‘Roller Coasters and Merry-Go-Rounds’ Parashat Toledot 5785

It is probably the greatest example of raw pathos in the entire Torah. Jacob, at the behest of his mother, Rebecca, disguises himself as his brother, Esau, in order to fraudulently appropriate Esau’s blessing from their father, Isaac. As Jacob exits Isaac’s tent with blessing in hand, Esau enters, possibly through the same revolving door. Esau informs Isaac that he has come for his blessing. Isaac, recognizing that he has been hoodwinked, is mortified. According to our Sages in the Midrash, Isaac saw the bowels of hell open before his eyes. He tells Esau that he has already given his blessing to Jacob and that, sadly, there is nothing left for him. Esau stares at his father incredulously and cries out in pain [Bereishit 27:38]: “Have you but only one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!” With his world collapsing around him, Esau cries out and begins to weep. So as not to leave Esau with nothing, Isaac consoles him with a blessing of his own [Bereishit 27:39-40]: “Your abode shall be of the fat of the earth and the dew of heaven above. By your sword you shall live and you shall serve your brother; When you have cause to be grieved, you will throw off his yoke from your neck.” Esau, in a combination of fury and dejection, exits the room. The best he could do was to pick up the pieces. It almost sounds like a biblical “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”.

One cannot help but notice the similarities between the blessings that Isaac gives to Jacob and the ones he gives to Esau. Isaac tells Jacob [Bereishit 27:28]: “May G-d give you of the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth”. This certainly sounds like the same “dew of the heaven” and the same “fat of the earth” that he promised Esav, albeit in reverse order. How could Isaac give the same thing to two different people? The double-dipping of the dew is not an issue. Dew is an unlimited resource, meaning that multiple owners can share the same “dew of the heaven”. The “fat of the earth”, on the other hand, is a limited resource. The amount of “fat of the earth” owned by one person limits the amount that can be owned by another person. There is only so much “fat of the earth” to go around. How, then, can Jacob and Esau own the same “fat of the earth”? The most straightforward answer lies in noticing  that Isaac blessed both of his sons such that they should live “from the fat of the earth (m’shmanei ha’aretz)”, meaning that the neither of them would possess “all of the fat of the earth”. They could have potentially divided the Land of Israel between the two of them. The problem with this explanation is that Esau left the Land of Israel and never came back, meaning that Jacob actually did inherit all of the fat of the earth. Rashi[1] proposes an explanation that is more historically factual. He differentiates between the two “fats of the earth” by asserting that they lie in two different continents. Jacob is promised the Israeli fat of the earth while Esau is bequeathed the fat of the earth in “the Greek portions of Italy (Magna Graecia)”, a term that was used about three thousand years ago to refer to the Greek-speaking areas of Southern Italy[2].

Rabbi David HaLevi Segal[3], writing in “Divrei David”, a supercommentary on Rashi, asks what was bothering Rashi that he had to identify Esau’s “fat of the earth” as Magna Graecia when he made no similar geographical comment regarding Jacob’s “fat of the earth”. Rabbi Segal begins his answer by noting that the world is chock full of places that have amazing climates and fertile soil upon which animals can graze and fruits can grow. Places like the Gold Coast, Hawaii and the Greek Islands come to mind as does the Coastal Plain in Israel, which has an excellent climate and fertile soil upon which high-quality wheat is grown and upon which sheep, goats, and cows produce milk that is turned into world-class cheese. There is one critical difference between the Israeli Coastal Plain and the Gold Coast. The Torah teaches that the climate in Israel is directly affected by the actions of Israelis [Devarim 11:12]: “It is a land which G-d looks after, on which G-d always keeps an eye”. As long as the Jewish People lived in the Land of Israel and lived according to the Torah, their land was blessed. After they were exiled from the land, the blessings ceased and Israel became desolate. It is only over the past hundred and fifty or so years, since the beginning of the Return to Zion (Shivat Zion), that the Land of Israel has become green again. The Gold Coast, on the other hand, would be an excellent place to live regardless of the behaviour of its inhabitants. In the Gold Coast, physics is unhindered by metaphysics. When Isaac blessed Jacob with the “fat of the earth”, he was giving him land whose potential was not innate, but, rather, monitored by G-d. With Esau’s “fat of the earth” in Naples and Bari, the amount of rainfall and sunshine and the constitution of the soil are all optimal to support growth. But at the end of the day, it is what it is. Compare this to Jacob’s “fat of the earth”, which held infinite opportunity, albeit with infinite threat. If he followed G-d’s Path, he would merit [Malachi 3:10] “I will open the floodgates of the sky for you and pour down unlimited blessings on you”.

Rabbi Segal’s explanation meshes well with another comment made by Rashi. Rashi notes that Jacob’s blessing begins with “May G-d (E-lokim) give you…”, the name “E-lokim” signifying the Divine Attribute of Justice, and not with, say, “A-donai”, signifying the Divine Attribute of Mercy. He explains that Isaac specifically wanted G-d to act justly. Isaac tells Jacob, “If you are worthy, G-d will give you the ‘fat of the earth’, but if not, then He will give you only ‘the earth’ – the bones, the dregs, and the eggshells. And if you are really unworthy, He’ll take that away from you, too.” Esau, on the other hand, is told “Your abode shall be of the fat of the earth”, whether you are worthy or unworthy. No mention of G-d here at all. Rashi assets that Esau did not receive the same caveat that Jacob received because he never would have merited a blessing and he would have accused G-d of being unfair. Rabbi Segal’s innovation can take Rashi one step further. Esau did not receive the same caveat that Jacob received because an inherently evil Esau could never have survived a merit-based economy.

Let’s take a look at this proposition from another angle. In a great scene from a movie called Parenthood, starring Steve Martin, at one point in the movie, seemingly out of context, the grandmother says to Steve, “You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster. Up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride! I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn’t like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.” Isaac gave Jacob a ticket to the roller coaster while Esau sat in the merry-go-round.

Since October 7, the number of Jews immigrating to[4] and emigrating from Israel has been more than double the recent average. Although no figures are available, media coverage suggests that those leaving Israel are more likely to be highly educated and secular, many of them despairing about the current “situation”. According to the Deputy Director at Nefesh b’Nefesh, “[There are] more and more American Jews who say they no longer feel safe in America and don’t see a future there for themselves as Jews. Yet the most common reason [for aliya] is solidarity with Israel”. A Jewish Agency spokesman added, “They feel that Israel is where they belong, their home.” Israel is undergoing tectonic changes. While it is far from clear where they are taking us, it is crystal clear that a Divine Hand is moving the pieces. Life in Israel has never been a merry-go-round. Over the four hundred days, it has been much more of a harrowing roller coaster. But even with the raw fear, the alarms, the constant sound of explosions, and the uncertainty, or, more likely, because of it, you get more out of it.

Ari Sacher, Moreshet, 5785

Please daven for a Refu’a Shelema for Shlomo ben Esther, Sheindel Devorah bat Rina, Esther Sharon bat Chana Raizel, and Meir ben Drora.

[1] Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known by his acronym “Rashi,” was the most eminent of the medieval commentators. He lived in northern France in the 11^th century.

[2] While Esau left Israel for the Hills of Se’ir, in southwest modern-day Jordan, our Sages identify Esau with Rome, which, while not part of Magna Graecia in a strict sense, is only a two-hour drive away.

[3] Rabbi David ha-Levi Segal, also known as the Turei Zahav (abbreviated Taz) after the title of his halachic commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, lived in Poland in the 17^th century.

[4] This is only true for Jews immigrating to Israel from the U.S. and Canada.