Dear Friends;
I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parasha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;
” Parasha in a Nutshell ”
Isaac marries Rebecca. After twenty childless years their prayers are answered and Rebecca conceives. She experiences a difficult pregnancy; G-d tells her that “there are two nations in your womb,” and that the younger will prevail over the elder. Eisav emerges first; Jacob is born clutching Eisav’s heel. Eisav grows up to be “a hunter, a man of the field”; Jacob is “a wholesome man,” a dweller in the tents. Isaac favors Eisav; Rebecca loves Jacob.
Returning exhausted and hungry from the hunt one day, Eisav sells his birthright to Jacob for a pot of red lentil stew.
Eisav marries two Hittite women. Isaac grows old and blind, and expresses his desire to bless Eisav before he dies. While Eisav goes off to hunt for his father’s favorite food, Rebecca dresses Jacob in Eisav’s clothes, prepares a similar dish, and sends Jacob to his father. Jacob receives his fathers’ blessings for “the dew of the heaven and the fat of the land” and mastery over his brother. When Esau returns and the deception is revealed, all Isaac can bless his weeping son with is to predict that he will live by his sword, and that only when Jacob falters, his supremacy over the him will vanish.
Jacob leaves home to flee Eisav’s wrath and to find a wife in the family of his mother’s brother, Laban. Eisav marries a third wife — Machlat, the daughter of Ishmael.
” Dvar Torah ”
“Love” is such an ambiguous word. Oxford dictionary describes it as “a feeling of passionate affection for another person”. It also means “a feeling of warm personal attachment towards someone”, such as parent, child or a friend. The feeling of love is expressed in every culture and society and it’s being used by all different kinds of people. Lovers use it, couples use it, parents use it, children use it, friends use it, writers use it and poets abuse it! And believe it or not, our Torah is not shy in using it either! In last week’s parsha, the Torah talked about the love between Isaac and Rebecca. The Torah says, “Isaac married Rebecca and then he loved her.” In next week’s parsha, however, the Torah talks about the love before marriage. It says, “Jacob loved Rachel. So he worked seven years for her and they seemed to him like a few days because of his love for her.” So we see that the Torah acknowledges that there has to be love in a healthy relationship.
In this week’s parsha, the Torah also talks about love. But this time, it talks about the love between parents and their children. The story goes as follows: Isaac married Rebecca. After 20 years of marriage, Hashem gave them twin sons, Eisav and Jacob. And it says that Eisav grew up to be a man of the field, a hunter, and Jacob grew up to be a wholesome man, residing in tents. And then the Torah says: “Isaac loved Eisav for the game [food] was in his mouth; but Rebecca loves Jacob.” Immediately, our Chachamim notice a grammar mistake in this verse: The love of Isaac for Eisav is described in the past tense “Isaac loved Eisav…” The love of Rebecca for Jacob, however, is portrayed in the present: “Rebecca loves Jacob.” So, accordingly, the following question is asked by our commentators: If the Torah is a heavenly book given by the Almighty himself, shouldn’t it perfect in every sense, including grammar?!
I read an interesting insight from Rabbi Sinclair from Ohr Somayach Yeshiva based on the Ramban. He says that the grammar mistake was done intentionally. The Torah wants to show us the difference between the two loves. The love that Isaac had towards Eisav was a love that depended on an outside factor: He loved Eisav because the “game was in his mouth.” He loved hunted fresh meat and Eisav used to bring it to him. But when the hunting stopped, the love ceased too, hence it’s described in past tense. Rebecca’s love, on the other hand, was a love that was unconditional, it needed no reason, and thus the Torah describes it in the present tense, for it never came to an end. Any love that depends on a reason will evaporate when the reason is no longer there. If you love someone because they are young and beautiful, then their old age will not appeal to you. Love that depends on any condition isn’t true love. But, the love which has no strings attached to it, has no reason to end. That love will last forever!!
Yes my friends, a true love is an unconditional love! You should love someone for what they are, and not for what they can accomplish! This is especially true in regards to our children. Yes, we all want the best for our kids. We want them to get the best grades, we want them to be the best at sports, we want them to have the best friends, we want them to go to the best colleges and we want them to have the best jobs. But what if they can’t achieve all of the above?? Should that make us love them less?! The answer is, Of course NOT!!! We should love our children unconditionally, regardless of their achievements and what they do for us! We love our children because they are our children, and that’s all the reason we need to love them! We have to remember that each child is different and each one has different abilities and potentials. We should love them for what they are, and not for what we want them to be! Always try to remember how Rebecca loved Jacob, unconditionally. Jacob was a simple man. He wasn’t much of an outgoing person, he wasn’t among the most popular and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t among the best athletes either. But Rebecca loved him anyway, and that’s why their love lasted forever, and eventually, Jacob became a great person and the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Love, is one of the greatest feelings anyone can posses. It creates attraction, compassion, attachment and kindness between the people. And if you want it to last, you have to do it the right way……. the unconditional way!!
Shabbat Shalom & Regards;
Martin