Toldos has always been one of the most difficult parshas for me because there are so many questions/inconsistencies that crop up.
I. Did Esav have free will to not be a Rasha?
If we look at Rashi at the beginning of the Parsha it seems that Esav had no free will and was a Rasha from before birth.
- Rashi quotes the famous medrash that when Rivka walked by a house of idol worship Esav tried to get out (to worship avoda zara). Let's think about this. Esav is not even born yet, has no yetzter hara and yet wants to worship Avoda Zara.
- Rashi on ממעיך יפרדו writes that already from when they were in the womb they were separated one (Esav) לרשעו and one (Yaakov) לתומו. Rashi writes explicitly that Esav was a rasha already in the womb.
From the above Rashis it is clear that Esav had no free will to be a Tzadik rather he was a Rasha from before birth. This of course contradicts the fundamental principle in Judaism of free will.
Yitzchak and Rivka in Gerar
Because of a famine Yitzchak goes to Gerar and uses the same tactic as Avraham, introducing his wife as his sister. However, this raises a number of questions:
- Yitzchak was famous, he was the miracle child of Avraham who was very well known and who in fact made a treaty with Avimelech. Given that, how does Avimelech not know that Rivka was his wife? After all, Yitzchak was a miracle child born to Sara at 90 (and Avraham at 100) and they had no daughter. So how could Yitzchak pass Rivka off as his sister? Also, you would think that Yitzchak's wedding would have been a big event.
- Avimelech discover that Rivka was Yitzchak's wife by observing them having sex (see Rashi). The Meforshim on Rashi raise the obvious question, this was a gross violation of tznius. You aren't allowed to have sex during the day and even at night it is supposed to be pitch dark. So how could Avimelech have seen them?
The Berachos
Towards the end of his life Yitzchak wants to bless his son, Eisav. Rivka however, wants the blessing to go to Yaakov and therefore uses subterfuge to cause Yaakov to get the beracha. This raises a number of questions:
- Rashi explains that Eisav fooled Yitzchak into thinking he was pious. However, the Medrash (and Rashi) portray Eisav as a really bad person, a murderer and an adulterer, how gullible could Yitzchak have been to want to bless Eisav? In fact, the Torah tells us that both Yitzchak and Rivka didn't like his choice of wives. What does this say about his "daas torah"?
- Why couldn't Rivka talk to Yitzchak and explain the situation? In parshas Lech Lecha, Sara tells Avraham to send away Yishmael and Hashem tells him to listen to Sara. Why couldn't Rivka talk to Yitzchak and explain the situation? Why did she have to deceive her husband? Even later, after the berachos, she still doesn't tell Yitzchak the truth. Instead of saying that Eisav wants to kill Yaakov, and therefore Yaakov should run away, she tells him that she wants Yaakov to marry her relatives.
- How can a beracha gotten by deception actually work? Yitzchak thought he was blessing Eisav not Yaakov. Is a beracha magic?
- What is the rationalistic explanation of the whole story/idea of the berachos? How do they work?
> Did Esav have free will to not be a Rasha?
ReplyDeleteYou can ask the same question about Yaakov, too. Did Yaakov have a choice about being a tzaddik?
I think the answer is that Yaakov wasn't a tzadik, and Eisav wasn't a rasha. Eisav never does anything particularly bad in the chumash, and Yaakov definitely never does anything virtuous. Eisav was a hunter, and Yaakov was a trickster. Then Yaavkov /Yisrael became the embodiment of the Jewish people, and Eisav became identified with Rome, the enemy, and, well, the rest follows from there.
There is also a tendency for the midrashim to flatten biblical characters, to make them good or bad, with no ambivalence, and regardless of whether those assignations are supported by the plain meaning of the text.
> … uses the same tactic as Avraham
The same tactic? It's the same story.
> Why did she have to deceive her husband?
Because Yaakov is a trickster, and this is how trickster stories work. The trickster tricks someone to his own advantage (sometimes with others' help), the trick comes back to bite him on the ass, and ultimately the result is something good for the people telling the story. In this case, Yaakov tricked Yitzchak into giving him the brachos, which made Eisav try to kill him, and ultimately resulted in him marrying his cousins and providing the narrative of his twelve sons that explains how the various tribes that would become the Jewish people were really all descended from the same family.
> Is a beracha magic?
Yes. To the original audience, most probably explicitly.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"What is the rationalist..."
ReplyDeleteI thought you didn't go in for rationalist explanations.
I do if they make sense. Usually they are quite forced and are not very believable.
Delete