Mother of Jacob and Esau: “I Don’t Know” Is the Lesson!
If we understood the dynamic of exile we would make peace with it and would not demand of G-d and of ourselves to bring an end to the struggle. We would be blinded by all the positive forces we generate because of the struggle.
MOTHER OF JACOB AND ESAU: “I DON’T KNOW” IS
THE LESSON!
Rebecca: The Mother of Jacob and Esau
Isaac summons his son Esau and offers to give him his blessings before he dies. Isaac asks his son Esau to go out and hunt and prepare a gourmet meal for him before he would bestow these special Divine blessings on him. Rebecca overhears the conversation and tells her son Jacob to pose as Esau and get the blessings instead. When Esau discovers how Jacob wrested the blessings from him he vowed to kill him.
Rebecca, meanwhile, advises Jacob to flee to her brother Laban and stay there until Esau’s wrath would subside. Isaac, too, tells Jacob to go to Padan Aram and marry one of the daughters of Laban, Rebecca’s brother.
The Torah then continues: “And Isaac sent Jacob, and he went to Padan Aram to Laban the son of Betuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob and Esau.”
Rashi, in a rare comment, observes: “I do not know what this—information that Rebecca was the mother of Jacob and Esau—teaches us.”
Rashi is obviously puzzled at the need for the Torah here to identify Rebecca as the mother of Jacob and Esau. Don’t we already know that she was their mother? Rashi therefore concedes that he does not know what message this was meant to convey. (See preceding essay for a lesson in child raising this Rashi can provide).
The Wine of Torah
Rashi, we are told, contains not only the simple, straightforward level of interpretation known as p’shat. Embedded in his commentary one can find deeper spiritual and mystical meanings to the text. This has been referred to as “the wine of Torah.” It is the dimension of Torah that brings joy and reveals the secrets, as the Talmud states: “Enter the wine, out emerge the secrets.”
What secret message do the words “I don’t know what this teaches us” convey?
Foreshadowing Jewish History
This entire story, from the pregnancy of Rebecca until the moment Jacob had to flee the wrath of his brother Esau, a dynamic of struggle and conflict ensued, which foreshadowed all of Jewish history. From that moment onwards, the Jewish people were in a perennial conflict with the descendants and heirs of Esau who sought to destroy us. This was particularly true in the days of Galusexile, when Esau totally dominated the Jewish people, particularly from the destruction of the Second Temple onwards.
There is a reason for this situation. By Jacob (read: the Jewish nation) living within the territory and under the domination of Esau, Jacob has the capacity and indeed the mission to refine Esau, and thereby elevate the world, paving the way for Moshiach and the Final Redemption.
This entire process is indeed the very raison d’etre of creation. G-d wanted a dwelling place in the physical world and embedded His most potent Divine sparks of energy within the physical world and particularly within the world of Esau.
From this vantage point, the struggle between Jacob and Esau sounds quite understandable; it is the process that leads to the world reaching its state of perfection and redemption. This notion that adversity is a part of life and actually enables us to fulfill our very reason for existence we accept at face value.
Beyond Understanding
In truth, the entire concept is beyond understanding. Why does G-d want us to struggle and suffer? Couldn’t He accomplish His goal of making the world a G-dly place without all the pain?
Moreover, the underlying motive of making this world into a dwelling place for Him is beyond understanding. Why does He need a dwelling place in a physical world? Would G-d have lacked anything if He had not created our world?
All this points to the fact that G-d is inscrutable and so too are His motives for creation. And the attendant suffering and struggle that goes along with life, as well, are beyond understanding. Not only are G-d’s reasons beyond our understanding; they are inherently beyond logic.
The Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Chabad movement) once focused on the words of the Midrash that state, “G-d desired a dwelling place in the lowest precincts”: “One cannot question a desire.” What the Alter Rebbe was saying is that while we know what G-d’s objective was in creation, we cannot ever know the why. Creation is above and beyond human reasoning.
And if creation is beyond our understanding, then the need to have this perennial struggle with Esau is totally beyond our ability to comprehend.
The mission of Jacob to refine Esau and bring the world to its intended purpose ends with the coming of Moshiach and the Final Redemption. At that time Jacob and Esau will be reconciled. Then we will see that, contrary to appearances, Rebecca was indeed equally the mother of Jacob and Esau. This entire struggle that began with Jacob and Esau’s wrestling in Rebecca’s womb, through Jacob’s appropriation of the blessings was intended to yield their rapprochement in the Messianic Age.
We can only conclude that this entire saga is beyond our understanding; it transcends logic.
Moshiach Beyond Understanding
Indeed, this is what our Sages meant to tell us when they stated that Moshiach comes when we are distracted. The Alter Rebbe explains that this actually means that the entire Messianic dynamic is above and beyond our understanding. As much as we can fathom there is always something about Moshiach that will remain unfathomable.
This then is the hidden message of Rashi when he comments on the word “the mother of Jacob and Esau,” and says “I don’t know what this teaches us.” With these words, Rashi hints to the fact that the entire story is beyond understanding.
The Torah’s statement that she was the mother of both Jacob and Esau intimates to the fact that despite Rebecca’s efforts to get the blessings for Jacob, she was truly the mother of both Jacob and Esau; she loved them both. However, that reality will only become apparent after thousands of years of struggle until the Messianic Age.
[It is interesting to note that the words “the mother of Jacob and Esau” numerically add up to 615. This can read: b’taryag, which means “with 613”. The hint here is when will we see how Rebecca is truly the mother of Jacob and Esau? When we will have fulfilled the 613 commandments, most of which we will be able to perform in the Messianic Age.] This Rashi says is beyond our understanding just as the entire Messianic process transcends knowledge.
The knowledge that the entire process of exile and struggle is beyond understanding compels us to fight Galus by finishing the mission to bring about the Redemption. If we understood the dynamic of exile we would make peace with it and would not demand of G-d and of ourselves to bring an end to the struggle. We would be blinded by all the positive forces we generate because of the struggle.
Knowing that Moshiach is beyond understanding, however, does not diminish our appreciation for it; it actually deepens it. To transcend knowledge is not incompatible with knowledge. On the contrary. The Rebbe explained how the way to get out of exile is to study the teachings of the Torah concerning Moshiach and Redemption. We must saturate our mind with this subject and then recognize that the entire Messianic drama is infinitely more sublime than our finite minds can grasp.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Toldos by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
