Parshat Toldot
PARSHA OVERVIEW
After 20 years of marriage, Yitzchak’s prayers are answered and Rivka conceives twins. The pregnancy is extremely painful. Hashem reveals to Rivka that the suffering is a microcosmic prelude to the worldwide conflict that will rage between the two great nations descended from these twins, Rome and Israel. Esav is born, and then Yaakov, holding on to Esav’s heel. They grow, and Esav becomes a hunter, a man of the physical world, whereas Yaakov sits in the tents of Torah, developing his soul.
On the day of their grandfather Avraham’s funeral, Yaakov is cooking lentils, the traditional mourner's meal. Esav rushes in, ravenous from a hard day’s hunting, and sells his birthright (and its concomitant spiritual responsibilities) for a bowl of lentils, demonstrating his unworthiness for the position of firstborn.
A famine strikes Canaan and Yitzchak thinks of escaping to Egypt, but Hashem tells him that because he was bound as a sacrifice, he has become holy and must remain in the Holy Land. He relocates to Gerar in the land of the Philistines, where, to protect Rivka, he has to say she is his sister. The Philistines grow jealous of Yitzchak when he becomes immensely wealthy, and Avimelech the king asks him to leave. Yitzchak re-digs three wells that were dug by his father, prophetically alluding to the three future Temples. Avimelech, seeing that Yitzchak is blessed by Hashem, makes a treaty with him.
When Yitzchak senses his end approaching, he summons Esav to give him his blessings. Rivka, acting on a prophetic command that the blessings must go to Yaakov, arranges for Yaakov to impersonate Esav and receive the blessings. When Esav in frustration reveals to his father that Yaakov has bought the birthright, Yitzchak realizes that the birthright has been bestowed correctly on Yaakov and confirms the blessings he has given Yaakov. Esav vows to kill Yaakov, and so Rivka sends Yaakov to her brother Lavan where he could find a suitable wife.
PARSHA INSIGHTS
Throw Away Your Crystal Ball
“These are the descendants of Yishmael…over all his brothers he fell… And these are the offspring of the Yitzchak, the son of Avraham...” (25:12,18,19)
Nobody has a crystal ball, and even if they did, they’re not very reliable.
If you told someone living a couple of hundred years ago that the Arabs would be a force to threaten Western civilization, they’d have laughed. The thought that a bunch of nomads floating around the desert like some lost extras from Lawrence of Arabia could rule the world would have seemed preposterous. But, “He who dwells in the Heavens will laugh.” (Tehillim 2:4)
The Divine sense of humor decreed that there would be an Industrial Revolution, and that revolution would run on oil, and Yishmael, the Arabs, would have so much of it that they could buy the world – or a large part of it.
The Torah predicted the rise of Yishmael at the end of days. And his eventual fall.
The last words of last week’s parsha, Chayei Sarah, are “over all his brothers he (Yishmael) fell….” And the first words of this week’s Torah portion, Toldot, are, “And these are the offspring of the Yitzchak, the son of Avraham.”
When the nation of Yishmael falls at the end of days, then the world will see the coming of Mashiach ben David, “the son of Avraham.” And for that, you don’t need a crystal ball. It is written in the Torah.
*Based on the Baal HaTurim
