page_title: Toledot
section_title: Genesis chapter 27
hierarchical_section_title: Toledot / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Genesis chapter 27
caption_attribution_description: English: Jacob Deceives Isaac, c. 1896-1902, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902), gouache on board, 6 5/8 x 9 7/8 in. (16.9 x 25.1 cm), at the Jewish Museum, New York
context_page_description: Tol'dot, Toldos, or Tol'doth is the sixth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. The parashah tells of the conflict between Jacob and Esau, Isaac's passing off his wife Rebekah as his sister, and Isaac's blessing of his sons.
  It constitutes Genesis 25:19–28:9. The parashah is made up of 5,426 Hebrew letters, 1,432 Hebrew words, 106 verses, and 173 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews read it the sixth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in November, or rarely in early December.
context_section_description: Rabbi Hama bar Hanina taught that our ancestors were never without a scholars' council. Abraham was an elder and a member of the scholars' council, as Genesis 24:1 says, "And Abraham was an elder (זָקֵן, zaken) well stricken in age." Eliezer, Abraham's servant, was an elder and a member of the scholars' council, as Genesis 24:2 says, "And Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all he had," which Rabbi Eleazar explained to mean that he ruled over — and thus knew and had control of — the Torah of his master. Isaac was an elder and a member of the scholars' council, as Genesis 27:1 says: "And it came to pass when Isaac was an elder (זָקֵן, zaken)." Jacob was an elder and a member of the scholars' council, as Genesis 48:10 says, "Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age (זֹּקֶן, zoken)." In Egypt they had the scholars' council, as Exodus 3:16 says, "Go and gather the elders of Israel together." And in the Wilderness, they had the scholars' council, as in Numbers 11:16, God directed Moses to "Gather . . . 70 men of the elders of Israel."
  Rabbi Eleazar taught that Isaac's blindness, reported in Genesis 27:1, was caused by his looking at the wicked Esau. But Rabbi Isaac taught that Abimelech's curse of Sarah caused her son Isaac's blindness. Rabbi Isaac read the words, "it is for you a covering (kesut) of the eyes," in Genesis 20:16 not as kesut, "covering," but as kesiyat, "blinding." Rabbi Isaac concluded that one should not consider a small matter the curse of even an ordinary person. Alternatively, a Midrash interpreted the words "his eyes were dim from seeing" in Genesis 27:1 to teach that Isaac's eyesight dimmed as a result of his near sacrifice in Genesis 22, for when Abraham bound Isaac, the ministering angels wept, as Isaiah 33:7 says, "Behold, their valiant ones cry without, the angels of peace weep bitterly," and tears dropped from the angels' eyes into Isaac's, leaving their mark and causing Isaac's eyes to dim when he became old.
  Rabbi Eleazar taught that deceptive speech is like idolatry. Rabbi Eleazar deduced the similarity from the common use of the word "deceiver" to describe Jacob's deception his father in Genesis 27:12, where Jacob says, "I shall seem to him as a deceiver," and to describe idols in Jeremiah 10:15, where idols are described as "the work of deceivers."
  But the Gemara cited Jacob as the exemplar of one who, in the words of Psalm 15:3, "has no slander on his tongue," as Jacob's protest to Rebekah in Genesis 27:12, "I shall seem to him as a deceiver," demonstrated that Jacob did not take readily to deception.
  Rabbi Johanan taught that when Jacob explained his rapid success in obtaining the meat by saying in Genesis 27:20 that it was "because the Lord your God sent me good speed," he was like a raven bringing fire to his nest, courting disaster. For when Jacob said "the Lord your God sent me good speed," Isaac thought to himself that he knew that Esau did not customarily mention the name of God, and if the person before him did so, he must not have been Esau but Jacob. Consequently, Isaac told him in Genesis 27:21, "Come near, I pray, that I may feel you, my son."
  Reading Isaac's observation in Genesis 27:27, "See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed," Rav Judah the son of Rav Samuel bar Shilat said in the name of Rav that Jacob smelled like an apple orchard.
  Rabbi Judah ben Pazi interpreted Isaac's blessing of Jacob with dew in Genesis 27:28 merely to pass along to his son what God had deeded to his father Abraham for all time. And Rabbi Ishmael deduced from Isaac's curse of those who cursed Jacob and blessing of those who blessed Jacob in Genesis 27:29 that Jews need not respond to those who curse or bless them, for the Torah has already decreed the response.
  Rabbi Judan said that Jacob declared that Isaac blessed him with five blessings, and God correspondingly appeared five times to Jacob and blessed him (Genesis 28:13–15, 31:3, 31:11–13, 35:1, and 35:9–12). And thus, in Genesis 46:1, Jacob "offered sacrifices to the God of his f
caption: Jacob Deceives Isaac (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)
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