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GENESIS - PARASHATH TOLEDOTH.
ALIYAH 6 [27:28 - 28:4] - JACOB'S DECEPTION EXPOSED.
Isaac finishes blessing Jacob, who is impersonating his firstborn twin brother Esau; moments later, the real Esau walks in. The deception is soon unmasked. Isaac gives Esau a blessing, but clarifies that he has already "made him master over you." Esau harbors resentment against Jacob and plots revenge.
Learning of Esau's plans to kill Jacob, Rebecca advises Jacob to flee to the city of Charan in Padan-Aram - her home territory, where she has family and connections. She then tells Isaac that she is worried Jacob will marry a local Hittite girl (the trouble with Esau's Hittite wives reported in 26:35 makes this a plausible concern) and Isaac dutifully sends Jacob off to Padan-Aram to find a wife. It is not clear that Isaac ever learned of Esau's intentions against Jacob, but it appears Rebecca has deftly engineered the cover story of the search for a wife as a pretext to get Jacob out of Dodge.
Rebecca, learning of Esau's plans, worries that the twins will kill one another in the ensuing fray: "Why should I bereft of you both on the same day?" (27:45) Robert Alter assumes that such a confrontation "would scarcely be a battle between equals" (Alter, p. 98, note), but Adin Steinsaltz disagrees. "However, from the fact that Isaac had to feel the twins' skin in order to distinguish them, and was unable to discern by touch any difference in their height or build, it may be inferred that they were similar in physical build" (Steinsaltz, pp 148 - 149, note).
ALIYAH 7 [28:5 - 9] - ESAU MARRIES MAHALATH.
Esau, perceiving that not only his mother but also his father (with whom he was closer) objected to his Hittite wives, takes his uncle Ishmael's daughter Mahalath as a wife.
--
NOTES ON TOLEDOTH.
Alone of the three Patriarchs, Isaac lives his whole life in the Land of Israel, never changes his name, and marries only one woman.
While Isaac's imminent death is repeatedly anticipated by Isaac himself (27:2, 4, 7), by Rebecca (27:10), and by Esau (27:41), his death is not actually reported until 35:27 - 29. [366]
ALIYAH 6 [27:28 - 28:4] - JACOB'S DECEPTION EXPOSED.
Isaac finishes blessing Jacob, who is impersonating his firstborn twin brother Esau; moments later, the real Esau walks in. The deception is soon unmasked. Isaac gives Esau a blessing, but clarifies that he has already "made him master over you." Esau harbors resentment against Jacob and plots revenge.
Learning of Esau's plans to kill Jacob, Rebecca advises Jacob to flee to the city of Charan in Padan-Aram - her home territory, where she has family and connections. She then tells Isaac that she is worried Jacob will marry a local Hittite girl (the trouble with Esau's Hittite wives reported in 26:35 makes this a plausible concern) and Isaac dutifully sends Jacob off to Padan-Aram to find a wife. It is not clear that Isaac ever learned of Esau's intentions against Jacob, but it appears Rebecca has deftly engineered the cover story of the search for a wife as a pretext to get Jacob out of Dodge.
Rebecca, learning of Esau's plans, worries that the twins will kill one another in the ensuing fray: "Why should I bereft of you both on the same day?" (27:45) Robert Alter assumes that such a confrontation "would scarcely be a battle between equals" (Alter, p. 98, note), but Adin Steinsaltz disagrees. "However, from the fact that Isaac had to feel the twins' skin in order to distinguish them, and was unable to discern by touch any difference in their height or build, it may be inferred that they were similar in physical build" (Steinsaltz, pp 148 - 149, note).
ALIYAH 7 [28:5 - 9] - ESAU MARRIES MAHALATH.
Esau, perceiving that not only his mother but also his father (with whom he was closer) objected to his Hittite wives, takes his uncle Ishmael's daughter Mahalath as a wife.
--
NOTES ON TOLEDOTH.
Alone of the three Patriarchs, Isaac lives his whole life in the Land of Israel, never changes his name, and marries only one woman.
While Isaac's imminent death is repeatedly anticipated by Isaac himself (27:2, 4, 7), by Rebecca (27:10), and by Esau (27:41), his death is not actually reported until 35:27 - 29. [366]
