Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Oh! what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!

Throughout the Bible, the younger usurps the older.

Of the first children, it is the offering of the younger Hevel/Abel, rather than that of the older Kayin/Cain, that is accepted by God. It is Yitschak/Isaac, the younger son of the first Hebrew, Avraham, that is the blessed chosen one, rather than his older brother Yishma’el. Yitschak’s younger son, Ya’akov/ Jacob, supplants the older child Eisav/Esau, as does his younger son, Yosef, rise above his older brethren. So too does Ephraim, the younger son of Yosef, gain ascendency over the older Menasheh and then, on a grander scale, the young nation of Israel overcomes the established reigning power of Egypt.

The biblical narrative of the younger gaining dominance over the older seems to reflect the hopes and challenges of a younger/smaller people which needs to overcome the more dominant larger nations of the world, among whom it finds itself. Indeed, the Biblical author present this as a divine destiny which this younger son is to make manifest. Thus, in our parashah, God announces to Rivkah (Rebecca) about to give birth to her twins, Ya’akov and Eisav: “Two nations are in your womb…One people shall be mightier than the other. And the older shall serve the younger”.

At the same time that the Bible makes clear that the lot of the younger is more promising than that of the older, it teaches us that the means by which we realise our aspirations serve as the measure of who we truly are.

Foreshadowing his seizing of the birthright and its attendant blessing from his older twin, the younger brother who grasps the heel/עקב of Eisav, to emerge as the firstborn, is named Ya’akov/יעקב, the usurper. After securing the blessing of the firstborn by deceiving his blind father, the Bible indicates that Ya’akov/יעקב quickly lived up to his name. “And, he (Eisav) said: ‘Was he then named Ya’akov/יעקב, so that he might twice usurp me/יעקבני. First he took my birthright and now he has taken my blessing’ ”. It is this very episode that leads the prophet Jeremiah to describe the fallen state of the people enmeshed in falsehood and betrayal: “Do not trust in your brother. For, every brother is a usurper/akov-כל אח עקוב יעקב.”

Just as quickly, Ya’akov/יעקב suffers his comeuppance. Fleeing his usurped brother he takes up residence with his uncle for whom he works seven years to win the hand of his younger daughter in marriage. But, under cover of night, when Ya’akov/יעקב could not see (just as Yitschak was blind to his machinations), it is the older rather than the younger that is brought to his wedding bed. When Ya’akov/יעקב protests: “Why did you deceive me?” (echoing Yitschak’s words to Eisav: “Your brother came in deception and took your blessing”), he is told: “It is not done thus in our place, to supplant the older with the younger”.

With the deceiver being deceived, our tradition teaches middah kneged middah – measure for measure, our actions redound upon us. Nor, as well, do they spare our children. Ya’akov/יעקב’s sons learn from their father. As Ya’akov/יעקב deceived his father Yitschak, by wearing the clothes of the brother he wishes to displace, so his sons, trying to rid themselves of their brother Yosef, use his clothes to trick Ya’akov/יעקב into believing his son is dead.

The life we create for ourselves cannot be divorced from the life we make (im)possible for others. As the Rabbis teach: “BaMidah SheAdam Moded Bah, Modedim Lo – By the measure through which we value others so are we valued”.