Two Minute Torah Podcast

Toldot 5773 by Rabbi Daniel Goldfarb

Hi, shalom: I'm Rabbi Daniel Goldfarb from the CY in Jerusalem.

Toldot, this week's Torah Portion, deals with our ancestor Isaac, his wife Rebecca and their twin sons Esau and Jacob. The relations between the boys are tense, even before birth ("they struggled in her womb" 25:22), and the conflict reaches a high point towards the end of the Parsha after Rebecca and Jacob successfully trick Isaac into giving the blessing of the land of Israel and the divine destiny to Jacob, rather than to Esau, the first born and the one Isaac loved, because Esau provided him game to eat. When he realizes he has lost that blessing, Esau vows to kill Jacob.

The Torah reports a curious incident between the brothers, still young, that actually plays a part in the story. Esau comes from the field one day, when Jacob was preparing a nazid adashim, a lentil stew. Famished, Esau tells Jacob to pour him a hearty mouthful. Jacob says "first sell me your birthright" and Esau, either overwhelmed by hunger or the fragility of life, agrees: "If I'm to die, what good is the birthright anyway?" The episode ends with a wonderful Torah line: "and he ate and drank, and rose and left. So Esau showed disdain for the birthright." The Hebrew has these 5 verbs– ate, drank, rose, left and disdained - in a row, a rare and intriguing literary device. The first four verbs show action, we would see them were the scene performed on stage or TV. The last, vayivez, disdain, either summarizes this little episode or tells us what was Esau's state of mind.

Food plays an important part in the Genesis stories, beginning in the Garden of Eden. Esau here, due to circumstances or personality, chose to favor a bowl of lentil stew now over a set or rights and privileges in the future. In our family, it is the custom for dinner on Shabbat Parshat Toldot to have Lentil Stew, my grandmother's recipe. It is delicious, so much so that I say that had Jacob used her recipe, I understand Esau's decision completely. I would have done the same thing. And if you'd like my grandmother's Lentil Stew recipe, just write me at Yeshiva@uscj.org. Beteavon, bon apetit and Shabbat shalom.