Divrei Beit Hillel
Articles on the Weekly Torah Portion by Students at The University of Pennsylvania
Learning from Others
By Brandon Paroly
Before you read any more of this article, look around the room?(OCP?stick to your side of the mechitza?) Do you see all of those people? Now, I don?t know where you?re sitting, but I?m going to guess that you got a good glimpse of the different students who show up every Friday night. That?s a lot of kids, isn?t it? If you look closer, at any group of them, I think you?ll be amazed at the plethora of people who come to Friday night services at Hillel. From people who live in Steinhardt to the ones who only show up once a week, freshmen to grad students to random old people, students from other schools, guests, and everything in between. You can even look within any of those groups, and you?ll see how unique they all are. True, half of them come from three states, but think how much more diverse this room is than what you?ll find at your local Young Israel, or Temple Beth El, or wherever you go. I?m not even going to bother talking about the entire campus outside the building, because I think I?ve already made my point.
You have four years (or more, super seniors and grad students) to watch and learn from all these people sitting in the fuzzy purple chairs around you. Imagine, all these kids pulled from around the globe, and you can go around and meet people you couldn?t have even made up a few years ago, in the time it takes CJC to come downstairs for Kiddush on Saturday morning. To drive my point home, let?s look at two people who, against all odds, managed to learn incredible lessons from each other.
So we know that as they grew up, Jacob and Esau became as different as night and day. Esau became earthy and violent, hunting in the fields and serving idols, while Jacob became domestic and studious, learning Torah in his tent. Esau was a patently wicked man, murderous and crude, and yet his father Isaac always loved and favored him. The question is, how did Esau convince his father to love him so in the face of all the terrible things he did? Even more, rabbinic lore tells us that when Esau died, even the angels thought he was a righteous person! The answer is that he used the trappings of Jacob?s goodness to his own ends. He asked questions about Torah law which sounded intelligent, but were really just empty. He also served his father with the utmost effort and care, bringing him delicacies he hunted and waiting on him hand and foot. It is in this way that Esau took the tools of Jacob?s trade of righteousness and used them to fool his father.
As we know, however, Jacob did some tricking of his own. Jacob, also, learned from everyone around him, including his brother who was so different from him. When Esau went out to fetch Isaac food so he could give him the blessing of the firstborn, Jacob put on clothes to feel and smell like him, and brought fresh meat for a meal for Isaac. Jacob watched everything Esau did to fool his father, and used the same techniques himself, to his own advantage, and ultimately to the benefit of the Jewish people. Jacob used Esau?s own devices to take his birthright; each brother looked at the things the other did that were most different from the way they themselves acted, and used these things to their own advantages.
I hope nobody?s killing each other or learning in the middle of services, but just the same, it?s important to always appreciate the things you can learn from all the different people around you tonight and every day.
God Bless You
By Jamie Chiel
The heartache of a family that is torn in two. The struggle of one brother against another, in a thrilling story of deception, betrayal, and the battle for ultimate power. Coming soon to theaters near you? No, in fact, this is not a movie trailer, but rather the narrative contained in this week?s Torah portion. Isaac and Rebecca have twins who begin to fight with one another even before they are born. Their sibling rivalry is compounded by the fact that Isaac favors Esau, and Rebecca prefers Jacob. When the day comes that Isaac decides to bless his beloved son, Rebecca dresses Jacob as his brother and has him steal Esau?s blessing. These twists and turns beg the question: why all the drama?
Although the parenting decisions of Isaac and Rebecca are confusing, to say the least, and the differences between Jacob and Esau are vast, the main tension in the story centers around the blessing that Isaac wants to give Esau. Only after Rebecca is driven to secure the blessing for Jacob does the story begin to spiral out of control. Jacob dresses as his brother, tricks his father, and enrages his older brother. Esau threatens to kill Jacob, who is forced to run away from his home. All of this stems from the desire to receive Isaac?s blessing. But what exactly was the importance of blessing that Isaac intended to give Esau?
Nahmanides, a 13th century commentator, explains that the blessing would have passed down the leadership and covenant of the Jewish people to Esau. This interpretation accounts for Rebecca?s urgency in pushing Jacob to deceive his father and procure Esau?s blessing.
However, upon closer inspection, the blessing that was intended for Esau and the one that Esau receives after his original one is stolen appear quite similar. Nechama Leibowitz points out that in neither blessing does Isaac bless Esau with ?zera va?aretz,? ?seed and the land,? which are central elements to the covenantal blessing. Instead, she posits that Isaac never intended to pass down the Jewish nation to Esau. In fact, she quotes the Malbim, a 19th century commentator, who asserts that Isaac knew that he did not have the power to pass the covenant to either of his children, since only God could make this decision.
According to this explanation, why did Jacob need to steal Esau?s blessing? One possible explanation, drawn from the writings of Rabbi Menachem Leibtag, is that Rebecca herself did not know that the decision was out of Isaac?s hands, and so she rushed to ensure that Jacob would receive the covenant. He explains that Isaac did not know of the prophecy given to Rebecca at the beginning of the parsha, where she learns that her two sons are to become two separate nations, and that the older would serve the younger. As a result, Rebecca resorts to dishonest conduct to prevent an enormous mistake. If one assumes that this is the scenario, it is interesting to note that all of the confusion comes from a lack of communication between Isaac and Rebecca. Why all the drama? Misunderstandings, resulting from a lack of openness and honesty in preference of secrecy and deceit, create the conditions whereby a family is torn apart, and also make for a compelling story.
Mm Mm Good
By Rivka Fogel
This week?s Torah portion begins with the expansion of Isaac?s family. Isaac marries Rebecca, and Rebecca gives birth to two sons. Underneath this deceptively innocent storyline, however, lies the key to understanding the importance of choice in the conflict between Rebecca?s two sons.
The verse describes Rebecca?s pregnancy, and explains that ?the sons were fighting within her.? According to rabbinic lore, Rebecca goes to the Rabbis to ascertain the reason for the battle; she is told that there are ?two goyim,? two nations, in her womb. Rashi, an 11th century French commentator, attributes an extra, etymologically related meaning to the word goyim; he writes that the verse hints of two gei?im, two egos, in Rebecca?s womb, constantly at war with each other even at that prenatal stage.
As the verse continues, the contrast between the two sons is emphasized. The first, Esau, is red and hairy. Jacob, on the other hand, is an innocent hanger-on, who wraps his hand around Esau?s ankle in the birth process. Esau is the hunter; Jacob is the na?ve Torah scholar. Esau is free physically and limited spiritually: he returns from wide open spaces, from the fields where, according to rabbinic lore, he raped and killed a girl. Jacob is free spiritually and limited physically: he learns Torah all day, but does so in his enclosed tent. Esau, in short, becomes an animal, whereas Jacob becomes all the more human.
This last point is especially apparent in the selling of the primogeniture. Jacob coolly and rationally buys the primogeniture from Esau. Esau, on the other hand, is ruled by instinct; he is red and sees red, returns from murder and is starving. He sells his inheritance for a pot of soup. He acts according to his urges, as evidenced by the quick succession of verbs in the verse: ?And he ate, and he drank, and he got up, and he wandered; and Esau wasted the primogeniture.? Esau is not living for anything but his carnal, physical desires and the pleasure of the moment. He is not going anywhere; his goals have fled him, and he is merely a wanderer.
In short, both sons begin as mighty nations ? but only one survives as such. Jacob decides, and lives for his decisions, is intellectually human and lives by the Torah, mighty in his connection to God and his acknowledgement of purpose. Esau merely lives by his instincts, ruled by his animalistic desires in the eternal hunt that the verse says is always ?in his mouth.? Whereas Jacob lives for a larger purpose, Esau lives for himself. Jacob works to fulfill his potential; Esau throws it away, and ?wastes the primogeniture.?
We are all given the chance at Penn to succeed academically and spiritually, and to combine the two in pursuit of fulfillment. Like Jacob and Esau, we are given opportunities to become great. It is our choice to make, however, whether we will become dwellers of tents or wanderers ? whether to take what we are given and maximize it, to make choices and live for the future, or to squander it when met by temptation, and destroy the future for the present. To put it simply, we have been given so much to live for ? and wouldn?t want to lose it for a pot of lentil soup.
Biatribe
NACHI: One of the most interesting and directly telling types of event in the Torah is baby namings. They almost always take the form of statements made by characters in the stories explicating their intentions in that one act. Whereas many biblical statements ?beg interpretation? by their enigmatic nature (cf. Rabbi Menachem Leibtag, contemporary Israeli Torah scholar), baby namings tend to describe events leading up to or involved with the birth of the child. The baby is then named based on some key words from that description. The same holds true by and large for renamings of non-babies (also known as adults) following important events in their lives. But like all rules, this one has some notable exceptions among famous characters whose births we ?witness? in the narrative of the Torah. An exception that comes up in this week?s Torah portion is the strange naming of Esau. The Torah says, ?The first [son] came out red ? entirely shrouded in hair. And they called his name Esau? (Genesis 25:25). Many commentators fit this sequence back into the universal template of baby namings by saying either that the name Esau is related to an Aramaic word for hairy, or that it comes from the root asah, meaning made or done. The latter method stays true to finding a Hebrew root for strange words, as many medieval commentators were wont to do, and goes on to explain that Esau was physically fully formed at birth ? at least in terms of hair. But this particular naming is unique not only for the nature of the name but also for the event of naming. In English, the arbitrary subject of a sentence can be expressed as ?they? (as in ?that?s what they say?). Biblical Hebrew, however, does not work this way, so the next statement in the verse, that ?they? called his name Esau, is surprising. It is especially so when contrasted with his younger twin Jacob?s naming in the very next verse, ?and he called his name Jacob? (ibid. 26). In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, who are these people? Most commentaries conflate their answers to this and the above difficulty into one by saying that ?they? refers to the onlookers of the world, thematically approaching the English arbitrary subject. Rabbi David Kimchi (12th c. Provencal commentator, grammarian and philosopher) picks up on the fact that this explanation in fact strays from the standard naming template because it forces the event of naming to not be a literal event at the birth of the child, since it pends on future opinions of persons presumably not present at the time. He therefore offers the alternate explanation that ?they? refers simply to the baby?s parents, Isaac and Rebecca, with no further explanation as to why they both took part in their first child?s naming and only one took part in the second child?s. Under the above assumption that the bestowing of a name is either an event later in life, which is recorded at the introduction of the character, which happens to be his birth, or that it occurs at birth but only by virtue of divine foresight, the commentary on Rashi (11th c. French commentator) known as Ma?yana shel Torah says that Esau represents the universal concept of prevarication and misrepresentation, while Jacob represents truth. Esau?s naming is the domain of the populace, the ?they,? since falsehood has myriad sources, whereas the truth (or perhaps Truth) is one monolithic body comprising all statements and ideas that are true. This is deep philosophical concept is reflected in the common parlance, by the difference between the terms for telling the truth vs. a lie. The identity of Jacob as a paragon of truth is given explicitly by the verse ?you will give truth to Jacob? (Micha 7:20), but the intrinsic connection between Esau and untruth is visible in his actions as well as his name. According to rabbinic lore, the letters in the name Esau are nothing but a recombination of the letters that spell another word for vanity or falseness, shav. Indeed, the word shav and the standard word for falsity, sheker, are seen to be only subtly different but largely interchangeable in their alternative usages in identical contexts in the two versions of the ?Ten Commandments,? i.e. ?you should not bear false witness against your neighbor? (Compare Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:17.). Esau?s embodiment of deceit runs deep and pervasive. It is for this reason that when Jacob needs to ensure his blessing later in the Torah portion, he literally takes on the mantle of his deceptive brother Esau in order to do so (27:15-16), covering up his true nature.
JOMO: Word.