The Favorite Son: Mom Versus Dad

Toward the end of the parasha, we read about the blessing which Isaac intended for Esau but gave to Jacob. Among the numerous questions the classical commentaries ask about the matter is how to explain the different approaches of Isaac and Rebecca. Why was Isaac so insistent that the blessing be given to Esau, while Rebecca was determined that Jacob receive the blessing?

            At the beginning of the parasha, when “the children struggled within her (Rebecca) and she said: Why am I thus? She went to inquire of God. And God said to her: two nations are in your womb and ... the elder shall serve the younger.” [25:22-23] This prophecy was conveyed only to Rebecca but not to Isaac. Moreover, the parasha relates that the difference in approach to the two sons is evident from their childhood, “And Isaac loved Esau... but Rebecca loved Jacob.” [Genesis 25:28] As he was not privy to this prophecy, the commentaries tell us that Isaac entertained the hope of his two sons reaching an accommodation with each other.  

Thus, Rebecca understood that it was necessary to exclude Esau in order for Jacob to carry on his spiritual development. Malbim explains that Isaac hoped to create a coalition of Jacob and Esau, in which Jacob would be involved in spiritual matters and Esau would take care of the physical aspects necessary to support Jacob, whereas Rebecca’s approach was based on the fact that there could not be a successful working relation between her twin sons.

            In truth, the necessity to choose and to be selective was evident as well in Abraham’s life, when he sent Ishmael away in order to allow Isaac to be his heir, [21:10ff.] and again when he sent away his remaining six sons. [25:5-6]

            But this approach was part of Israel’s pre-history, that is, before the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob received their constitution, becoming the People of Israel. Once the People of Israel was established, there is no longer a selective process, rather, there is a single, united People. This point is reflected in the Halacha, as presented by Maimonides:

If the gentiles say (to Israelites), give of one of you to be killed or we will kill all of you, they must allow themselves all to be killed, and not hand over a single soul from Israel. [Laws of the Foundations of Torah 5: 5]

It makes no difference who the Jew is, the most ordinary Jew may not be handed over, even to save the greatest scholars and leaders.

            Rebecca’s approach was that of pre-Sinai, Isaac’s that of post-Sinai, whose time had not yet arrived.