[This series “Journey of Faith” reflect the Sinaite perspective on specific characters who figure prominently in the narratives that trace the beginnings of the nation of Israel. It also presents scriptural text uninterrupted by commentary. Translation by Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.—Admin1..]
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Third generation from ‘Abraham, after Yitschaq, the one who would complete the original biblical ‘holy’ as in ‘set apart’ trinity, the Patriarchs of Israel, appears Yaakov.
His name means “heel.” What’s with this name for a would-be patriarch?
- Imagine missing out on being the firstborn just because his twin was positioned in his mother’s womb to exit first, thereby missing out on primogeniture, the inheritance rights bestowed on the eldest son.
- Imagine, just because as a full-term fetus who’s ready to burst out of his mother’s confining but nurturing womb, his hand instinctively grasped at something that would help propel his grand entrance into the world which just happened to be his twin’s foot!
- So he came to be named “heel” or “holder of the heel” thereafter because of that accident of birth.
- As if that weren’t disappointing enough, all the nativity excitement was not about him but about the one who opened the womb and got out first,
- and that would figure into what he would end up doing later as a “supplanter,” the younger who would replace the elder in more ways than inheritance rights.
Genesis/Bereshith 25
25 The first one came out ruddy, like a hairy mantle all over,so they called his name: Esav/Rough-one.
26 After that his brother came out, his hand grasping Esav’s heel,
so they called his name: Yaakov/Heel-holder.
Yitzhak was sixty years old when she bore them.
Father Yitzak was excited about the firstborn redhead but mother Rivka favored the younger. Having been barren just like the first matriarch Sarah, her conception and pregnancy was answered prayer enough, but YHWH decides to be even more generous by granting her twins; that second born was like a bonus!
Since husband Yitzak’s attention was on the heir on whom he anticipated bestowing all that is due a firstborn son, Rivka favors the neglected son, a mama’s boy. Between reactive Yitzak and proactive and industrious Rivka, we can guess which son will eventually get ahead, but let us not forget that despite human machinations to influence results, there is the divine plan that has already ordained it without interfering with individual free will. That is the mystique in divine providence we have yet to understand.
How many of us, upon reading “heel” in this article’s title, did not associate the word with human anatomy but with its unsavory connotation –“an inconsiderate or untrustworthy person” because of the often-told story of how this “heel” supplanted his twin in blessing and inheritance by conniving with his mother to deceive his father?
Yet 25:27 states that Yaakov was a plain man, staying among the tents.. If Yaakov progressed from ‘heel to heel,’ he did live up to his name later. Does name really define character and then become destiny? It appears so but only within the biblical context and only in connection with the chosen people’s history. Hebrew names have meaning unlike names we bear today which are simply names for identity.
There are two separate occasions recorded where Yaakov takes advantage of Esau; casual readers tend to fuse the two into one:
- in Esau, appetite over something of true value held dear and reserved by his own father for him;
- in Yaakov, lack of concern for a hungry brother, a chance to covet what he doesn’t realize was already his as divinely granted.
This first incident is a simple on-the-spot unpremeditated offer with a price, an exchange, a bargain that perhaps, even Yaakov had not anticipated his brother would agree to. This happens among siblings, Esau himself probably did not intend to keep his part of the deal, and Yaakov did not follow up further. The items to be exchanged were not equal in value, surely neither took this seriously.
27 The lads grew up:
Esav became a man who knew the hunt,
a man of the field, but Yaakov
was a plain man, staying among the tents.
28 Yitzhak grew to love Esav, for (he brought) hunted-game for his mouth,
but Rivka loved Yaakov
29 Once Yaakov was boiling boiled stew,
when Esau came from the field, and he was weary.
30 Esav said to Yaakov:
Pray give me a gulp of the red-stuff, that red-stuff,
for I am so weary!
Therefore they called his name: Edom/Red-one
31 Yaakov said:
Sell me your firstborn-right here-and-now.
32 Esav said:
Here, I am on my way to dying, so what good to me is a firstborn-right?
33 Yaakov said:
Swear to me here-and-now.
He swore to him and sold his firstborn-right to Yaakov.
34 Yaakov gave Esav bread and boiled lentils;
he ate and drank and arose and went off.
Thus did Esav despise the firstborn-right.
Chapter 27:1-42 is another kind of deception altogether, hatched in a doting mother’s heart with mama’s boy fully complicit with its execution; after all, they shared the same ambition.
Rivka concocts both a plot and a meal to deceive her husband, and Yaakov obeys his mother.
Notice the extent to which Ribqah goes to ensure their success–aside from cooking her husband’s favorite delectable venison delicacy, she prepares Yaakov’s disguise: clothes that has hunter Esau’s smell, and kid goats’ skin to cover his arms and neck.
What did they think, Yitzak would fall for such a trick? Yet, strangely and incredibly, he does.
Image from kolhaadam.wordpress.com
As a messianic teacher commented, “that must be some soup!!, wonder what’s in it?” Well, it’s not what’s in the soup that’s the problem, it’s what is in humans that IS the problem . . . both parents and both twins, if we haven’t gotten the point already,
it’s the Eve syndrome: “I, me, my wants” and the serpent, the evil instinct is aroused.
Fortunately for mother and son, their scheme happened to work out the divine scheme, but not without consequences that hurt father and twin brother. This would haunt Ya’aqob for a good while and he would find himself the object of his sons’ deceptions later on.
The secular minded have a saying “what goes around comes around,” while the Hindu/Buddhist term is ‘karma.’
Primogeniture, parental favoritism, sibling rivalry all played into accomplishing the Divine Will.
For us, the heart-wrenching words come from Esau:
Genesis 27:34 When Esav heard the words of his father, he cried out with a very great and bitter cry, and
said to his father: Bless me, me also, father!
35He said: Your brother came with deceit and took away your blessing.
36 He said: Is that why his name was called Yaakov/Heel-sneak? For he has now sneaked
against me twice: My firstborn-right he took, and now he has taken my blessing! And he said: Haven’t
you reserved a blessing for me?
Chapter 27
1 Now when Yitzhak was old and his eyes had become too dim for seeing, he called Esav, his
elder son, and said to him: My son! He said to him: Here I am.
2 He said: Now here, I have grown old, and do not know the day of my death.
3 So now, pray pick up your weapons-your hanging-quiver and your bow, go out into the field and hunt me down some hunted-game,
4 and make me a delicacy, such as I love; bring it to me, and I will eat it, that I may give you my
own blessing before I die.
5 Now Rivka was listening as Yitzhak spoke to Esav his son, and so when Esav went off into
the fields to hunt down hunted-game to bring (to him),
6 Rivka said to Yaakov her son, saying: Here, I was listening as your father spoke to Esav your
brother, saying:
7 Bring me some hunted-game and make me a delicacy, I will eat it and give you blessing
before YHVH, before my death.
8 So now, my son, listen to my voice, to what I command you:
9 Pray go to the flock and take me two fine goat kids from there, I will make them into a
delicacy for your father, such as he loves;
10 you bring it to your father, and he will eat, so that he may give you blessing before his death.
11 Yaakov said to Rivka his mother: Here, Esav my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth
man,
12 perhaps my father will feel me-then I will be like a trickster in his eyes, and I will bring a
curse and not a blessing on myself!
13 His mother said to him: Let your curse be on me, my son! Only: listen to my voice and go,
take them for me.
14 He went and took and brought them to his mother, and his mother made a delicacy, such as
his father loved.
15 Rivka then took the garments of Esav, her elder son, the choicest ones that were with her in
the house,
16 and clothed Yaakov, her younger son; and with the skins of the goat kids, she clothed his
hands and the smooth-parts of his neck.
17 Then she placed the delicacy and the bread that she had made in the hand of Yaakov her son.
18 He came to his father and said: Father! He said: Here I am. Which one are you, my son?
19 Yaakov said to his father: I am Esav, your firstborn. I have done as you spoke to me: Pray
arise, sit and eat from my hunted-game, that you may give me your own blessing.
20 Yitzhak said to his son: How did you find it so hastily, my son? He said: Indeed, YHVH your
God made it happen for me.
21 Yitzhak said to Yaakov: Pray come closer, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are
really my son Esav or not.
22 Yaakov moved closer to Yitzhak his father. He felt him and said: The voice is Yaakov’s
voice, the hands are Esav’s hands-
23 but he did not recognize him, for his hands were like the hands of Esav his brother, hairy.
Now he was about to bless him,
24 when he said: Are you he, my son Esav? He said: I am.
25 So he said: Bring it close to me, and I will eat from the hunted-game of my son, in order that
I may give you my own blessing. He put it close to him and he ate, he brought him wine and he drank.
26 Then Yitzhak his father said to him: Pray come close and kiss me, my son.
27 He came close and kissed him. Now he smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him
and said: See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that YHVH has blessed.
28 So may God give you from the dew of the heavens, from the fat of the earth, (along with)
much grain and new-wine!
29 May peoples serve you, may tribes bow down to you; be master to your brothers, may your
mother’s sons bow down to you! Those who damn you, damned! Those who bless you, blessed!
30 Now it was, when Yitzhak had finished blessing Yaakov, yes it was-Yaakov had just gone
out, out from the presence of Yitzhak his father- that Esav his brother came back from his hunting. 31 He too made a delicacy and brought it to his father. He said to his father: Let my father arise
and eat from the hunted-game of his son, that you may give me your own blessing.
32 Yitzhak his father said to him: Which one are you? He said: I am your son, your firstborn,
Esav.
33 Yitzhak trembled with very great trembling and said: Who then was he that hunted down
hunted-game and brought it to me-I ate it all before you came and I gave him my blessing! Now
blessed he must remain!
34 When Esav heard the words of his father, he cried out with a very great and bitter cry, and
said to his father: Bless me, me also, father!
35 He said: Your brother came with deceit and took away your blessing.
36 He said: Is that why his name was called Yaakov/Heel-sneak? For he has now sneaked
against me twice: My firstborn-right he took, and now he has taken my blessing! And he said: Haven’t
you reserved a blessing for me?
37 Yitzhak answered, saying to Esav: Here, I have made him master to you, and all his brothers I
have given him as servants, with grain and new-wine I have invested him- so for you, what then can I
do, my son?
38 Esav said to his father: Have you only a single blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!
And Esav lifted up his voice and wept.
39 Then Yitzhak his father answered, saying to him: Behold, from the fat of the earth must be
your dwelling-place, from the dew of the heavens above.
40 You will live by your sword, you will serve your brother. But it will be that when you
brandish it, you will tear his yoke from your neck.
41 Now Esav held a grudge against Yaakov because of the blessing with which his father had
blessed him. Esav said in his heart: Let the days of mourning for my father draw near and then I will
kill Yaakov my brother!
42 Rivka was told of the words of Esav, her elder son. She sent and called for Yaakov, her
younger son, and said to him: Here, Esav your brother is consoling himself about you, with (the
thought of) killing you.
43 So now, my son, listen to my voice: Arise and flee to Lavan my brother in Harran,
44 and stay with him for some days, until your brother’s fury has turned away,
45 until his anger turns away from you and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and
have you taken from there- for should I be bereaved of you both in a single day?
46 So Rivka said to Yitzhak: I loathe my life because of those Hittite women; if Yaakov should
take a wife from the Hittite women-like these, from the women of the land, why should I have life?
Chapter 28
1 So Yitzhak called for Yaakov, he blessed him and commanded him, saying to him: You are
not to take a wife from the women of Canaan;
2 arise, go to the country of Aram, to the house of Betuel, your mother’s father, and take
yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Lavan, your mother’s brother.
3 May God Shaddai bless you, may he make you bear fruit and make you many, so that you
become a host of peoples.
4 And may he give you the blessing of Avraham, to you and to your seed with you, for you to
inherit the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Avraham.
5 So Yitzhak sent Yaakov off; he went to the country of Aram, to Lavan son of Betuel the
Aramean, the brother of Rivka, the mother of Yaakov and Esav.
6 Now Esav saw that Yitzhak had given Yaakov farewell-blessing and had sent him to the
country of Aram, to take himself a wife from there, (and that) when he had given him blessing, he had
commanded him, saying: You are not to take a wife from the women of Canaan! 7 And Yaakov had listened to his father and his mother and had gone to the country of Aram.