Toldot
Itzhak marries Rivka. After twenty childless years, Rivka
conceives. Pregnancy is difficult, as “children fight within
you”; Elohim tells him that he has “two nations in his
womb” and that his younger son will prevail over the
elder. Eisav comes out first. Jacob is born taking the heel
of Eisav. Eisav grows up to be a “hunter, a man of the
field”; Jacob is a “complete man,” an inhabitant of the
studio’s tents. Isaac prefers Eisav and Rivka to Jacob.
Returning exhausted and hungry from the countryside
after the day of hunting, Eisav sells Jacob the merits that
correspond to him as firstborn for a stew of red lentils.
Eisav comes out first. Jacob is born taking the heel of Eisav.
Eisav grows up to be a “hunter, a man of the field”; Jacob
is a “complete man,” an inhabitant of the studio’s tents.
Isaac prefers Eisav and Rivka to Jacob. Returning
exhausted and hungry from the countryside after the day
of hunting, Eisav sells Jacob the merits that correspond to
him as firstborn for a stew of red lentils. In Gear, in the
land of the Philistines, Isaac presents Rivka as his sister for
fear of being killed by someone desiring Rivka’s beauty.
Eisav marries two Hittite women. Isaac becomes old and
blind and expresses his desire to bless Eisav before his
death. While Eisav goes hunting to prepare his father’s
favorite food, Rivka dresses Jacob in Eisav’s clothes, covers
his arms with goatskin to simulate his hairy brother,
prepares a similar dish, and sends Jacob to his father.
Jacob receives his father’s blessing to have “the dew of
heaven and the best of the earth” and to rule his brother.
When Eisav returns and the deception, all Isaac can do for
his son is predicted that he will live by his sword and that,
when Jacob descends, Eisav will rise. Jacob leaves his
home for Haran to escape the wrath of Eisav and to find a
wife in the family of his mother’s brother, Laban. Eisav
marries a third wife, Ishmael’s daughter Majlat
