Tolos

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

Today we should be no different; the father of the house is in essence the Patriarch of the family, on his head lays the responsibility to speak or teach to his children, what his father and fathers before him should have 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 that road individually.

          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 but a bridge between Abraham and Jacob; even though his talents 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 (chessed), Isaac’s was 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 that our Fathers want us to place in His Hands, and our weaknesses He wants us to develop.

We will learn from this Parashas, how ABBA YAHVEH 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 and cruelty.

The study of Kabbalah continually reminds us of the value of looking below the surface for life many meaning. 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 Toldot, 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 fathe 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.

Intially, Jacob and Esau start life with the same parents in the same environment. Each were a favorite of one parents, 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. This was the reason why He got into such a rage when he discovered that Isaac had given his blessing to Jacob. This seams to me that he craved the praises of man more than anything.

Jacob’s Ego was very different. Jacob separated himself from any need for his work to be acknowledge 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.

Regrettable, many of us can relate to Esau: we want what we want, when we want, for what we want, and we get very upset when we do not get it. This Torah portion of Toldot helps us to understand just how powerfull 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 sought 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 Redeemption needed to be brought down to their world, but Jacob could not handle it dispite 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 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 received the Light. having been so immersed in his Torah studis, Jacob had not yet experience the pain that this world. To do this he had to take on the the clothing of Esau.

The Spirit of Rebecca was sharing with Jacob as she is sharing with us on this Sabbath, 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 Sabbath of Taldos, 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. 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!