summary

Last week’s parasha included the deaths of both Sarah and Abraham. One would expect Toledot (Genesis 25:19 – 28:9) this week to focus on Isaac but his main role seems to be as a link between Abraham and Jacob. Therefore, the portion opens, “This is the line of Isaac, son of Abraham..” Isaac is defined by his relationship to his father. Next, we hear of the difficulty Rebekah has in childbirth; the strife between Jacob and Esau beginning in her womb and then continues with Jacob buying Esau’s birthright in return for food.

One chapter describes an event in Isaac’s adult life (Isaac passing Rebekah off as his sister to protect himself) that so mirrors Abraham’s that some have questioned again whether they are not two versions of the same story. This is followed by disputes that Isaac had as he grew wealthy, with other People’s over water rights. This chapter is concluded with the information that Esau married a Hittite woman and that the union upset Isaac and Rebekah.

The parasha concludes with the story of Rebekah / Jacob tricking Isaac into giving Jacob his blessing due to Esau as the elder son. Esau’s angry response leads to Rebekah sending Jacob away to her brother, Laban, protect him and also to find a wife from amongst his own.

commentary

When Tammy and I were thinking on ‘names’ before Shaya was born, one of the names that I loved the sound of was ‘Esau.’ However, no self-respecting Jewish parent could ever call a son, Esau, because of the utterly bad reputation Esau has. Was that reputation truly earned or was it more the product of the midrashic process (the early Rabbinic interpretations of the Torah)?

If one looks at a simple level, Esau’s only crimes were to be a hunter (set aside any thoughts of current morality!), gullible and acting in ways that would provoke when already provoked himself e.g. marrying to spite his parents and threatening to kill Jacob in response to being duped out of his father’s blessing. If one compares this to the extremely questionable morality of our hero, his younger twin, Jacob, surely he does not look quite as bad.

However, in the Torah he is identified as the grandfather of Amalek, the Torah’s archetype of evil whose line also included King Agag and Haman. Esau is also called ‘Edom’ (lit. ‘red’) which became a Rabbinic association to Rome and at times the oppression of early Christianity. And so a favourite explanation to exculpate Jacob is: Esau was wicked from the moment he was born and even before and that his belly was his god.

Thousands of years have passed but Tammy and I still could not conceive of calling a son, if we had had one, ‘Esau.’ Sometimes, symbolic associations are so deep-rooted that one comes against an eternal impasse. At others, solutions can be found, often when parties are able to each ‘give-up’ some claims. Such is the case with the likely end to a 100-year controversy by the inclusion of Magen David Adom to the ranks of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. A pact between MDA and the Palestinian Red Crescent sees MDA acknowledge for the first time the sovereignty of the Palestine Red Crescent on Palestinian land and its right to work in freedom. Now a "red crystal" - a hollow red diamond on a white background – which is regarded as being free from religious, national or cultural connotations will be adopted as a valid symbol that MDA can use.

tzedakah

Our tentnik, Leesa Mather writes: As you may be aware an old friend of mine, Miriam, was killed in the bus bomb on 7 July 2005. She was a fabulous artist and made greeting cards for her friends throughout the years. She planned on going into business and taking this idea further the below website has been set up to sell her cards. All proceeds will go to the Miriam Hyam memorial fund for the charity Orbis. Orbis is aimed at eliminating avoidable blindness globally. www.mimento.co.uk

Please think about the products you are buying this Chanukah / Xmas and know that you can make a difference with your purchases.

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