Toladoth: choice

There is  a strange interaction when Esau discovers that "his" blessing has been conferred upon Jacob.  

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לְאָבִ֔יו בָּרֲכֵ֥נִי גַם־אָ֖נִי אָבִֽי׃  and said to his father, “Bless me too, Father!”

וַיֹּ֕אמֶר בָּ֥א אָחִ֖יךָ בְּמִרְמָ֑ה וַיִּקַּ֖ח בִּרְכָתֶֽךָ׃

But he answered, “Your brother came with guile and took away your blessing.”...

יַּ֨עַן יִצְחָ֜ק וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לְעֵשָׂ֗ו הֵ֣ן גְּבִ֞יר שַׂמְתִּ֥יו לָךְ֙ וְאֶת־כָּל־אֶחָ֗יו נָתַ֤תִּי לוֹ֙ לַעֲבָדִ֔ים וְדָגָ֥ן וְתִירֹ֖שׁ סְמַכְתִּ֑יו וּלְכָ֣ה אֵפ֔וֹא מָ֥ה אֶֽעֱשֶׂ֖ה בְּנִֽי׃

Isaac answered, saying to Esau, “But I have made him master over you: I have given him all his brothers for servants, and sustained him with grain and wine. What, then, can I still do for you, my son?”

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר עֵשָׂ֜ו אֶל־אָבִ֗יו הַֽבְרָכָ֨ה אַחַ֤ת הִֽוא־לְךָ֙ אָבִ֔י בָּרֲכֵ֥נִי גַם־אָ֖נִי אָבִ֑י

And Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!” 

Esau asks Isaac: Don't you have another blessing?  The answer is: no. 

Jacob knew that he had two sons. How could the blessing make one nation the master and the other slaves?  How could he give the grain and wine to only one of his sons? 

The textual precedent is clear.  Isaac himself was the favored son.  Abraham's servant  tells Rebecca's brother and father: 

וַתֵּ֡לֶד שָׂרָה֩ אֵ֨שֶׁת אֲדֹנִ֥י בֵן֙ לַֽאדֹנִ֔י אַחֲרֵ֖י זִקְנָתָ֑הּ וַיִּתֶּן־לּ֖וֹ אֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־לֽוֹ׃

And Sarah, my master’s wife, bore my master a son in her old age, and he has assigned to him everything he owns. 

There appears to be no share for Ishamel ( or the children of Keturah).  It is all or nothing. This is primogeniture, keeping the estate intact.  This seems to be how things worked out for Adam.  Cain  had been banished ( to the city), Hevel was dead, Seth inherited it all.  Noah had established enslavement as a legacy for the disfavored.  But the immediacy of his experience with Ishmael is probably the most formative for Isaac.  I imagine that this episode also informed Yaakov's decision to divide the legacy among all of his sons. 

This relationship of enmity and dominance  between Jacob and Esau is foretold to Rebecca.  

שְׁנֵ֤י גיים [גוֹיִם֙] בְּבִטְנֵ֔ךְ וּשְׁנֵ֣י לְאֻמִּ֔ים מִמֵּעַ֖יִךְ יִפָּרֵ֑דוּ וּלְאֹם֙ מִלְאֹ֣ם יֶֽאֱמָ֔ץ

Two nations are in your womb, Two separate peoples shall issue from your body; One people shall be mightier than the other 

Had Rebecca ( daughter of Bituel, sister of Lavan)  informed Isaac of this prophecy?  The unfolding of these events mirror the naming of Ishmael and Isaac. Both parents seem to  independently come to the name. It is fated. 

I think that Isaac knew that Jacob was impersonating Esau when he came to appropriate the primogeniture   blessing of the firstborn. Isaac keeps questioning and  testing.  He says: 

הַקֹּל֙ ק֣וֹל יַעֲקֹ֔ב וְהַיָּדַ֖יִם יְדֵ֥י עֵשָֽׂו׃

The voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau.”

Jacob had applied goatskin to his smoother skin to emulate the hairy Esau.  Was Isaac fooled by this?  I don't think so.  What he means  by  "the hands of Esau" is the willingness to deceive.  Whoever had come for the blessing had the beguiling quality required for this blessing of dominance. 

This goat of desperation threads through the Torah.  It is the blood of a goat that the brothers purport as evidence of the death of Joseph. Jacob was familiar with goat tricks.  Was he fooled? Perhaps he was comforted, suspecting that the animal blood meant that his son's blood had not been shed. 

Rebecca requires two goats to make Isaac special meal.  There are two goats in the strange Yom Kippur service of  expiation - kaparah in Hebrew, a word that means cover over.  Is this, in part, an annual expiation for Jacob's act of guile?

The parsha ends with Esau, recognizing his parents' disapproval of his Hittite wives,  marrying the daughter of Ishmael.  This can be read as an act of attempted conciliation.  But she is the daughter of Isaac's (disinherited) rival.  Maybe there  is a little spite here, and a search for an alternative route to the inheritance. 

Spare me from  the desperation of  rivalry.