After the entire process of Yaakov dressing up to please his mother and get the bracha from Yitzchak, Esav returns to find out that his bracha was given away to Yaakov. At this point, Yitzchak trembles. It seems that Yitzchak would be furious and upset because his son just tricked him, but instead, we found that it was a lot different. For the first time, Yitzchak finally realized that maybe Yaakov was meant to have the Bechora and the bracha of carrying on the leadership role that Avraham possessed. He was finally gaining some insight into the ways of his son who he had never gotten the chance to really know. All along, Yitzchak thought that maybe both of his sons could become the Nivchar because Rivkah never communicated the knowledge that one son would rule over the other from the time she became pregnant until now. Yitzchak always saw Yaakov as the one to be like him, calm and simple, but the act of dressing up like his brother and tricking his father in order to receive the bracha led Yitzchak to think otherwise and have faith in him. Aside from the whole issue of Yitzchak and Rivkah's bad relationship, it would seem that Yiztchak would be truly furious with the situation. His son just tricked him in order to get the bracha that he was saving for his other son, and he could not take it back!
When Mrs. Perl first said that the pasuk about Yitzchak trembling should be in bold and all caps, I immediately thought that Yitzchak was so furious that he did not know what to do. However, I think that here were can learn a good trait about Yitzchak. Because he was so calm, he was able to read into Yaakov's personality and realize that maybe he deserved the Bechora and the bracha all along, despite what Yitzchak thought about Esav this entire time.
Aviva-
ReplyDeleteI love this! I just posted my blog and you have a similar point. I think it is so amazing how, so late in his life, Yitzchak was able to grow and understand mistakes that he had made. He was very calm, and this was a very important attribute given all of the chaos that has just ensued. I mean for someone to keep their cool that much is pretty amazing. Usually, the father in the family is seemed to be the one with the temper but here we see how Yitzchak really did take control of the situation and approached it in a reasonable and peaceful way.
Um. I completely disagree..
ReplyDeleteI think that Yaakov is a terrible parent. First of all favoring one son over the other openly is one thing that i am so not ok with. However, when he then was supposed to stand up for his little favorite(where it would have been appropriate since Esav was right) he just blesses Yaakov because he realized that Yaakov DOES have the character traits that he always favored in Esav.That is such terrible parenting. You cannot favor one child their entire life and then not stand up for him nad make Esav feel terrible during his time of need.