Toldos

"For tomorrow we will die!" (Isaiah 22:13) והנה אנכי הולך למות ולמה זה לי בכרה "And Esau said, Look I am going to die, so of what use to me is a birthright?" What was the mindset of Esau that he could have so easily sold his birthright for just a pot of lentils? After al...

Vayehav Yitzchok ess Eisav .... v'Rivkah oheves ess Yaakov.Rivkah was not as great as Yitzchok. She was not able to love Eisav. Therefore, she only loved Yaakov. Yitzchok loved Eisav! [He also loved Yaakov, but that is not a chiddush!]What?! Why would Yitzchok love a Rash...

Veyitain veyachzor veyitain. Why twice? Ba'al aveida mechazer achar aveidaso. Ta'isi ke'seh oved. The yidden are the aveidah of the RBSO. The bracha was that the RBSO should give. And even though some Yidden aren't worthy or even aware of their need to receive, we ask tha...

Rashi says that Yaakov was entitled to the bechorah because, if you put two balls in a narrow tube, the one going in first will come out last. One could wonder whether this is accurate since babies move around in the womb. Moreover, Rashi already commented that there had ...

"Yaakov was sitting in Tents." While most explain this to say that Yaakov was in the Beis Midrash learning Torah - some meforshim say that he dwelled in the Tents -The Tent of Rachel & The Tent of Leah.The obvious question on this explanation is that Yaakov at this p...

(27:29) 'Cursed be those who curse you, blessed be those who bless you' Rashi points out that Yitzchok and Bil'om spoke in the opposite way: Bil'om 1st mentioned the blessing and then the curse. Rashi says, this is because tzadikim start off with suffering and end up wit...

'Vayizak za'akah, gedoloh ad me'od', 'vayistom eisov es yaakov'. I think that perhaps the initial pain and scream are understandable, he was human after all, and it was an immense shock and disappointment. However, here is an amazing example of how our resentments can ca...

Yitzchak Prayed...For She Was Barren: Baal HaTurim Notes Inverted Structure. At the end of Parshas Chayei Sarah, the Torah mentions the descendants of Eisav and concludes with the words "These were the years of Ishmael's life: a hundred years and thirty years and seven ...

The pasuk tells us that Esav was “tzayid befiv’. The common understanding of this is that Esav tricked Yitschok into thinking that he was really a righteous person and Chazal tell us that he would ask Yitschok halachic questions such as whether maser needs to be taken fro...

Everyone wonders, why did Yitzchok want to give the berachos to Aisav – it's true that Aisav managed to fool him to think he was a tzadik, but he certainly knew that Yaakov was the one who sat and learned Torah all day while Aisav had shortcomings (see Rashi on 27-21). I...