TorahParsha

The Rejection of Esau

i

Before God makes Man, the plants of the field—siach ha'sadeh—had not yet sprouted. For there was no man yet to work the land.

 

And then God makes Man and places him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to guard it.

 

*

Isaac is a man who goes out to meditate in the field: la'suach ba'sadeh.

 

Meditating, Isaac binds himself to Man's original purpose; he meditates back to the field and the protection of the field.

 

Isaac meditates back to Man's purpose of helping things grow.

 

ii

Esau, Isaac's son, is a man of the field. So he is like is father.

 

But Esau is also a Man who knows how to hunt.

 

To hunt is to undo Man's purpose in the field: to hunt is to kill.

 

iii

Esau is rejected from the line of Isaac, from the line of Abraham, from the line of men who fulfill their reason for being created.

 

This is because it is not enough to be a literalist.

 

It is not enough to say: I have shown up to the right place, I have come to the field, I am a man of the field; and that is enough.

 

Because it is not enough to only show up to the right place. You must fulfill your purpose in that right place. You must help the things of that place grow.

 

Esau does not understand this, and so he is rejected.

 

That is the tragedy of Esau.

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The Children of Rebecca and Isaac

i
The text relays how Abraham's servant brings Rebecca from her homeland to Abraham's house, to become Isaac's wife; in that story the text uses the word camel eighteen times.

For instance. The servant sets a sign to know whom of the women he meets should be Isaac's bride. The sign is that the right woman will volunteer to water the servant's camels. It is Rebecca who fulfills that sign.

And for instance. When Rebecca finally does come to the house of Abraham, to be married to Isaac, she is riding on a camel.

And we do not learn that Isaac actually sees Rebecca when she arrives. We only learn that Isaac lifted up his eyes, and behold: camels were coming.

Rebecca is signified by camels.

*
At the time that Rebecca and Isaac meet, Isaac has just gone out to meditate in the field.

*
After they meet, Isaac takes Rebecca in to the tent, in to their marital home.

And he loved her.

ii
A camel in that time and place was a vehicle of journey, like our car or our train.

So Rebecca, drawn to camels, signified by camels, is a woman of journeys. She looks out to the wide expanse of the world.

*
Isaac is a man of meditation, of plumbing the depths of all things in a single field, of things close-at-hand.

*
Isaac and Rebecca's marriage joins two opposite views within a single home of love.

iii
God gives the Law to the Children of Israel—Rebecca and Isaac's descendants—at a precise mountain, a specific spot, along the Children of Israel's journey from Egypt to Canaan, from landlessness to home, from profane to holy. 

And God asks the Children of Israel to make for him a Mishkan, a portable temple, a meeting-house for the people and God, for the people and holiness, in their journeys from place to place.

And even up through now we meditate upon the Law, that is called Halacha, that means Path, inside the room called a Beit Midrash: a House of Study: the journey and the meditation in one home.

*
So that we, who are Rebecca and Isaac's children, come to God as Rebecca and Isaac's children.

Their marriage is eternal.

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This thought owes a great deal to both an online shiur from Yaacov Steinman, and insights from Rabbi Laurie Dinnerstein-Kurs.

Chosenness

i
Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac, who is Abraham’s son.

The servant asks God for a sign by which to find her:

The girl to whom I will say, “Let down your pitcher... that I may drink”—and she will say, “Drink, and I will give your camels drink also”—let it be her whom You have appointed for Your servant Isaac.

The servant discovers Rebecca by the well near the city. Rebecca fulfills this sign.

*
The servant tells these things to Rebecca’s family. They agree to the marriage. They say: the thing comes from the Lord.

But there is disagreement. The servant wants to take Rebecca to Isaac immediately. Her family wants her to wait. The servant says: Do not hinder me, seeing as the Lord has prospered my way.

*
Rebecca, when her family asks what she prefers, says I will go.

ii
It is clear in a sign from God that Rebecca is to be Isaac’s wife: that she is to become mother to Israel.

But Rebecca must decide, herself, to go on God’s path.

iii
Even those who are chosen by God must themselves choose Him.

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