Tree of Souls

by Howard Schwartz

  As for the tallit, it is said that Abraham returned to the gabbai in a dream shortly before he died, and told him to request that he be buried in it. This was done, and no sooner did they cover his body with that prayer shawl than his soul found itself in Paradise, inside the synagogue of Abraham the patriarch. There he was made gabbai in that heavenly House of Prayer, where he serves the patriarch Abraham to this day, still wrapped in that sacred tallit.

  There is an extensive tradition attributing immortality to the key patriarchal figures. Not only is Abraham portrayed as never having died, but there are also accounts about Jacob, Moses, and King David still being alive. Some of these are found in rabbinic sources, and others in Jewish folklore, some of it still recounted orally by the Lubavitch Hasidim and in other Orthodox circles, as in this case. This is a well-known medieval folktale that has entered later Orthodox oral tradition as if it were a midrash.

  Sources:

  Sefer ha-Ma’asiyot 95-96; Collected from Rabbi Yosef Landa by Howard Schwartz.

  451. THE BIRTHS OF JACOB AND ESAU

  Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord responded to his plea, and his wife Rebecca conceived. But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, “If so, why do I exist?” She went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord answered her, “Two nations are in your womb, two separate peoples shall issue from your body; one people shall be mightier than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.”

  When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. The first one emerged red all over; so they named him Esau. Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau; so they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

  The rabbis were well aware that the portrayal of Jacob in Genesis revealed many negative qualities about him. They were loath to accept this portrayal, because Jacob was an important patriarch, and especially because his name became Israel, from which the nation of Israel took its name. Therefore there is an intensive whitewashing process found in the rabbinic texts. Some midrashim attribute intention to the unborn twins, Jacob and Esau, and shows that their conflict started in the womb. Genesis Rabbah 63:6 describes how when Rebecca stood near a synagogue, Jacob struggled to come out. When she passed idolatrous temples, Esau struggled to come out. Rebecca went to the academy of Shem and Eber, and they explained that “There are two nations in your womb. At their birth they will be separated. One will enjoy the pleasures of this world, and the other the delights of the world to come.”

  Another midrash asserts that Jacob was destined to be born first, but Esau refused to accept this, and therefore Jacob held back in order not to harm his mother, Rebecca, but that he held on to Esau’s heel as a sign that it was he who was really supposed to have been the eldest. This view thus justifies Jacob’s forcing Esau to sell his birthright to him, and Jacob’s later stealing his brother’s blessing, and therefore goes a long way toward mitigating the acts that otherwise identify Jacob as one who tricked and cheated his father and his brother (Midrash ha-Gadol 1:390-391).

  Sources:

  Genesis 25:21-26.

  452. ISAAC RETURNS TO MOUNT MORIAH

  After Isaac took Rebecca as his wife, she was barren for twenty-two years. So Isaac took Rebecca with him and went back to Mount Moriah, to the place where he had been bound, and he prayed that she should conceive, as it is said, Isaac pleaded with Yahweh on behalf of his wife (Gen. 25:21). And by his prayer Isaac changed the intention of God, who had decreed that he and Rebecca would be barren. After that, Rebecca became pregnant with twins.

  This legend from Targum Pseudo-Yonathan adds an important detail to Genesis 25:21-23, where Isaac prays that Rebecca should conceive. It identifies the place of his prayer as Mount Moriah. On the one hand, this is strange, since Isaac’s experience there was so traumatic. On the other hand, Isaac was well aware that it was a holy place, where he could communicate with God. See “The Births of Jacob and Esau,” p. 349.

  Sources:

  Targum Pseudo-Yonathan on Genesis 25:20; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 32; Sefer ha-Yashar 26.

  453. THE BARTERED BIRTHRIGHT

  When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the outdoors; but Jacob was a mild man who stayed in camp. Isaac favored Esau because he had a taste for game; but Rebecca favored Jacob. Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open, famished. And Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stuff to gulp down, for I am famished”—which is why he was named Edom. Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” And Esau said, “I am at the point of death, so of what use is my birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Jacob then gave Esau bread and lentil stew; he ate and drank, and he rose and went away. Thus did Esau spurn the birthright.

  This famous episode from Genesis clearly establishes the pattern between Jacob and Esau, in which Jacob plays an underhanded role in forcing his brother to sell his birthright for a bowl of lentils. It is hard, if not impossible, to justify Jacob’s behavior, although the midrashic texts try to do this by asserting that Jacob was destined to be born first, but he and Esau struggled in the womb, and Jacob permitted Esau to go first so as not to harm their mother, Rebecca. The idea of selling something of value for something worthless has become an aphorism about selling something of value for a bowl of pottage.

  Sources:

  Genesis 25:27-34.

  454. RED LENTILS

  Lentils are the food of mourning and sorrow. When Cain killed Abel, Adam and Eve ate lentils as a sign of their mourning over him. And when Haran was burned in Nimrod’s furnace, his parents ate lentils as a sign of mourning. And when his grandfather, Abraham, died, Jacob boiled dishes of lentils as a sign of mourning and sorrow, and as a sign that it was a house of mourning. Then he went to comfort his father, Isaac.

  The lentils were a sign of mourning, but Esau was unconcerned about the death of his grandfather; nothing mattered but to satisfy his hunger. This proves that he not only gave up his birthright, he rejected belief in the resurrection of the dead as well. Therefore he was undeserving of his birthright. How do we know that God agreed with this? Because it says, Thus says Yahweh: “Israel is My first-born son” (Exod. 4:22). Then Gabriel and Michael recorded that the birthright belonged to Jacob. And since the birthright was his, so too was the Blessing of the Firstborn, which belonged to the one who possessed the birthright.

  This midrash is part of an extensive reinterpretation of Jacob’s acts in order to justify everything he did, since he, more than any other patriarch, is identified with the nation of Israel. That is because Jacob’s name is changed to Israel in Genesis 32:29, after he wrestles with the angel. Here, to justify Jacob’s behavior in requiring his brother to pay with his birthright for a dish of lentils, B. Bava Batra 16b suggests that Abraham, the grandfather of Jacob and Esau, had died that day, and that Jacob had prepared the dish to comfort his father, Isaac. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 35 states that, “Lentils are the food of mourning and sorrow.” Thus their preparation would indicate a house of mourning. Targum Pseudo-Yonathan on Genesis 25:29 inserts into the biblical text: “The day Abraham died, Jacob boiled dishes of lentils and went to comfort his father.” This traditional sign of mourning is also linked to Adam and Eve and to the death of Haran, suggesting that it was an old and widely known custom, and therefore Esau should have immediately asked if anyone had died. Because he did not, he proved himself to be unworthy of his birthright and the Blessing of the Firstborn.

  B. Bava Batra 16b considers the appropriateness of the lentil as a sign of mourning: “Just as a lentil is round, so mourning comes around to everyone in the world. Just as a lentil has no mouth, so a mourner has no mouth, for a mourner does not speak.” Lentils have continued to be used as a food prepared for Jewish mourners.

  For more on the transformation of Jacob in rabbinic texts, see “Jacob the Blessed,” p. 353. For mor
e on the cult of Jacob that greatly elevated his status to the near-divine, see “Jacob the Angel,” p. 364, and “Jacob the Divine,” p. 366.

  Sources:

  Targum Pseudo-Yonathan on Genesis 25:29; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 35; B. Bava Batra 16b; Genesis Rabbah 63:14.

  455. ISAAC’S EYES GROW DIM

  When Abraham tied Isaac down to the altar at Mount Moriah, Isaac lifted up his eyes heavenwards and saw the glory of the Shekhinah. After that his eyes began to grow dim, as it is said, When Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see (Gen. 27:1).

  This midrash links Isaac’s being bound on Mount Moriah with his blindness in his old age. It is part of a tradition that Isaac had an intense mystical experience on Mount Moriah. In other versions, the tears of the angels on high, watching the drama unfold, fell into Isaac’s eyes and brought on his subsequent blindness. See “Isaac’s Ascent,” p. 171.

  Sources:

  Targum Pseudo-Yonathan on Genesis 27:1; Genesis Rabbah 65:10; Deuteronomy Rabbah 11:3; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 32.

  456. THE STOLEN BLESSING

  When Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” He answered, “Here I am.” And he said, “I am old now, and I do not know how soon I may die. Take your gear, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open and hunt me some game. Then prepare a dish for me such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my innermost blessing before I die.”

  Rebecca had been listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau had gone out into the open to hunt game to bring home, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, “I overheard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying, ‘Bring me some game and prepare a dish for me to eat, that I may bless you, with the Lord’s approval, before I die.’ Now, my son, listen carefully as I instruct you. Go to the flock and fetch me two choice kids, and I will make of them a dish for your father, such as he likes. Then take it to your father to eat, in order that he may bless you before he dies.” Jacob answered his mother Rebecca, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am smooth skinned. If my father touches me, I shall appear to him as a trickster and bring upon myself a curse, not a blessing.” But his mother said to him, “Your curse, my son, be upon me! Just do as I say and go fetch them for me.”

  He got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared a dish such as his father liked. Rebecca then took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were there in the house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on; and she covered his hands and the hairless part of his neck with the skins of the kids. Then she put in the hands of her son Jacob the dish and the bread that she had prepared.

  He went to his father and said, “Father.” And he said, “Yes, which of my sons are you?” Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Pray sit up and eat of my game, that you may give me your innermost blessing.” Isaac said to his son, “How did you succeed so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the Lord your God granted me good fortune.” Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer that I may feel you, my son—whether you are really my son Esau or not.” So Jacob drew close to his father Isaac, who felt him and wondered. “The voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau.” He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; and so he blessed him.

  He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” And when he said, “I am,” he said, “Serve me and let me eat of my son’s game that I may give you my innermost blessing.” So he served him and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come close and kiss me, my son;” and he went up and kissed him. And he smelled his clothes and he blessed him, saying, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of the fields that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth, abundance of new grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow to you; be master over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow to you. Cursed be they who curse you, blessed they who bless you.”

  No sooner had Jacob left the presence of his father Isaac—after Isaac had finished blessing Jacob—than his brother Esau came back from his hunt. He too prepared a dish and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may give me your innermost blessing.” His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, Esau, your first-born!” Isaac was seized with very violent trembling. “Who was it then,” he demanded, “that hunted game and brought it to me? Moreover, I ate of it before you came, and I blessed him; now he must remain blessed!” When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst into wild and bitter sobbing, and said to his father, “Bless me too, Father!” But he answered, “Your brother came with guile and took away your blessing.” Esau said, “Was he, then, named Jacob that he might supplant me these two times? First he took away my birthright and now he has taken away my blessing!” And he added, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” Isaac answered, saying to Esau, “But I have made him master over you: I have given him all his brothers for servants, and sustained him with grain and wine. What, then, can I still do for you, my son?” And Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!” And Esau wept aloud. And his father Isaac answered, saying to him, “See, your abode shall enjoy the fat of the earth and the dew of heaven above. Yet by your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restive, you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

  Now Esau harbored a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing that his father had given him, and Esau said to himself, “Let but the mourning period of my father come, and I will kill my brother Jacob.” When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebecca, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. Now, my son, listen to me. Flee at once to Haran, to my brother Laban. Stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury subsides—until your brother’s anger against you subsides—and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will fetch you from there. Let me not lose you both in one day!”

  Before his death, Isaac calls in Esau to give him the Blessing of the Firstborn, which entitles him to virtually all of his father’s property under the rights of primogeniture. Nevertheless, there are many cases in the Bible in which the firstborn did not receive a preferential share. These include Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Reuben and Joseph, and Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. A modified version of the rights of primogeniture is given in Deuteronomy 21:15-17, which establishes that a man’s property is inherited by his sons, the firstborn receiving a double share.

  Rebecca schemes with Jacob to have him impersonate his brother and steal the blessing. For once it had been given, it could not be retrieved. The plan works, although Jacob lies to his father twice: once when Isaac asks if he is Esau, and by wearing goatskin on his hands, to make them appear hairy. Still, Isaac almost sees through the ruse: “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau” (Gen. 27:23).

  It was to receive this blessing that Jacob forced Esau to sell him his birthright. Having purchased it with a bowl of lentil stew, Jacob may have felt that he deserved the blessing from his father. See “The Bartered Birthright,” p. 350.

  This narrative reads like a staged play. Isaac calls in Esau; Rebecca plots with Jacob; Esau leaves, Jacob enters; Jacob leaves, Esau enters. It is a marvel of condensed under-statement, but after this episode Rebecca and Jacob can never be viewed in the same light. Honor your father and mother is one of the Ten Commandments, and Jacob clearly does not honor his father in this story. He and Rebecca treat Isaac like an old, blind fool, who can easily be tricked. They also assume that Esau can be deceived. After this episode and that of the bartered birthright, Jacob’s image as a trickster is imprinted for all time. Furthermore, this incident causes Jacob and Esau to become
enemies, and Jacob is forced to flee to the home of his uncle Laban in Haran. Yet, ironically, this journey leads Jacob to discover the God of his fathers and to fulfill his destiny. In the end, Jacob the trickster has transformed into Jacob the patriarch, even though he does cross his arms when asked to bless Joseph’s sons, and gives the Blessing of the Firstborn to the younger instead of to the elder. At that moment we catch a clear glimpse of Jacob the trickster (Gen. 48:8-15), as well as Jacob’s rebellion against the right of ligature.

  The Ugaritic stories of Aqhat have distinct parallels to this biblical episode, where the role of Esau is played by Aqhat the hunter, and the role of Rebecca is played by Anat, who tries to steal his inheritance.

  Sources:

  Genesis 27:1-45.

  Studies:

  Stories from Ancient Canaan trans. by M. D. Coogan, pp. 27-47.

  An Anthology of Religious Texts from Ugarit by Johannes C. de Moor, pp. 224-269.

  457. JACOB THE BLESSED

  When Jacob entered into the presence of his father, Paradise entered with him. Isaac blessed Jacob with ten blessings, corresponding to the ten words by which the world was created. And when Jacob went forth from the presence of his father Isaac, he went forth crowned like a bridegroom, and the quickening dew from heaven descended upon him and refreshed his bones, and he became a mighty hero. That is why it is said, By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob—there, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel (Gen. 49:24).

  The clear sense of the biblical text is that the plot of Rebecca and Jacob to trick Isaac is wrong. But because of the identification of Jacob with Israel, the midrashic text goes to extremes to justify his actions. Here, rather than leaving Isaac’s tent like a thief, Jacob is described as going forth crowned like a bridegroom. This is part of the process by which all of Jacob’s actions are whitewashed, while everything that Esau does is painted black. For example, Targum Pseudo-Yonathan on Genesis 25:29 states that “Esau came from the country, and he was exhausted because he had committed five transgressions that day: he had practiced idolatry; he had shed innocent blood; he had lain with a betrothed maiden; he had denied the life of the world to come; and he had despised his birthright.”