MHA-FYOS Dean's Blog

In this week’s parasha , Toldot, the Torah shines its spotlight on Yitzchak and Rivka. We are introduced to their children, Yaakov and Esav, and presented with some of the struggles that Yitzchak encountered in settling Eretz Yisrael. The parasha culminates in Yitzchak’s blessing his two sons and the description of the ruse which Yaakov employs to receive the appropriate blessing from his father. The Torah begins this section with the introduction, vayehi ki zaken Yitzchak; vatechena einav me'reot  - and Yitzchak was old and his eyes were dimmed from seeing (being able to see). Our commentators discuss many issues about this verse, including, why, among the patriarchs, Yitzchak alone suffered from the dimming of his eyes. As they are wont to do, our commentators offer many explanations. According to the commentator, Imre Yosher , these explanations fall into two categories – those who maintain that Yitzchak’s blindness was a punishment for a transgression and those who maintai...

This week’s parasha , Toldot, presents the early years of Ya’akov and Esav – the twin sons of Yitzchak and Rivkah. A watershed moment occurred between them early in their respective lives. Seemingly out of nowhere, the Torah tells us that Yaakov was cooking a lentil porridge and that Esav was coming inside from the field and that he was tired. Esav requests lentil porridge from Yaakov and Yaakov offers to give him some in exchange for Esav’s firstborn rights. Esav takes an oath and sells the birthright to Yaakov. Yaakov gives porridge to Esav who ate, drank, got up and left and “disgraced” the birthright. Rashi seems to be bothered by the context of this story. In one of his comments, Rashi cites a Midrash that says that Yaakov and Esav lived similar childhoods, but went their separate ways at age thirteen. In another comment, Rashi cites a Midrash that addresses the reason why Yaakov was preparing lentils. The Midrash says that lentils are customarily eaten by a mourner b...