Toledoth: trickery

Toledoth: trickery

There are some aspects of the parsha that are hard to understand; they come from an unfamiliar perspective.

First thing: The text makes sure that we remember Rebecca’s background. She is the daughter of an Aramean and the sister of an Aramean and she came from Padan Aram. When viewed in the context of prior and subsequent history, this is an ambivalent designation; a frenemy. Aram was a refuge for Avaram’s clan when they left Ur. Most of the family settled there, including Nahor, Abraham’s brother. Abraham had specifically wanted a member of this clan to be the bride for his son, Isaac.  Rebecca fits the bill.

When I hear Aram, the hagaddah calls out to me:

צֵא וּלְמַד מַה בִּקֵּשׁ לָבָן הָאֲרַמִּי לַעֲשׂוֹת לְיַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ: שֶׁפַּרְעֹה לֹא גָזַר אֶלָּא עַל הַזְּכָרִים, וְלָבָן בִּקֵּשׁ לַעֲקֹר אֶת־הַכֹּל.

צֵא וּלְמַד GO

AND LEARN

what Laban the Aramean

sought to do to our father Jacob:

Pharaoh condemned only the boys to death,

but Laban sought to uproot everything,

 

Laban the Aramean is the arch enemy of the Hebrew future: worse than Pharaoh.

From these texts, I come to think that Aram shared qualities with the land of its rearranged ( and extended) letters: America.  More generally, Aram is the paradigm of (imagined) Jewish refuge. Rome was Aram, Germany was Aram, the Soviet Union was Aram. It is a place of tolerance that eventually feels threatened by its Jewish guests. It is a place where assimilation is welcomed up to a point. Ultimately, it is a place of destruction. The tradition of Aram has always been a part of Jewish history and it continues.

Isaac loved Rebecca.  In this parsha we see that Rebecca maintained some of the Aramean cleverness. Did Isaac love her in spite of this? because of this? both? Did their relationship teach Isaac to respect the art of deception?

When I read the third verse of this week’s parsha, I hear a possible  second meaning  to the words  לְנֹ֣כַח אִשְׁתּ֔וֹ. Many commentators understand this to mean that Isaac was opposite his wife, perhaps in different corners ( Rashi). The Sforno hints at another meaning

he prayed to G’d that the mother of this child or children should be someone who was meritorious,

Perhaps he was praying that the corrupt guile that Rebecca had brought from her Aramean tradition would be straightened, corrected, brought to a truer path. It seems, from  the ensuing story that  it was only through this deviousness that events proceeded down the destined road.

It was Rebecca who convinced Jacob to come to Isaac, when Isaac would bestow his ultimate blessing, in the guise of Esau. She prepared the meal, she arranged the costume of goat skin and hunting garments, that would trick her loving husband into bestowing the best blessing ( perhaps the only blessing)  on her favorite son: Jacob.  Jacob, for fear of getting caught, was reluctant to put on the performance. His mother convinced him. He was convinced and he did it.

When the real Esau appeared, and the ruse was uncovered, Isaac says:

  וָאֲבָרְכֵ֑הוּ גַּם־בָּר֖וּךְ יִהְיֶֽה׃

and have blessed him? moreover, he shall be blessed.

 

The current daf yomi, the end of Bava Bathra, deals with the gifts of a person on his death bed. One of the major principles of such a gift  is that it is reversible.  If a person thought he was dying and gave away all his possessions, and then recovered, the gift(s) return to the giver because they were given under inaccurate suppositions. Further, if the gifts went to one person, and the dying person changed his mind, the gifts are transferrable to a new recipient.  Thus, the law may have allowed Isaac to transfer the blessing to the real Esau. He did not. Isaac confirmed the blessing to Jacob.

I think it is possible that Jacob had come to admire and respect a certain level of guile. The text attributes Isaac’s special love for Esau to  צַ֣יִד

וַיֶּאֱהַ֥ב יִצְחָ֛ק אֶת־עֵשָׂ֖ו כִּי־צַ֣יִד בְּפִ֑יו

Isaac favored Esau because he had a taste for game;

 

Rashi points us to the Midrash here:

its Midrashic explanation is: there was hunting in Esau’s mouth, meaning that he used to entrap and deceive him by his words (Genesis Rabbah 63:10).

 

The simple understanding of this midrash is that Isaac was taken in, ensnared, by Esau’s mouth ( his words).  It can also mean that he loved the fact that Esau could ensnare others. Perhaps Isaac had come to admire this skill of guile: communication, propaganda. Now he saw that Jacob is capable of these arts

 

  וָאֲבָרְכֵ֑הוּ גַּם־בָּר֖וּךְ יִהְיֶֽה׃

and have blessed him? moreover, he shall be blessed.

 

 

Cleverness, solving most difficult problems, guile when needed: these are qualities attributed to Jews as bases for antisemitism. I recognize them. They have a place. They are the behaviors of the desperate and not necessarily Jewish. Jews have been desperate too many times.