Wow, what a story we have this week! It has everything, warring siblings, simple but effective disguises, deception and intrigue. Apart from attempting to write a modern day Hollywood adaptation about the events starring Ethan Hawke, Vin Diesel and Peter O’Toole as Isaac, what are we to do when met with such a story?

As with all of the Torah, much has been read into the stories, and many people have their own ideas about what it means. I would like to explore two of these that I think are relevant from the story. One is from a question that arises from the text, the other is from trying to understand the relationships between the people involved.

Let’s start with the first one. One of the questions that jumps out to me is why Jacob went to such lengths to deceive his father. From the way we understand the characters why did he not just convince his father that he was a better choice than Esau for the blessing and the continuation of the Jewish people. Despite his favouritism for Esau, Isaac was a wise man, a tribal leader, surely he would have agreed with his wife and youngest son. We will never really know what he would have decided. But what we do learn is that you don’t have to be as good as Jacob to be blessed. Had Jacob laid out his reasons and Isaac had agreed to bless him. The lesson may well be that you had to be as righteous as Jacob to receive a blessing from anyone. Instead, the message appears to be that no-one is beyond blessing or redemption, even if they are as bad as Esau.

We shall  come back to that shortly. But before we do, I want to look briefly at Isaac and Esau. I think it is telling that the first time the Torah tells us that they spoke to each other is when Esau comes and asks for the blessing, not only that, but what is Isaacs reaction? He trembles. Either because he then realised what he had done, or maybe because he was scared of Esau. Because he did not really know him. One can’t help but think that maybe Isaac spent too much time in his work, his leadership, the obligations he felt as the son of Abraham, and too little time with his sons. Jacob had Rebecca to look after him, and like all good Jewish mothers she did her best to turn him into a mensch, but Esau was left to fend for himself in the field.

Isaac towards the end of his life realises the lack of a work/life balance in his earlier years and regrets that. Maybe he considers how different his sons could have turned out. But by then it was too late.

If I try and link these two ideas, I arrive at an idea that doesn’t quite seem natural. It seems to be telling me that the most important thing in life is to find the right balance between all your responsibilities. The reward will come if you deserve it, you don’t have to put all your energies into one enterprise at the expense of others. Blessings and success are not reserved for only the greatest, sometimes not even only the good. And the price for such single-minded devotion can ultimately be a price none of us wishes to pay.

By Adam Berkley

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