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Parshat Toledot
2004
Two Nations, One Family
This week's parsha, Toledot, continues the story of our people's beginnings. Specifically, we learn of the birth of Yitzhak's two sons who, like Abraham's two sons before them, were destined to become the fathers of two nations. Esau, the older of the fraternal twins, seems ill-equipped or interested in leading the family and displays this when he is willing to sell his birthright to Yaakov for a bowl of soup. As Yitzhak's last days approach, his wife, Rivka, collaborates with her younger son in a ploy that leads to Yaakov receiving the mantle of leadership and the blessing due his older brother. Esau discovers that he has been passed over and is filled with rage toward his brother Yaakov. Yaakov flees for his life and sets out to take a wife from among his kin in a distant town.
Yaakov is a particularly difficult figure to wrestle with - and the pun is intentional. Through his struggles with people and with God, he becomes Yisrael, the father of our holy nation and the paradigm of what it means to be a Jew. Yet Yaakov's life, by his own description, is bitter, and Yaakov, who deceives his father in this parsha, will in turn be deceived time and again himself. He is destined from the womb to achieve greatness and at the same time behaves in a manner that is decidedly anti-heroic. He takes advantage of his less cunning, hungry brother. He lies to his father and goes so far as to invoke God's name while doing so. When his deception is discovered, he flees. Where Yaakov earns our respect is in the personal growth he experiences and demonstrates. It is not in Yaakov that we find our hero but in Yisrael, the man he later becomes.
Within the rabbinic tradition, Esau is identified as the father of Edom, Amalek and Rome. The unrelenting sorrows brought upon the Jewish people by these entities has long been explained as being a result of the ancient grudge Esau's descendants held toward their brother Yaakov. By attributing historical conflict to what is in essence the story of a dysfunctional family, our sages provide us powerful and instructive insight into the human condition. As pastoral figures, modern rabbis need to recognize the power of family history in the lives of people who struggle with issues of domestic violence, addiction and certain kinds of anxiety and depression. What the sages suggest to us through the archetype of Esau-Edom-Rome is that such legacies can affect entire nations for thousands of years. We are all familiar with the similar use of Yishmael as a representative of our Arab brothers and sisters. In our day, we have seen some healing between Esau and Yisrael, and we fervently hope of similar reconciliation between the sons of Yitzhak and Yishmael.
In a more personal and individual sense, we can proudly claim that which functions so well in our ancient family. Just as Yaakov and Esau remind us of Yitzhak and his brother Yishmael, so too does Yaakov remind us of his grandfather. As Avram becomes Avraham, so will Yaakov become Yisrael. Our patriarchs teach us the spiritual lesson of ever-becoming - and in this reflect the God they served. We Jews are called to constantly strive to improve ourselves and to face our challenges with an attitude of opportunity. We do this in a multitude of ways - most importantly through commitment to traditional mitzvot, but also through our social action and, in particular, with our efforts on campuses where we serve. We are able to work in an environment uniquely suited to collaboration and dialogue with our brother Esau, and we can and must seize that opportunity when it presents itself. Kal Ve-Chomer, how much more so with our cousins the children of Yishmael.
It should not escape us in the wake of this most divisive and difficult election season that there is much healing that needs to take place among our American family. As with Esau and Yaakov, it feels like we are dealing with two nations where there should and must be one. We Jews are too familiar with the legacy of family division - this parsha shows us just how it starts, and our rabbinic tradition details how far it can go and for how long. Let us then work to heal these rifts we contemplate. Perhaps we would rather flee the situation, as did Yaakov, and hide ourselves among our kin - but we do not call ourselves Am Yaakov. We know ourselves as the one who struggles and overcomes and does not flee - we call ourselves Am Yisrael.
By Rabbi Jonathan Siger, Campus Rabbi, University of Florida
Learn More
Additional commentaries and text studies on Parshat Toledot at MyJewishLearning.com.
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