The three "men" or "angels" come to Abraham to announce the laughably improbable event of the birth of Isaac to 90 year old Sarah and the plan to destroy the 5 towns ( Sodom, etc).  These are Divine communications.  How dare Sarah laugh at this! Is anything too wondrous for the LORD? ( 18;14)

How can anyone appeal an edict from On High to destroy the evil nations! Given how cooperative Abraham is at the end of the parsha, when he hastens to bring his son to the sacrificial altar, it is shocking to see how doggedly and cleverly he works to rescue the residents of Sodom,etc - people whose evil he has previously recognized. Perhaps he exhausted his authorization to argue with Heaven.  The failure of his efforts does not take away from his willingness to confront the greatest of authorities, armed with almost nothing.

Lot is a distorted mirror image of Abraham. He is ready to  sacrifice his daughters to rescue to the visiting strangers who have come under his aegis .  This turned out to be unnecessary since they were supernal beings.  How did this act  impact their subsequent incestuous plot?

Lot also negotiates  a reprieve for one of the towns, Tzoar.  He ties the amnesty for this younger town to his own rescue. He was looking for a mutually beneficial solution. These are often no solution at all.

When Ishmael and Hagar are  sent away  they run out of water. It should be noted that on her previous excursion into the desert, water had not been a problem for Hagar . In fact, on the first journey,  An angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness (16;7), ( which was now gone).  Avraham did  not expect that she would  need a miracle to rescue her and Ishmael.  But she does!

I am often confronted with desperate problems.  Most people come into the diagnosis of cancer with the expectation that there will be no satisfactory solution. They have been  brought to the  sacrificial alter.  They have been sold out by their genes.  They have run out of water. They need a miracle .  Sometimes it happens

Noach: selection

Creation is followed by selection. From the very beginning, the good light is selected from the non-descript, pre-existent darkeness, the land is selected from the  water, and the species select themselves. Finally, Noah and his family are selected to regenerate humanity.  Selection seems quite natural.

In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin reports that he came to understand the force of genetic selection from his observations of the results of dog breeders (p17, 1859ed.).  He saw the   power of the arbitrary decisions of breeders, based upon fashion and whim , upon the biology of previously feral animals.  He then, famously, extrapolated that force to the demands of the ecologic niche, theorizing that  incidental variations in plants and animals would make them more or less likely to thrive in any particular environment, hence natural selection.  Darwin, living in civilized London, where food and shelter are exchanged for pieces of paper, was far enough from the untamed  so that he was able to see its workings from the outside.


Selection implies that the few are chosen from the many. We have sympathy for  the rejected.  They are brothers and sisters and friends. We could have been them.  We question the criteria.  The process is designated cruel

The logical assumption for any individual entering into a selective process is that she will not be chosen ( with the possible exception of the selective service [draft]). The process is frightening. It maximizes hope.

Selection looks like a great crime.  Its not fair! At the entrance to the concentration camp, there is a pretense of selection. Most will go directly to the gas chamber.  A few will be chosen to work...but they will probably also die very soon.  The  observable selection is not the point of decision, it was  much earlier.  It was the definition of the niche, the place in society that the victims would occupy.

Noah begins with :   קֵ֤ץ כָּל־בָּשָׂר֙ בָּ֣א לְפָנַ֔י, the end of all flesh has come before me.  It sounds like the the current patterns of behavior will necessarily destroy all life.  The deluge was a a way to save a remnant of creation. 

We are all the children of the selected survivors. 

Choose wisely