Community Magazine November 2008

20 Community magazine T radition teaches that the distinguishing feature of our patriarch Yaakov was his unparalleled devotion to emet, truth. If his grandfather, Avraham, is known as the bastion of kindness, as manifest in the boundless graciousness he extended to his guests and even the sinful residents of Sedom, then Yaakov serves as the exemplar of truthfulness and honesty. The prophet Michah (7:20) explicitly points to emet as Yaakov’s defining trait, when he prays, “Titen emet le’Yaakov,” beseeching Gd to fulfill His promises to His people in the merit of Yaakov’s truthfulness. Furthermore, Yaakov’s conduct while working as a shepherd for his wily father-in-law, Lavan, serves the model of pro- fessional integrity and devotion. As the Torah describes (Beresheet 31:38-41), Yaakov tended to the sheep from the early morning hours until late at night, braving bone-chilling frost and the scorching sun without hesitation or complaint. He kept a detailed account of all the sheep and reimbursed his employer for any animal that was lost or killed. So exemplary was Yaakov’s conduct as an employee that the Rambam (Rabbi Moshe Maimonides, 1135-1204) points to Yaakov as the paradigm of workmanship which all employees must aspire to follow. With this brief analysis of Yaakov’s character in mind, let us proceed to one of the more puzzling episodes in the Torah, the story of the “stolen” blessings, told in Parashat Toledot (Beresheet, chapter 27). Yizhak summoned the older twin, Esav, and expressed his desire to confer upon him the special blessings. To prepare for receiving these blessings, Esav had to first hunt game and prepare a meal for his father. Rivka learned of Yizhak’s plans, and immediately instructed Yaakov to disguise himself as Esav and approach his blind father to receive his blessing. Yaakov, though hesitant at first, obeyed his mother’s instructions and went ahead with the ruse. The scheme was indeed successful. Yaakov managed obtain from his father the blessing intended for the first-born, and by the time Esav returned home, Yizhak could only offer a secondary blessing to him How can we reconcile this episode with Yaakov’s character of emet? How could the man of truth seemingly take part in a decep- tion? How could the faithful shepherd of Lavan fool his blind, saintly father and “cheat” his brother? A DIVINELY-SANCTIONED PLAN In light of the Tanach’s affirmation of Yaakov as a model of truth, it should be obvious that Yaakov acted with nothing less than com- plete propriety in this episode. Earlier in Parashat Toledot Esav had already traded his right to the blessing, declaring it valueless in his eyes. “And [Esav] swore to him and sold his birthright to Yaakov.” (25:33) Yaakov was coming to claim what was already his. Additionally, Rivka had received an explicit prophecy from the prophet Shem that the elder twin would be subservient to the younger (“ve’rav ya’avod tza’ir” Beresheet 25:23). Therefore, Dedicated in memory of Mr. Irving Semah   I CANNOT TELL A LIE… RABBI ELI MANSOUR OR CAN I?