Shabbat Blast

From Ira Levy
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Friday, November 5, 2021

Dear CBO family,

The story of Parshat Toldot
This is a story about a family, and as in most families there is love, deceit, closeness, relationships, and more. In this family, Isaac marries Rebekah, and they have two sons, Esau and Jacob. Isaac favored Esau and Rebekah favored Jacob. This caused both parents to try to help their favored son for success, and to keep the other one down. Why they each favored the one they did is not totally clear.

As we know, Esau was an outdoors young man with a roughness about him, and Jacob was a softer easy going person. Rebekah found out that Isaac was going to give Esau his birthright and blessing, and she told Jacob to present himself to Isaac as Esau, so he could get the birthright and be blessed. You could wonder about the personalities of the two boys and whether they chose these personalities or were molded by their parents. And you might also wonder about the relationship between Isaac and Rebekah, as they were not honest with each other about the raising of their sons, and maybe other things as well.

The real question is, how the boys might have been different if not for the influence and manipulation from their parents. Would they have a better relationship? Would they have more love for each other and less competition?  And how would they feel for their parents? I see Tol’Dot as a lesson about family dynamics, and how the parents and children should treat each other and teach other.  How they should be less interested in their self-interests and more about what’s best for each other as a family.
 
Shabbat shalom,
Ira Levy
​​​​​​​Ritual Chair

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