From TorahVort.com
Toledot
This week’s reading starts off with the newly wed couple – Yitzchak and Rivkah, praying hard for the birth of children. After 20 years of continuous prayers, Rivkah finally gave birth to twins, Yaakov and Eisav. Their prayers for children were finally answered as they visited ‘Har Hamoria,’ (near where the Western Wall is in modern day era) this was the future sight of the first and second temple. Rivkah had actually been given prophecy by the great sage ‘Shaim,’ he told her that she carried in her two great nations, however both nations will strive towards different goals, one will be proud of its Torah and the other would pride itself on its wealth. It became apparent as they both reached the age of Bar Mitzvah, they had two different personalities, Yaakov immersed himself in learning Torah and Aisav became a mighty hunter. Avraham passed away at the age of 175 years, on the day of the funeral, Aisav came back from hunting (he didn’t realize his grandfather had just passed away) and sold the precious birthright in order to obtain a pot of ‘red lentils,’ he found the birthright to be absolute worthless. A famine then hit Canaan and Yitzchak decided to escape to Egypt, however G-d informed him that as he was bound as a sacrifice, he had now a holy status and must stay in the Holy Land. He relocated to Gerar in the land of the Philistines, where, to protect his wife Rivka, he informed the inhabitants that she was his sister. The Philistines quickly grew jealous of Yitzchak when he became immensely wealthy, and Avimelech the king along with his sidekick, Phicol, asked him to leave out of pure jealousness and hatred. Yitzchak re-dug three wells in the land Gerar which were dug by his father, Avraham, which in fact prophetically alluded to the three future Temples. The Philistines destroyed the first two wells; however they didn’t touch the third well, alluding to the fact that the first two temples would later on be destroyed while the third temple would stand for eternity. Avimelech saw that Yitzchak was blessed by G-d, decided to make a peace treaty with him. The Way the Philistines had treaded Yitzchak can be viewed as modern day anti Semitism. When Yitzchak sensed that his end was approaching (he was at the point 123 years old and within five years of the age of when his mother, Sarah, died at the age of 127), he summoned Esav to give him his blessing. Rivka swiftly acted on a prophetic instruction that the blessings must be given to Yaakov. She arranged for Yaakov to impersonate Esav and receive the blessings. Yitzchak instructed Esav to hunt food for him, so that he would be in a joyous state when giving the blessings so that the blessing s would have a powerful affect. There were many different prophets all throughout Jewish history and also 10 prophetic songs, the greatest prophets included; Samuel, Eliyahu, Elishah, Gideon, Yiftach, Shimshon, Barak, Ehud and many more. When one is generally in a ‘happy’ state they can receive prophecy if merited to do so. In fact, the sages commented that when one learns Torah, the scholar acquires 613 mitzvot for each word learned, furthermore when learning in a state of joy; the sages have commented that it has 1000 times the value. Yaakov successfully and deservingly took the blessing, and when Esav in frustration revealed to his father that Yaakov had bought the birthright, Yitzchak realized that the birthright has been bestowed correctly on Yaakov and confirmed the blessings he had given Yaakov. Esav then vowed to kill Yaakov, so Rivka decided to send Yaakov to her brother Lavan where he may find a suitable wife – which we will learn about in next weeks reading. The Torah reading concludes as Eisav married a daughter of Yishamel, adding to his two other wives. This week's Haftorah comes from the book of the prophet ‘Malachi’ and warns us to cherish our relationship with Hashem and never take advantage of it. Please everyone pray and say Tehilim for ‘Sarah Miriam Bat Tamar’ who is a very young girl in hospital and may she make a healthy and speedy recovery. The Dvar Torah is written by Michael Z learning in Ohr Sameach yeshiva in Jerusalem.
