The Blessings: Why did Isaac want Esau to have dominion over Jacob?

As Isaac neared death, he decided to bless his children. He intended to give one blessing to Esau which is found in Gen 27:28-29. And he intended to give a different blessing to Jacob which is found on Gen 28:4. In the former he intended to bless Esau to have dominion over his brother (Jacob). Granted that he had some attachment to Esau – but why dominion? Why have Jacob suffer? Of course, Jacob tricks his father, and that blessing goes to Jacob as well.

Gen 27:28 is simple enough. Isaac intended to bless Esau that he will accumulate wealth. Any father would want that for every one of his children. Verse 29 is problematic. Isaac said: “Be lord over your brethren and let your mother’s sons bow down to you.” Isaac intends to give Esau physical dominion over Jacob. Why would he want to do that?

Isaac meant this dominion literally. After Isaac gave that blessing to Jacob, Esau appeared on the scene, heard what Jacob did, and begged his father, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” (Gen 27:36). Isaac responded, “I have made him your lord” (Gen 27:37). Rashi explains that Isaac is implying, what possible good could a blessing do for you, Esau? Since he is your lord, any property you gain becomes his. Considering that Isaac had intended that blessing for Esau, it means that his wish was that Esau would get everything and Jacob nothing. This is inconceivable!

The blessing intended for Esau seemed to make him all powerful. However, we must remember that Isaac reserved a separate blessing for Jacob. To fully appreciate Isaac’s intentions, we must look at these two blessings together. Taken together, Isaac was weaving a fascinating interdependence between his two sons which was targeted at assuring that the mission of living a godly life continue after Isaac’s death.

In 28:4, Isaac asked God to give Jacob the “blessing of Abraham.” What was this blessing of Abraham? Several commentaries express that Jacob would be the heir who gets the the blessings that God gave to Abraham.

Let’s see what is involved in those blessings. We will focus on one key commitment that God made. After the binding of Isaac, Abraham was promised, “and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Gen 22:17). By providing Jacob the blessing of Abraham, Isaac bestowed on Jacob the blessing of possessing the gate of his enemies.

Let’s look at the two of Isaac’s blessings together. Each blessing provides a form of domination. The blessing intended for Esau provides domination over his brothers. The blessing for Jacob provides possession of his enemies.

That introduces a second problem with these blessings. First was the inconceivable – that Isaac intended to give dominion to Esau over Jacob. Now there is an apparent contradiction between the two blessings: Which brother is dominating/possessing the other?

These two questions answer each other once we explain the extremely clever plan that Isaac created to ensure coexistence between Esau and Jacob after his own death. There is a way to harmonize these two blessings so they are not contradictory. Jacob only rules over his enemies. If Esau is not an enemy of Jacob, Jacob has no dominion over him.

What does it take for Esau not to be an enemy of Jacob? He must follow in God’s path. He must become part of the Chosen People. He must obey, believe, and transmit the message. That is all that Isaac ever wanted from Esau. His life efforts to teach Esau were not succeeding. In one sweeping move, at age 123, he tried to change the trajectory. He planned to offer Esau all that Esau could imagine, as a final “bribe” to turn Esau the right way.

Here was Isaac’s plan. He would give conflicting blessings to his two sons. He would give nominal control to Esau. But he would tell him that the blessings nullify each other if Esau chooses to be an enemy of the Torah way of life. One blessing says that Esau will dominate his brother Jacob. But the other says that Jacob will possess his enemy Esau. If Esau is an enemy, the blessings cancel each other out. Esau gets nothing.

But if Esau chooses not to be an enemy – that is, if he chooses the Torah way of life – then he reaps all the physical blessings. In the physical domain, he gets everything.

Why would Isaac make Esau a lord over Jacob? It is a last desperate effort to ensure his legacy by transmitting Torah to both his sons – the achievement of a lifetime. He did the most he could possibly do to get Esau to agree.

Why would Isaac do this to Jacob? In truth, Jacob could have been agreeable to this. After all, in the spiritual domain, Jacob would still been ascendant. He would have the blessing of Abraham. He might lack ownership of property, but he would have been protected by his friend and brother Esau. This could have been similar to the partnership between Zevulun the merchant and Issachar the scholar. Losing physical property would be a small price to pay for the everlasting peace that would result, if indeed Esau turned to the good path.

That was Isaac’s plan, but his wife Rebecca foiled it by substituting Jacob for Esau in the blessings intended for Esau. The ruse is revealed to Isaac, who trembled when he discovered that his plan went awry. Chizkuni explains Isaac’s thought process. Isaac was not surprised that in his aged state with poor eyesight, he mistook Jacob for Esau. But he asked, how could God have let this happen? The only possible conclusion is that this was justice – Jacob deserved to get the blessings. Isaac finally realized that he was susceptible to being misled by Esau and that transmission of Torah values would only go through Jacob.

Isaac’s frustration shines through the narrative. Esau begged him for a blessing. Isaac has no response. Finally, he weakly says, “What shall I do for you, my son?” (Gen 27:37). He is stuck. He so much wanted his plan of interlocking blessings to work.

Apparently, Isaac struggled with this, because he actually gave Esau two different answers. First he said, “what then shall I do for you, my son”? In other words, Isaac was totally defeated. The elaborate interlock went away. There was nothing left for Esau.

After two verses, Isaac reversed himself. Isaac found a partial solution and blessed Esau. It is a blessing that reintroduced the interlock in a weaker fashion. He started by giving him a blessing for his material well-being: “the fat places of the earth, the dew of the heaven” (Gen 27:39). He spoke to Esau’s values, extolling him as a man of the sword (Gen 27:40). The end of the blessing is mysterious and meaningful. Isaac said, “when you shall break loose, that you shall shake his yoke off your neck” (Gen 27:40). It is not clear what he meant when he said “when you shall break loose,” but he appeared to reference Esau being freed from Jacob.

Isaac has once again created tension and interplay between blessings. Originally, he planned to give Esau the upper hand, but only if he followed the path of God. Isaac lost that opportunity when Jacob received the blessing intended for Esau. But Isaac could still recover some of his original plan. Indeed, Jacob would get both the blessing intended for Esau as well as the blessing of Abraham. But in Isaac’s new plan, Esau’s new blessing would make Jacob’s domination conditional. Rashi interprets “when you shall break loose” to mean when Jacob’s descendants violate the Torah. In his interpretation, this phrase is a caution first and foremost to Jacob. He will lose his leadership role if he violates the Torah. Presumably, though, Esau needs to also follow the ways of God for him to achieve “shaking off the yoke.”

In the original blessing that was intended for Esau (Gen 27:29), Esau would have been blessed that his brothers bow down to him – hence he would be dominant. The actual blessing that Esau received (Gen 27:40) says that Esau will be subservient to Jacob. The best possible outcome for Esau in this revised interlock is that he could break loose and shake off Jacob’s yoke. So the revised interlock was weaker for Esau in two ways. First, for Esau to get something, Jacob had to sin. Second, even in that case, Esau would still not get domination.

It seems that God supported Isaac’s efforts to bring his son Esau into the fold. While we do not see God’s involvement in the blessings, He does return to the Esau story at the end of the Torah. After forty years of wandering in the desert, the freed Israelites are approaching the Land of Israel. In Deuteronomy 2:5, God cautions the Jews not to provoke the nation of Edom – the sons of Esau – because He has given them Mount Seir as an inheritance. It is remarkable that God deeds any land to anyone – let alone the descendants of a sinner. It seems that God also wants the descendants of Esau to form a cohesive nation – whether as a balance for Jacob or to bring them into the godly path. Whatever the precise reason, they are rewarded with a piece of land as their inheritance.