Toldos

Parashas Toldos

Genesis 25:19 – 28:10

Haftarah

Malachi 1:1 - 2:7

Brit Chadasha

Romans 9:6 - 16

Please Pray this Prayer

Before reading

In the name of Yahushua

Our Messiyah,

I pray for the Spirit of Understanding

The Spirit of Knowledge and

The Spirit of Wisdom

As I read through this Parasha

                   Parasha Toldos is the 6th Torah Portion in the yearly Torah Cycle, in Hebrew the word Toldos means “generations.” Each of the Patriarchs of old maintained a Yeshivah(Torah study) in which they taught about the existence of EL YAHWEH “יהוה” and HIS Will for their lives. The stories of every Torah Characters are design to show how spiritual greatness or follies were established in the various generation of righteous. 

Today we should be no different; the oldest male of the house is in essence the Patriarch of the family, on his head rest the responsibility to speak or teach the children, what his father and fathers before him had done.

          This Parashas provides a clue to the ways in which Isaac’s role diverged from that of his father Abraham. Abraham accepted everyone into his sphere of influence, while Isaac did not.  Like every individual we all have different personality traits, or from a spiritual point of view different talents. These talents determine which road we travel to maturity, and how we travel on that road individually.

In this Parashas, the ultimate struggle between good and evil in the physical world is depicted for the first time. Jacob represents the force of good, and Esau the force of evil. This reading enables us to connect with the forces represented by Jacob while overcoming the forces of evil, that of Esau.

          Torah devotes less space to Isaac’s life than that of his father Abraham.  Abraham was more of an outgoing personality that his son Isaac, that is why Torah says that Isaac dwell in Tents, he was a mama’s boy. But this story is to show that even if there are differences in personality, the ultimate spiritual goal is still full maturity.

          The life of Isaac seems to be a bridge between Abraham and Jacob; even though the things he need to correct in his life was less than his father and his son, he was still required like all of us, to draw a line between good and evil, right and wrong.

          In contrast to his father Abraham whose primary fruit of the Spirit was strength in kindness (chassed), Isaac’s represent kindness in strength (gevurah). In every individual there is a personality, we all have a tendency towards certain trait, actions, and weakness. It is our strength or you talents that our Fathers want us to place in His Hands, and our weaknesses He wants us to develop. Your talents can be used in two ways, for good or for bad. When we use our talents for good its is our strength, when we use it for bad it is our weakness.

We will learn from this Parashas, how ABBA YAHWEH used the circumstances in our lives to maximize our strength and developed our weaknesses. The life of Isaac even though, it was different from his father, he walk faithfully in the character he was predisposed to, or what he was required to walk in.

In the Hebrew scheme of life, kindness and strength must go together; either one without the other can be dangerous. Kindness if not tempered by strength can lead to self-denial, abstinence, frugality; strength without kindness can lead to selfishness, exploitation and cruelty.

The study of Kabbalah continually reminds us of the value of looking below the surface for life many experience. When we as believers in Messiyah do so, we may find that we have to revise our initial impressions of the meaning of the various stories in the Torah. For example the story of Toldos, and the complex relationship between Isaac and his son Jacob and Esau.

In this Torah Portion Esau trades his birthright as firstborn son to his brother Jacob for a bowl of soup. Later we see Jacob poses as Esau to gain the blessing of his elder father. It is easy to read this story or Midrash and see Esau purely as a villain, however, the Torah says, Isaac loved Esau, which gives us a reason to look deeper into this story. 

The family tree of Jacob and Esau begin with their grandfather Abraham who was followed by their father Isaac. According to the Midrash, when Isaac spoke with his father, Isaac talked about lofty matters like the details of fulfilling ones spiritual life. Most people in reading this midrash will think that Esau was just some liar, that he wanted his father to think that he was a good man, when in fact, he was not. However, even if Esau had been a liar, Isaac was too mature a person to be fooled by mere words.

Initially, Jacob and Esau start life with the same parents in the same environment. The Good  of Isaac was sown into a good ground of Rebeccah. We also know that a good ground cannot produce bad fruit or can it? Each was a favorite of one parent, and both were given the same spiritual training. There was one significant difference; Esau wanted his father not just to favor him, but to recognize how spiritual he was. Esau seem to be an I-type personality, someone who crave the attention of others. This was the reason why He got into such a rage when he discovered that Isaac had given his blessing to Jacob. This seems to me that he craved the praises of man more than anything. Esau sems to be a classic I-type personality a show off.

Jacob’s Ego was very different from Esau. Jacob separated himself from any need for his work to be acknowledged by his father; instead, he put his certainty in the Word of the CREATOR. Jacob understood if he did the right things, the CREATOR would make sure that the right things would happen to him at the right time. But gest what, he did not always believe. Some time as believer, we have faith, but we try to help the Creator by doing it our way, as Jacob did by listen to his mother, the woman.

Regrettable, many of us can relate to Esau: we want what we want, when we want, for whatever reason we want, and we get very upset when we do not get it. This Torah portion of Toldos helps us to understand just how powerful the Desire to Received is. Our spiritual goal is to refurbish our Ego, from a Desire to received, to a Desire to give without condition.

Our spiritual work must take place between the CREATOR and ourselves. We must also keep those who are not directly involve from knowing too much about our spiritual life, for anonymous good deeds reveals the most light.

How could Isaac have not known the truth about Esau? Isaac had the Divine Inspiration, the Holy Spirit with him all the time. It seems to me that the true blessings that Jacob and Esau should could not come from Isaac; it could only come from the CREATOR. Isaac was only the conduit, but he could not give the blessing, because if he had done so, he would have limited their blessings. The CREATOR in HIS Wisdom arranged a complicated set of deception and mistaken identity in order for the blessings to reach Jacob.

Kabbalah teaches us that the day of the blessing by Isaac, was unique in the history of mankind, because on that day, the Gates of the Heavens were open to reveal to his world the entirety of the Light of Redemption. Isaac knew that this Light of Redemption needed to be brought down to their world, but Jacob could not handle it despite his knowledge of and desire for Torah.

The revelation of Light in this world has three requirements. First, there is the source, the perfect Light in the Endless World, which is inaccessible to most of us. Secondly, we must have a pure conduit to draw down this Light and third to allow it to be received properly. Isaac drew down the Light of Redemption for Jacob, so when He is ready to receive the Light, it would be ready for him.

When Isaac was ready to bless Esau, he told his son to prepare food for him. Rebecca the flesh overheard this conversation, she knew the CREATOR had chosen Jacob over Esau, she took Esau’s clothes or vessel and dress Jacob in them, Rebecca explain to Jacob who was still listening to the flesh, that on this day there was to be a great revelation of the Light of the Gemar HaTikkum, or the Final Redemption for that generation.

She told Jacob that he was not ready to receive the Light. Having been so immersed in his Torah studies, Jacob had not yet experiences the pain off this world. To do this he had to take on the clothing or Aura of Esau.

The Spirit of Rebecca was sharing with Jacob as she is sharing with us on this Shabbat, that to the degree that we take upon ourselves the pain of the world, to this degree, we have to take upon ourselves the clothing of Esau, the pain of this world.

On this Shabbat of Toldos, we can come to Isaac for blessings. He is here to give then to us and with them the ability to help bring about the final Redemption in our generation. We can only receive this tremendous infusion of Light, once we have truly accepted the truth off MessiYAH which lies beyond our studies. Only to the degree that we dress ourselves in the pain of this world can Isaac gives us the blessings of the Gemar HaTikkum. Now the rest of the Story.

           

Genesis 25:¹⁹ This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham begot Isaac.

Genesis 25: ²⁰ Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebecca as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. - Rebecca the daughter of Bethuel a wicked woman, she was an offspring of the wicked people in Aram; however, Rebecca did not emulate their evil ways. The principle we are been taught here is that, even if we are surrounded on every side by wickedness, our Heavenly Father will send a Eliezer, a redeemer to take us out from among a wicked nation, to prepare us to be the bride of the Master’s Only Son.  We will see in this verse the same principle playing it-self out over and over again.

This narrative says that Isaac took a wife at forty. We know that Messiyah Yahushua died on the cross at 33 years old; we know that one year is like a thousand year. Will Messiyah Yahushua return for His bride at age 40 also? Just thinking!

Genesis 25:²¹ Now Isaac pleaded with YAHWEH for his wife, because she was barren; and YAHWEH granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. – Isaac the spirit prayed abundantly for Rebecca the flesh as she simultaneously prayed on her own behalf. Even though we are promise a blessing, it is incumbent for us to pray it in existence. That is why our Messiyah and Savor is making intercession for us the church even as we speak. He is promise a bride by His Father. He sits at the Right Hand of His Father while the bride makes herself ready for Him.

It is the same with the second matriarchs, Rebecca. She too is barren and Isaac pleaded with YAHWEH on her behalf. It seems that Isaac may have learned a lesson from his father’s failure to pray for his wife. Here, the husband’s prayer to YAHWEH is for the wife, and the prayer was answered.

It is important to note that Isaac could have had children with another womanfrom his action in sharing, with his wife, he prayed for Rebecca, we see the power of praying for others, which can create miracles on their behalf.

Genesis 25:²² But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of YAHWEH. – After being barren for so long, Rebecca finally conceives, but the pregnancy is troubling to her; the twins fight in her womb. She was mostly likely in emotional distress and worried that the pregnancy might fail.

So, she cried out to YAHWEH from the depths of her heart, her godself. What is my godly purpose on this Earth? Why is my godself expected to fulfilled, except for the fulfillment of this mission.

As Jacob and Esau represent two opposing spiritual forces in her body; these two forces represent the spirit of selfishness and the spirit of sharing, these forces that transcend the normal course of personality development, exist in all of us even from birth. This is what I call, our Characteristic traits. Like all good mother Rebecca (the church) went to inquire of YAHWEH, outside of her husband. Shouldn’t she have gone to Isaac and said honey, I have a problem, let us go seek ABBA YAHWEH guidance together.

Here we see another aspect of women, their willingness to circumvent their husband. Yes, EL YAHWEH will speak to them. EL YAHWEH gave her an answer; however, He did not give her a solution. What if Isaac a type of Messiyah for Rebecca, had been included in the visit to EL YAHWEH, would they be given a solution to the problem? I think so.

Genesis 25:²³ And YAHWEH said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.” - EL YAHWEH conveys the significant of her symptoms only to her and not to Isaac. EL YAHWEH conveyed to her that there were two unborn child, representing two nations and two conflicting ideologies: Yisrael and Edom, the spirit of sharing and the spirit of taking. There struggle in the wound, the world, symbolized the future rivalries between them, which would end with the youngest prevailing over the other. It is usually those who are younger that has a more open disposition to spiritual development, than the older more unbending Ego.

The turmoil within her was due to the irreconcilable conflict between the two people good and evil, giving and taking, that was already taking shape. The two will never be mighty together; one will fall and one will rise. This is another principle worth remembering: two believers: one espousing light, morality and justice and the other standing for darkness, license and barbarity. They will always be in conflict until one comes to dominate the other, whether through victory on the battle field or in the contest for the mind of men.

Rebecca like her mother-in-law Sarah were barren, elucidating that the emergence of the Hebrew people is a miracle, for each new generation was a specific gift from EL YAHWEH. Without the infilling of the Holy Spirit Yisrael the church, the woman will be barren spiritually.

The life of Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel demonstrate the motto that EL YAHWEH desires the prayer of the righteous, who pleas for EL YAHWEH mercy and attempts at self-Improvement, show how humanity can raise themselves to Spiritual. 

When a person is lacking spiritual direction, they are never completely committed to any course of action, or growth. In a way, this is the worst possible state of being. If a person is completely negative, and they change, they will be at the same level as they were when they were negative. The live of the Apostle Paul is an example.

Genesis 25:²⁴  So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. – There is a germinating process for every thought pattern to produce the fruit after its own kind, whether good or bad. This is called gestation period.

                                                  

Genesis 25:²⁵And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau. –

Genesis 25:²⁶Afterward his brother came out and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. - From the onset their eternal rivalry between good and evil, already showed itself in their appearance and developing behavior. This again is our predispose character. Does this means that some of us are predisposed to destruction while other are not.

No! Individuals may not be predisposed, but evil is!  In everything we have a choice; however, Yisrael the church must pay attention and ask for our MessiYAH help to curb those among us who are predisposed with certain character trait.

All character traits, even the basest, can be used for good. Man must learn to harness his nature through the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the Word, and not let the nature of the flesh dominate him.

David and Esau had similar personalities, David utilized his nature for good and become one of the greatest people ever lived. Esau let his nature run rampant, and became the eternal symbol of evil and cruelty.

Those of us who are set-a-side for greatness are usually the one with the most dominant personality traits, like the Esau and David of this world. It is those who learn to harness that strength and combine it with kindness are the one who become great.

Genesis 25:²⁷ So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents. – Like two Menorahs one grew into the essence of Light while the other grew into the fundamental nature of darkness. Notice the nature of darkness he was a skillful hunter a man of Talent, while the nature of light was amid nature soul.

Genesis 25:²⁸And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. - Until they grew up they were relatively impressionable, still able to mold their personality one way or the next. Proverbs 22:⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. From the age of thirteen, the essential differences become apparent, with Esau turning to idols, and Jacob studying his Father’s Ways. The Esau type personality spent the time hunting, a man’s man sport, while the Jacob type personality spends all his time in the tent studying Torah.

Genesis 25:²⁹ Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary.

Genesis 25: ³⁰And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom. – In a very well known passage in Torah, a very hungry Esau is about to sell his firstborn birthright to his twin brother Jacob for the price of a pot of porridge. Esau is a man of the field, a hunter, providing for the material needs of the family. Jacob is a quiet man of home and spirit. Esau said to Jacob give me some of that red stuff, Jacob cunningly said first sell me your birthright.

Genesis 25:³¹ But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” – Esau said my god within is at the point of death, so of what use is the birthright to me. Esau realizes that his hunger is not just physical, it is also spiritual. His inner sense of the Divine has withered and is about to dry up. He senses the error of his ways in choosing a life of physical prowess over a life of the persuite of spiritual gain.

When Esau asked Jacob for some peasoup, Jacob replied that he wanted to trade, he wanted Esau’s first-born right in exchange. Esau agreed and Jacob gave him the soup. Everyone makes trade-off in life, but we must take care lest we give up something very important for something unimportant.

Our immediate needs can seem so overwhelming at time that we lose perspective of the big picture, our long term goals, rights, and duties.

Genesis 25:³²And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?”- He is spiritually destitute. He knows that his brother Jacob, who had chosen the Spiritual life, is the rightful inheritor of the spiritual blessing of the birthright, so he is ready to concede.

However it was not so simple. Their father Isaac has high regards and love for Esau, because he is the firstborn. It was the custom in those days that the first born always gets the choice blessing, no matter what deal his youngest brother may have made with him.

Genesis 25: ³³Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. - To receive the blessing of the firstborn, which is important because it will not just the blessing of material inheritance, but the blessing of spiritual inheritance that Jacob must gain from his Father?

Genesis 25: ³⁴And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. - EL YAHWEH’s Promise to Abraham, that only one of Isaac’s sons would be the heir to the Promise Land. The logical choice was Esau the first born. This explains Jacob’s intense desire to purchase the deed to the Promise. This narrative seems more understandable in light of the circumstances in which Jacob was scheming. On that day the mindset of Esau became apparent; what was important to him? His belly or EL YAHWEH promise? Every test we experience were design to create two effects, the desire of the flesh or our desire to please EL YAHWEH.

Esau’s mature became public knowledge for the first time; who we are inside shows its face when we are squeeze. This made the promise more precious for Jacob; because the spiritual mission of Abraham’s seed, this includes anyone who believes in YAHushua is an heir to the promise. Esau willingness to compromise his promise for his belly proved that he was unsuitable. Who was on the driver seat of Esau’s life, Torah or the flesh?

Jacob realizes that Esau was a wicked man, he was unqualified and unable to stand and bring the sacrificial offering for his people; therefore Jacob strove mightily to secure the Priesthood of the family.

The greatest of all the nations stood in the mourner’s row and lamented, “Woe to the world that has lost its leader; woe to the ship that lost its pilot. Woe to the ship who lost his compass” Esau went about his business as usual, totally uninvolved in the spiritual leadership of his family.

The word Edom means red, the name for contempt. Esau character is a derogatory term which means “you are so divorce from normal human values, so consumed with your hunting and plundering, that you look at food and refer to it as the source of life.”

In those days all transaction was done by oath, and was consider legally binding, and done in public, therefore showing Esau’s personality. As all carnal people, food is their only source of survival, while in the spiritual world man shall not live by bread alone, but also by the word that come from our Father Mouth. While fasting for the believer is to burn our fat on the Altar, a pleasing sacrifice to our Creator, it is to the carnal man a wasting away of his body.

By fasting the believer brings his physical desires under control, to the carnal man hunger accentuates his carnal desires. This is the root of gluttonous and greed, the selfish desire to received.  A sincere believer must be ready to serve EL YAHWEH and be obedient to Torah even though it may require inconvenience, hardship, or even danger.

He must be ready to subject himself to humiliation and attack if necessary. The Esau mentality will reject the birthright because it is too demanding for change of our Ego, it requires difficulty, and therefore, it is held in contempt.