|
|
Thread Tools | Rate Thread | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
A dysfunctional family & the Biblical verse with the most verbs in it
Hi all!
This past Saturday we (Jews all over the world) read Genesis 25:19-28:9 as the weekly Torah reading. It begins the strange & sad saga of one of the Bible's great dysfunctional families: Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Esau. Rebecca, fearing that Isaac will confer upon loutish Esau the status of heir to Abraham's revolutionary concepts of belief in the One God & ethical monotheism, quickly presses Jacob into a subterfuge that would haunt & redound upon Jacob again and again throughout his long life. She dresses Jacob up as Esau and hurries him off to see Isaac & obtain blessing conferring upon him the aforementioned status. Esau, conveniently forgetting what ocurred over a bowl of lentil soup many years before, is horrified and vows vengeance on his brother. Rebecca gets wind of this and sends Jacob off to Uncle Laban, ostensibly to seek a bride (so Isaac believes) but really to flee his brother's murderous wrath. She never sees her beloved younger son again. :wayy2 How soap opera-y can you get? Adding to the tragedy, Rebecca was quite wrong regarding her husband's intentions vis-a-vis the Abrahamic birthright. Isaac did not intend to confer it upon Esau. How do we know this? Look at what Isaac says to Jacob (in Gen. 28:3-4) as the latter was about to head off for faraway Uncle Laban, ostensibly to seek a bride, Note that this is after Isaac has become aware of the previous subterfuge & of Jacob's role in it. Quote:
The answer, I think, is two-fold & contains a great lesson to parents everywhere. The first part of the answer is (as one of my rabbis pointed out) that the only recorded instance in all of Genesis of Isaac & Rebecca actually speaking to each other is in Gen. 27:46 when Rebecca complains to Isaac that Esau's Hittite wives are driving her bonkers and that she is mortified that Jacob might marry a Hittite woman. Isaac & Rebecca did/could not communicate with each other. This lack of communication between husband & wife helped set the stage for the family tragedy. Our Sages suggest that Rebecca was in awe of her husband. After all, this was Isaac, Abraham's son, who was bound on the altar, staring up the opened Heavens, waiting to be offered to God. There may be a hint to this in the fact that Rebecca fell off her camel when she first caught sight of Isaac, see Gen. 24:64. Isaac was on such a rarefied spiritual level that he might have found it difficult to communicate with his wife about things that appeared mundane to him. Either way, Isaac and Rebecca didn't communicate well enough. The second part of the answer is in Gen. 25:28. Quote:
Oh, yes, the verbs. Esau is remembered very poorly in our traditions. He is seen as a physical man, who lived for the pleasures & things of this world. He is seen as crude, coarse & selfish/self-centered. Look at Gen. 25:29-34, the bowl-of-lentil-soup story. Quote:
The second underlined section, in the original Hebrew, reads: va'yachal, va'yesht, va'yakom, va'yalekh, va'yivez, "he ate, he drank, he rose, he left, he despised." Like an animal, Esau ate & drank until he was satiated & then (also like an animal) got up and left. (This is why Isaac only asked to feel Jacob-pretending-to-be-Esau after Jacob had said, "'Because the Lord your God sent me good speed". Such words were alien to Esau, who had no use for God, & Isaac knew it. Thus, he wanted to feel to find out just who it was who was speaking to him. Genesis 25:34 has more verbs in it than any other verse in the Bible! And we think dysfunctional families are a modern thing! But crude & rude as he was, Esau didn't deserve such shabby treatment. Our Sages note that an exactly identical phrase occurs in Genesis 27:34 Quote:
Quote:
I quote from the late Prof. Nehama Leibowitz's (may her memory be for a blessing!) Studies in Bere****/Genesis: Quote:
Andyhill :hi
__________________
"Peace, peace to him that is far off and to him that is near." [Isaiah 57:19] "Gather your wits and hold on fast..." [The Who] "Lose your dreams and you could lose your mind." [The Rolling Stones] "Thank you Lord for thinkin' 'bout me, I'm alive and doin' fine." [5 Man Electrical Band] http://tinyurl.com/bvskq |
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests) | |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | Rate This Thread |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Knowing your Enemies,The Quran and the Bible. | arsmith | Sermons and Outlines | 0 | 05-17-2005 06:55 PM |
Knowing your Enemies,The Quran and the Bible. | arsmith | Sermons and Outlines | 0 | 03-08-2005 01:32 PM |