Volume 29 Issue 38 04 Dec 2020 18 Kislev 5781

From the Head of Jewish Life

Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

A Weapon of Love

After many years of separation and estrangement, our parashah, VaYishlach, describes the twin brothers Ya’akov and Eisav coming together again:

“And Eisav ran to greet him, he embraced him and, falling on his neck, he kissed him and they wept”.

The Hebrew word for “he kissed him”, וישקהו/va-yishakeihu has scribal dots appearing above each of the letters of this word (וַׄיִּׄשָּׁׄקֵ֑ׄהׄוּׄ). This is one of only ten dotted words in the Torah and has elicited two contrasting perspectives on this encounter.

One Rabbi contends that these dots emphasise that Eisav wholeheartedly kissed his brother Ya’akov. This understanding is consonant with the context of the passage in which Eisav runs to greet his brother, embraces him and both brothers weep in each other’s arms.

A second view, however, claims that these dots call our attention to the correct reading of the text, or the true intention of Eisev. Playing on the similarity of the words נשק/nashak, kiss, and נשך/Nashach, bite, this rendering asserts that Eisav tried to bite his brother Ya’akov.

Beyond the difficulty this interpretation has in explaining why they both subsequently wept, one would think that Eisav, having four hundred men at his side, certainly could have harmed his brother, by means other than biting him, if that was his intention.

While Ya’akov was in fear of the brother whose birthright and blessing he had taken from him, Eisav is presenting no cause for this apprehension. Indeed, after kissing him, Eisav asks his brother why he had sent him an abundance of gifts (which Ya’akov had done for propitiatory purposes). When Ya’akov responds “To gain my Lord’s favour”, Eisav says: “I have enough my brother, let what you have remain yours”.

There might well be another, more plausible, explanation for these scribal dots. In ancient texts scribal dots, “puncta extraordinaria”, often meant that the designated letters or word were/was incorrect or superfluous.

Elsewhere in the Torah text, we have the idiom of falling on the neck and weeping: “He (Yosef) fell on his brother Binyamin’s’s neck and wept, and Binyamin wept on his neck or “He (Yosef) fell on his (Ya’akov’s) neck, and he wept on his neck”. We also have the expression of kissing and weeping: “Ya’akov kissed Rachel and lifted his voice and wept” or “He (Yosef) kissed all his brothers and wept”.

Our text appears to conflate two different formulations by combining falling on the neck, kissing and weeping. It appears the Masoretes placed these dots above the word “he kissed him” to suggest that it be deleted and that the correct reading, in keeping with the traditional formulation would be “And Eisav ran to greet him, he embraced him and, falling on his neck, they wept”.

However, if one wishes to retain the words “And he kissed him”, perhaps we can read the dots above this word as indicating that the word nashak (kiss) brings to mind the word neshek (weapon) and that the most effective weapon against brotherly strife is the kiss of love.