Article by Rabbi Yisroel Fine

Parsha Toledot

Summary of The Weekly Torah Reading: Parshat Toledot

Note: The Shabbos Torah Reading is divided into 7 sections. Each section is called and Aliya [literally: Go up] since for each Aliya, one person "goes up" to make a bracha [blessing] on the Torah Reading.

1st Aliya: Yitzchak is 40 years old (2088) when he marries Rivkah. After 20 years, Esav and Yakov are born. The Parsha jumps from their birth to Yakov's purchase of the 1st born rights from Esav at the age of 15. (2123 - the day Avraham died)

2nd Aliya: The Parsha returns to the story of Yitzchak and Rivkah and the famine which forces them to settle among the Plishtim. Yitzchak, like his father before him, has a moral confrontation with Avimelech, after which his fields are uniquely prolific and financially successful.

3rd Aliya: Yitzchak's financial success leads to jealousy with his Plishtim neighbors. He re-digs Avraham's wells, resulting in a confrontation with the Plishtim over water rights. He moves back to Beer Sheva.

4th Aliya: Hashem (G-d), in a dream, confirms for Yitzchak the future of his children. Avimelech, the King of the Plishtim, and his General, Phicol, approach Yitzchak to make a peace treaty.

5th Aliya: The treaty between Yitzchak and the Plishtim is celebrated. The Parsha returns to the story of Yakov and Esav. Esav's marriage to two Canaanite women at the age of 40 (2148) brings disappointment to Yitzchak and Rivkah. In 2171, when Yakov and Esav are 63 and Yitzchak is 123, Yitzchak blesses Yakov and Esav. The Parsha details the duplicity of Yakov and Rivkah in fooling Yitzchak.

6th Aliya: Yitzchak blesses Yakov with spiritual and material gain, after which Esav returns to discover Yakov's plot. He receives his own blessing for material gain, and is determined to kill Yakov. Rivkah, fearful for Yakov's life, convinces Yitzchak to send Yakov to her brother Lavan in search of a shiduch - a wife. Yitzchak confirms on Yakov the future of the Jewish nation before his departure to Lavan.

7th Aliya: Yakov departs for Padan Aram, and Esav marries the daughter of Yishmael. (his 1/2 1st cousin)

Parsha Summary by Rabbi Aron Tendler
Rabbi of Shaarey Zedek Congregation, North Hollywood, CA
Assistant Principal, YULA

Parshat Toledot
Eisav the Businessman
by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

FRIDAY NIGHT:

When it came time for her to give birth, she had twins. The first one came out red all over like a fur coat, and they called him Eisav. (Bereishis 25:24-25)

Eisav was more than just an interesting character who on so many occasions posed a threat to Ya'akov and his descendants. As the twin brother of Ya'akov who acted in just the opposite manner as his brother, he represents the "other view," or more precisely, the "opposite view" of Torah:

G-d said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; two peoples will separate from inside of you. One nation will overpower the other; the greater one will serve the younger." (Bereishis 25:23)
As such, he is Ya'akov's antagonist until the End-of-Days.
There were basically three aspects to Eisav's personality. First, there was Eisav the brute, who had no problem imposing his will and way on others less powerful than he was, which was just about everyone in the world at that time. Wherever he went, he took want he wanted, regardless of the moral implications of his actions, which, frankly, he didn't care a bit about.

However, there was another side to Eisav, who, after all, WAS the twin brother of the holy Ya'akov. This was the side of Eisav that could act in a somewhat religious manner. The rabbis teach that he did perform the mitzvah of honoring his father, and he even asked his father about the need to take tithes from salt and straw - which of course is completely unnecessary, and represented Eisav's ability to appear religious when it suited his purpose.

There was also Eisav the white-color worker, a businessman. This was the part of Eisav's personality that was willing to make deals to get what he wanted. Not everything in life can be taken by force, and sometimes there is more pleasure in getting what you want in a gentlemanly manner, or at least in a business-like manner.
In Eisav the person, all three personalities came together and made him the most powerful man of his time. The only reason why he couldn't do away with Ya'akov was because G-d protected Ya'akov against his twin brother, thwarting Eisav every time he tried to eliminate his twin brother. This was true not just in Ya'akov's lifetime, but throughout the entire history of Ya'akov's descendants until present day.

Who are Eisav's descendants today? It seems as if history has caused a split in Eisav's personality, so-to-speak, spreading his characteristics amongst his many descendants of Edom, which can include peoples as diverse as Russians, Italians, and Americans. This was partially due to Sennecheriv mixing up the nations a couple of thousands of years ago when Assyria controlled the world of that time. (Brochos 28a)

For this reason, the power of Eisav has dissipated somewhat, limiting his ability to control the world and truly do to Ya'akov's descendants what he set out to do from the beginning - annihilate them. However, should the various parts of Eisav's personality reunite in a coalition of nations, especially against Ya'akov, then WATCH OUT!

On a physical level, it may only appear as if different nations are working together for a common cause. However, on a spiritual level a unification of Biblical proportions may in fact be taking place with very serious implications for world history. Until now, the combinations of people haven't quite lined up perfectly; in WW II, America fought along side with Russia, but Rome was on the other side.

However, in this latest war against terrorism there is a very interesting historical precedent occurring. In attacking America on home soil, and by bringing down two of the most powerful symbols of American culture, the Islamic world has successfully drawn together all three aspects of Eisav's personality as manifest in the different nations of today. Even the Persian Gulf War of 1990 didn't do that.

Thus, the "Coalition" of today may be far more than just a group of diverse peoples who have agreed to take on an invisible enemy together. It may be the official resurrection of Eisav, the powerful, coming back to life after being dormant for over three thousand years of history, an unnerving development in the direction of Gog and Magog.

SHABBOS DAY:

Ya'akov was cooking some stew when Eisav came in from the field feeling faint. Eisav said to Ya'akov, "Please, let me gulp down some of that red stuff; I'm feeling faint." Thus, he was called "Edom." (Bereishis 25:29-30)

If you read the Torah as a storybook, then that is what it will be for you. However, if you read the Torah on one level as you might a "spy" novel, then every word and nuance will be important to you because you know that it will probably be transmitting important information in the least obvious ways.

For example, such as the verses above. Very serendipitously the Torah points out how Eisav received his pen name, "Edom." It just happened to be on that one day, after a hard day's work in the field (after murdering Nimrod, says the Midrash, and a whole host of other atrocities), he came home famished and faint, and desperately told his twin brother, "Give me some of that red stuff." Thus, he is called "Edom," which means "red" (Russia's favorite color).
Coincidentally (if you believe in such things), this also led to his selling the birthright with which he was born - and therefore, his chance to be the Jewish people. However, that didn't seem to bother him very much, as the Torah says:

Ya'akov gave Eisav bread and lentil stew. He ate, drank, got up and left, and despised his birthright. (Bereishis 25:34)
Furthermore, the food that Ya'akov was preparing when Eisav barged in, was for their father Yitzchak, who was in mourning over the death of his own father, Avraham Avinu. Lentils, as Rashi explains, is a traditional food of mourners because of its symbolic meaning. However, Eisav did not eat it as a mourner that day, obviously feeling no loss that his grandfather was gone from the world.
In other words, if you had to define Edom based upon the above scenario and possukim, it would be like this: someone who is willing to give up so much for so little, someone with little appreciation for the invisible future, and with too much appreciation of the tangible present.

This is the part of Eisav that can give rise to an Amalek - the grandson of Eisav: Eisav and Adah gave birth to Eliphaz, who married Timna and fathered Amalek. Amalek, of course, is the antithesis of the Jewish people, of whom Rashi writes:

...He made you cold and lukewarm after you had been boiling. For, all the nations were afraid to war against you, and this one came and led the way for others. It is like a boiling hot bath into which no living being could enter, until a wild person came and jumped into it. Although he scalded himself, he made it cooler for others. (Rashi, Devarim 25:18)

Unbelievable! Amalek was, and is, prepared to give up his future for the THRILL of making an impact in the present. "Besides," Amalek says, "the future has yet to unfold, and so much can happen between now and then. Maybe there will be a way to change everything - to have a blast now and get away with it tomorrow!"

In some respects he is right, because there is the concept of teshuvah; a person can sin today and repent tomorrow, and even turn his sin into a merit says the Talmud - PROVIDING, though, says the Rambam, that he did not sin thinking that he will repent after. If a person sins believing that he can simply say he is sorry after the fact and be forgiven, he is mistaken. The door to teshuvah is closed for such a sinner, says the Rambam.

However, that doesn't concern Edom. He has difficulty "feeling" what he can't physically touch, but loves what he can. When society - any society - walks that same path, then they are a descendant of Edom, if not physically, then certainly spiritually-speaking.