Volume 29 Issue 36 20 Nov 2020 4 Kislev 5781

Toldot

Alexis Joffe – Year 11

In this week’s Parashah, Toldot, Rivkah and Yitschak wish for a child. After praying to God, Rebecca soon begins to feel violent movement within her womb. She asks God why she feels fighting within her, and God answers: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will emerge from you”. They will be divided from one another, starting from within you. “One shall become mightier than the other and the mighty one shall serve the lesser.”

Rivkah later gives birth to two boys. The first baby boy, Eisav is ruddy and hairy, and the second baby boy, Ya’akov has smooth skin. As the boys grew older, Eisav excelled in hunting whereas Jacob became a dweller of tents. Jacob was favoured by Rivkah and Eisav was favoured by Yitschak.

After many years, Yitschak, now old and blind said: “My son. Go hunt some venison for me and prepare the tasty dish that I love. Bring it to me and I will eat it so that I may bless you before I die”.

Rivkah, however, overhears this conversation and tells Ya’akov, her favourite son, to go and get two goats for her to make Yitschak his favourite dish so that he will bless Ya’akov and not Eisav. Considering Eisav has hairy skin unlike Ya’akov, his mother puts hairy goat skin on his hands and neck and dresses him in Eisav’s clothing. 

Ya’akov brings his father the venison and is blessed by him. When Eisav later arrives with his hunted meat, both father and eldest son realised what happened. This was now the second time Ya’akov had taken advantage of his brother, as earlier Ya’akov took Eisav’s birthright.

After begging his father to bless him, we read the words: “You (Eisav) will live upon your sword and you will serve your brother. Only when you humble yourself will you loosen his yoke from your neck.”

After all of this, Eisav ends up hating his brother Ya’akov and says in his heart “Let the days of mourning for my father draw near and then I will kill my brother Ya’akov.”

So, what can we learn from this week’s parashah? After understanding this week’s parashah, I asked myself two questions. Is it ever ok to lie? And is it ever ok to hate someone no matter how badly they have hurt and betrayed you?

Personally, I don’t think that either of these are ever ok no matter what situation you are in. Lying or betraying someone to get what you want in life should never be the answer. I believe that in order to get what you want in life; you have to work for it. Even if you know that you may never get something, lying or betraying should never be the solution.

Similarly, the feeling of hatred is far too extreme for me to ever believe it can be used. I feel as though each person has a decision in life and choosing whether you hate someone or not is a decision that is in each of our control. No matter how many times someone may betray you, I don’t believe it is ever ok to say you hate them. They may be less significant in your life, but I don’t think hatred should be something felt towards a person.

Overall, this week’s parashah is very important and holds very interesting and valuable life lessons allowing each individual to question what they believe in and what the right thing to do is in life. I encourage each person to take some time this week to think about the concept of lying and hatred and whether they are acceptable in your life and why.