Before we get started, I want to tell you about a friend of mine, teacher of mine, his name is Zev. And we've been friends for 45 years. And he is the tour guide's tour guide. When you say his name, the tour guide's in Israel, their face lights up, say, "You know him?" You say, "I know him. Every one of my kids who I brought to Israel for their bar mitzvah time trip got one day with him, just the three of us usually, on a very special outing. And he was known in our circles by his nickname, his nickname is not Zev, his name is Jabo. Everybody talks about Jabo. Everybody in the country knows him. Just one quick vignette is 22 years ago, I arranged for him to lead a family that I knew from L.A. was in Israel, and I was in Israel at the time. So we arranged to take a day together, and I was the translator. And we met at the citadel, you guys know the hotel, citadel, a neuromomila. And we met there, and I was with him, and the family was about to arrive, and he said, "Just a minute, I have to go talk to somebody." I saw there was a man sitting on a table, a few tables away, having a cup of coffee by himself. And so Jabo went up to him, sat down, talked to him for a little while, it was Bibi. That was the kind of guys he hung out with. And just as a quick aside, I took some friends of mine on a tour with him. We went to Jomahr Haivron, south of Haivron, and he went to a spot he wanted to show us, which is called the footsteps of Abraham. There's these two footsteps that are kind of carved into rock that according to tradition, that's where Abraham stood and looked down at Stomahr as he was being destroyed. If so, Abraham had bigger than Belblender, an amazing size feat. But anyhow, when we were driving there, so I was in a lead car with him, and he was telling me where to go, and I'm driving up there. And if you guys know Israel, you know that in a lot of parts of Israel, there are places where there's these red signs that you're not allowed to go. And so we're driving up, and to continue, there's a red sign. I can't go there. He says, "Just a second." So he picks up the phone, five seconds later, the soldier who's guarding the place comes to the job book. Come on in. And that's kind of how it worked with him. Job was somebody who was absolute love for Tanakh, who's absolute love for every corner of Erchisrael, permeated who he was, and I was with him a number of times when he led both recruits and also colonels and generals on tours of different areas of Israel to show them even operationally, not just historically, to connect things with Tanakh, with Midrash, with Israeli history and with modern military issues. And they all called on him all the time for this kind of stuff. Just Wednesday, there was the colonel who was in charge of the Golani unit, of which he, by the way, he's 70, one. He had volunteered to be in Miluim, which normally until 40, until he was 70. And so he was still in Miluim. And they called him to come up to Lebanon because there was a fortress that the UN would not allow them to destroy, because it was historic values like that, but there are terrorists hiding in there. And they wanted him to come up to identify whether or not it really legitimately was that old, because he knows the area well, and if there was some operational way that they could get in and get the terrorists, and still make it work. And it was Wednesday afternoon at three o'clock that the job bow was killed by one of the terrorists who was there. And so, as you can see at the bottom of the page, I'm dedicating this to you as, "Nere lin ischmadse ive chronochte, jabbo ehrlich, chashemi cum damont," he, jabbo lit, he's still talking about him in the present tense, because, first of all, I'm still in denial, I'll be honest with you, and second of all, because for me, and for thousands of other people, jabbo is somebody who will always be there guiding us as we walk every step in Erich Israel. And every time that we open a Tanakh, where there's stories and walking Erich Israel, he's right there with us. A tremendous smile and a tremendous ava, and my whole family is quite broken up, but I'm giving this to your, in his honor and in his memory. Not told it is a parashah brachot, it's a parashah with a story about a brachah that Yitzhak wants to give to Esav, and instead Yaakov sneaks in, then Esav gets another, kind of brachah, we call it more of a misha barah, and then, at the end, Yaakov gets another brachah, when he knows it's Yaakov, we're going to look at all three of them. And there's a question that emerges, which is really Esav's question, and it's the title of the shear. When Esav comes in after the ruse, and Yaakov has successfully deceived his father, and by the way, that's a whole other topic, we're not going to touch on, but something worthy of thinking about, which is, how does Yaakov act deceptively towards his father? How does Yaakov lie that way, and say, "I'm Esav," etc, how does he do that, such a thing? That's a difficulty. But putting that aside in the meantime, there's something else that happens, which is Yaakov successfully deceives his father, and he gets the brachah. And Esav comes in, and when the ruse is discovered, and the brachah has already been given, I don't know about you, I would expect, that Yitzchalq would turn around and say, "Nah, brachah, let me think, because it was given under false pretenses." This is what we call a makah tout, fraud, and it shouldn't count. And yet, Esav turns it a little differently, but it's another piece of the question. He says, "Havar-ah-hah-hah-tih-lah-hah-vee," I said, "You only got one brachah, you can't give me a brachah, too?" So his father says, "I really don't give you a brachah," and it's like I said, it's not much of a brachah, it's okay. But it's a good question, Esav's question is a good question. When our family is together, which now is rarely, kids are all grown up, two are married, but when we're all together, they all line up, my son, my daughter, and my son-in-law, and their son, and then my son and his wife, they all line up for brachah. I got brachah for everybody. I got to write another one now, because my son just got engaged, so I got to write one for his wife, got a very little time, right? You got to get it done? I don't want to run out of brachah, they don't jostle each other, and they don't pretend to be the eldest so they can get there first, and I call them on Friday. What kind of thing? A brachah, ahe lakhah, ahe lakhavi. So keep that in mind, and I want to learn through certain highlights in this week's parashah to see what's going on and what this brachah is really about, and why it is that the answer to Asab's question actually is, ahh, habaha, ahe lakhah, ahe lakhavi, a brachah nigamani abi, the answer should be, yeah, I only have one brachah, and you don't get it. And Yaakov, wide, and got it, and keeps it. Why that should work. All right, let's take a look. First of all, let's talk about the word brachah. What does it mean to live arach? I know, to bless. What does it mean? What does that actually mean? And as Shem says to Avram, "Vahavarachaha, I will bless you." What does that mean? Wealth. Wealth, that's what it means. And it's the first passage on the page, "Pasukkh in Mislai, b'rachat algunaihi ta'asheer." Brachah, b'rachah, makes you wealthy. Whenever you see brachah, when God blesses people, that's either wealth or wealth in other forms, which is fertility, the crops, but it's all wealth. Now let's play with it a little bit. What does it mean when a person wishes another person a brachah? We're saying when ashram blesses you, that's wealth. What happens when Yaakov gives his sons a brachah, when most shab blesses the tribes? What does it mean for a person to wish a brachah for someone else? What do they say? We're wishing that ashram will bless you with wealth and all those things. Okay, now the real tough one is the brachah that we are most familiar with, which in this case is, "Bohrami' name is anot, brachah, b'rahat al-mancha kolni et vivarot," those are brachah. Understand, am I paying God? What does it mean? What does it mean for man to bless God? For God to bless man is wealth. For man to bless man is to wish him that wealth. What does it mean for man to bless God? Thanks for the love. Say it again. Thanks for the love. Right, and acknowledging this comes from God. I'm expressing an appreciation and an acknowledgement that the brachah that I have my life come from God. Okay, very nice. So now let's keep that in mind. Now take a note towards the end of last week's parashat, the end of the story of Rifka. The family blesses her as she leaves. And watch the brachah, it's called the brachah, by shahood, it's sourced to, by rachood. Rifka, rifka, khutam, vat maniktah. They send off Rifka and her wet nurse. By the way, why'd they send a wet nurse with Rifka? Because she's going to have children, and it's a wealthy family. She shouldn't have to do the work of nursing her own kid, and a wet nurse for that. Very big, rich. Anyhow. So they send her off with her wet nurse, vat, evada brahamehta nashav, and avraam slave, and the other people who came with him, vayvah, khut rifka, vayom rulah. Here's the brachah to Rifka. By the way, they're saying goodbye to their daughter's sister, and they're never going to see her again. That's the assumption. There's no Thanksgiving, there's no holiday specials, and not happening. Ahotenu, our sister, aat haiil aufe rifava, you should turn into thousands and tens of thousands. Now this seems to be like a standard brachah that they would give. It wasn't like they created. It's like that's a standard brachah you give. This is the brachah, by the way, that some people have their custom, fathers give to their daughter on the day of their wedding. That's the badekin. What? Why does it work? Why do people have some brachah, aat haiil nashav, aat haiil nashav, aat haiil nashav. Yeah, good. So again, this brachah was very likely a common nusach that they used, which they used for women who were going off and getting married, and so it was sort of like the town we're saying it. It wasn't necessarily like father to daughter. It was like the town saying aat haiil nashav. The brachahr ech hai chahr sonav. And what's the other half of it? Your children should conquer the gate of their enemies. You couldn't come up with something nicer? Have a nice life. Do well in college. Yeah, you know, marry well instead. It's about power. It's about control. It's about military success if you will. Keep that in mind as we move ahead. Okay. Now, let's start with this. It's hai kamifka have twins. We know them. The eldest one is? Asa. Asa. And four and a half seconds later is? Asa kamifka. I know it's four and a half seconds because he's holding onto his thing, right? Is Yaakov, right? We're told right away, and we have just before in Source 3, we're told right away that they come out differently. They look different when they come out, and they go into different livelihoods. What does Asa of do for a living? He hunts, and he's a farmer. He's an ish sadeh, and you're diasayid. Now, what does Yaakov do for a living? I'll say it again. What does Yaakov do for a living? What? Nothing. Well, he's got to do something. He sits in a tent, right? He sits in tents. What does that mean? So the pashtamim say very simply is a shepherd. It's a shepherd. Each time you'll say, "Waldim," each time may mean that unlike Asa of who's very sharp with strategy of how to trap an animal, Yaakov seemed to be kind of naive. Of course, the rest of the story paints up his anything but naive. And in the meantime, he says, "You'll say, 'Waldim.'" Which sets up the oldest battle that exists in history, which is the battle between shepherds and farmers. Shepherds and farmers hate each other. More directly, farmers hate shepherds. We plant... What? Yeah, kind of have a... Right? Kind is a farmer and have a little shepherd. And so that's what they do for a living. And then we have... They hate each other because they eat the food. Say again? Why do they hate each other so much? Because the shepherds grow sheep, they raise sheep, and they sheep eat all the food. Right. That's why the Egyptians hate shepherds. Because the Egyptians are an agricultural society, and shepherds bring their sheep in. The food, by the way, it seems that the Egyptians also, at that point in time, had a vegetarian diet. And the shepherd is simply somebody who's raising food to be eaten. So it could be that also. In any case, watch what happens. Something that... I don't know about you, but when I growing up, I found this pursuit very bizarre. I focused on this a lot because my name's Yitzhak. So this story is like, you know, there's not a whole lot about Yitzhak. But how do Yitzhak and Yitzhak decide to feed? Now one thing about the word "ohave." What does word "ohave" mean? To love. To love. Except when it's in a relative state, meaning Hashem, "ohave," is an absolute state. Hashem loves Amisrael. Beautiful. But when there is a choice, for instance, which son do I love, Yitzhak and Yitzhak, love is actually not the right translation. How would you translate that? A favor for fur, right? Because the point is we have two parents, and they have two kids, and one parent favors one kid, the other favors the other kid. They don't not love their kids. And you find that also in the Torah, when it talks about a man, Mary's two wives, Ha-ha-ha-hu-va-ha-ha-s-nua. One is beloved. One is hated. He is his wife. He likes this one more than that one. That's what big of me gives you. So here, if I have Yitzhak, it's a "kitzai bifiv." Why does Yitzhak favor a "sav"? He hunts. And my answer to that is, that's why you're going to favor a kid, because he hunts. What does that mean? Okay, good, good, good, good. Very good. So, what's your name? Rithi. Rithi. Okay. So the weight of your heart is through your stomach. There may be something bigger there, too. And that plays out later on the "brah-ha." If Rithkah, we'll have a tatyakov. Now, why Rithkah, we'll have a tatyakov, maybe a no-brainer. The text doesn't even tell us why, because if you recall just before this, Rithkah, as she was pregnant, had a prophecy. And in the prophecy, she was likely told that the younger child will be the one to be more important, or to be the master. So she might already have a predilection. The other thing, and by the way, is Rithkah comes from a family of shepherds. And yahkov is a shepherd. Yitzchak is a farmer, and Yitzchak is a farmer, so light goes to light, maybe. Now, in this story, in Source 3, you all know the story, Yitzchav comes in from the field, and he is tired. And he says, and I'm going to do it as close to voice as I can, "Give me some of that red stuff." He can't even say what it is, "Give me some of that red stuff, shove it down my throat." Now, where are they? It's an interesting question. I believe that they are out on an outing together, but on a travel together, where Yitzchav takes the sheep and shepherds them, and Yitzchav goes with him, and by the way, that's valuable, is if an animal comes to attack the sheep, Yitzchav can shoot it down, and Yitzchav hunts, if they work together, because otherwise, if they're home, Yitzchav shouldn't be cooking. I don't mean any gender stuff here, but if they're home, the servants should be cooking. It's a very wealthy family. But Yitzchav is making food. Yitzchav comes in, "Give me some of that food." What does Yitzchav say? Mihrachayomat bakhorachali, "Sell me your bakhorach." The rights of prima janitor, the rights you have as the firstborn son, sell them to me. Now, how can you do that? In our family, I'm the youngest, as a kid, I'm the youngest. I couldn't, for all the money in the world, give my sister al-Aushalam some money and say, "I want to be the oldest." It doesn't work. You either are or you're not. How do you pay money and become a bakhor? So the answer is, of course, he's not becoming a bakhor. What is he doing? He's buying the rights of the bakhor. What are the rights of the bakhor? We don't know yet. We'll find out. And it's very important for Yitzchav to get this. And Yitzchav degrades it. Yitzchav says, "What's the point of a bakhorachal al-Aushalamu," whatever that may mean. It may mean that my livelihood is a dangerous one. I could die any day. What's the point? Clearly, the bakhorach is something you don't get right now. It's rights for later. And we pretty reasonably assume rights that kick in when father kicks. In other words, when Yitzchav dies, then the bakhorach becomes something actualized. And that's what I want the rights to. We don't know yet what it is. But somehow, Yaakov is able to buy it and Yaakov, and Yitzchav is able to sell it, and Yitzchav sells it, and walks off. Okay. Next passage, next story. Yitzchav is old. And he goes blind. Why does he go blind? There's 30 reasons. So, but the shot is because he was old. That's the rest, but he's old. He goes blind. Happens to a lot of people in Tanakh. Eli. Okay. He goes blind. He comes to-- he summons Yitzchav, and he says, "Yitzchav," here we go. "Vayomeri la vayomeri nena zakati lea dot diomotii," and I'll say carefully the words. "I am old now, and I don't know when I'm going to die," which means he anticipates that fairly soon I'm going to die. Now, what does a person want to do? It should be the last thing from your minds. But what's the-- what does somebody, if you can imagine, want to do when they think they're about to die? They don't want to eat it. Got their estate in order? Get their estate in order. Get their affairs in order. I have a friend who was a neighbor of ours, lovely guy, brilliant guy, and he suddenly got ill with a matter of months he passed away. And I later found out during the Shiva that on in his hospital room, at the bed, he was sitting there with his wife, and I think his son had come in, and the lawyers, and he was making sure that everything that he put in the right place, his wife wouldn't have anything to worry about, and all the insurance would be covered, and all of the-- there wouldn't be any probate, and everything would be taken care of. That was his concern. He wants to die, knowing that it's all taken care of. So Yagh-- Yagh-- Yagh wants to put his affairs in order. What does he tell Asav to do? And this is bizarre. He says, "I tell you, I'll tell you how to take your bow, your arrow, perhaps, maybe your sword." The-- "I tell you, I'll tell you how to take your bow, your arrow, perhaps, maybe your sword." He says, "I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, your arrow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I'll tell you how to take your bow, I also can't take a curse from you and put it on me. What does she mean with this? So it's all coming down really to one question all these questions are coming down to one question, which is What is this brahah that we're talking about? So let's take a look now? Yitzhak is number two in a You know succession number one is our rhyme. It's like his number two now who's supposed to be number three? Since like a sub right okay What is that succession about? It's about a brahah that Hashem gave to Avraham Did he then tell the Yitzhak? I'm gonna give you that same brahah And now it's gonna go to a sub. What is that brahah? What is it that Hashem blessed Avraham with two major things repeated throughout the story The land of Israel and a lot of kids Arats and Zara beautiful. All right, that's what the so we expect and Yitzhak got that Yitzhak's not gonna say hey So you can look us haven't percata braham We used to hide there to graha right instead. What does he say? V it in Lechai loim it all shawam shawam shawam shawam shawam shawam shawam shawam to rush God should give you a lot Basically a gazillion dollars right lots of fruit lots of to grow everything like that Yeah, I've do a hamish tocha. We look how lo me nations will bow down to you and worship and work and serve you Have they clearly achacha? We stockable acha been a maha. You will rule over your brothers kind of strange what we're talking to us only one brother. So it means family members and the sons of your mother should bow to you I Racham or I remember a haqaba or whoever curses you be cursed or velocity of the best we know that familiar, but notice What's missing from here? There's nothing about our sister. I was nothing about kids It's about power and wealth and then a sub comes at Yaakov gets the prachah walks out a sub walks in and You know the community. It's like says who are you? I'm a sub. You talk start freaking out and then he says this line He says bach Iqaba be remar be kach bear hataha your brother came deceptively and took your brachah At which point we want to say why does it work? You should think why does it work? The brachah should be null and void I thought I was giving it to a so it turned out it was yeah It was Yaakov doesn't get a brachah. Maybe curse him. It shouldn't work, but it works and Asa then with a very clever plan where it says hahikar ashwah Yaakov. That's why he either he or you called him Yaakov Because he's Yaakov is to ambush he ambushed me twice First he took my bachara didn't hear about that before it's like the no and now he takes my brachah And he says don't you have a brachah for me, and then he says havah hah tila hah vibra haniyamani avi But notice that this is all premised on one problem Which is that it's hahik says the brachah that I gave to asa of actually works that Yaakov actually works and you're out So what does it's hahik say to him all right now mish funny. All right. Yeah, most of all you'll also have some money That's fine, and your brother is gonna rule over you, but if he does it too hard you can overcome it That's it like I said it's not much of a brachah. It's like backhand and brachah Okay, you know the rest of the story Asa is irate he wants to kill the ako I'm gonna kill Yaakov Rifka tells Yaakov to run away, and then rifka tell the only time we ever hear rifka talking it's hot rifka says to you it's hot she lies to him it says if Yaakov marries one of these girls like ace of man. I'm finished. I'm out of here So he says okay, you go it says to yaakov go to lavan marry one of his daughters, and then he gives him a brachah Look at the brachah in purple. I'm source seven and what is it? What is that brachah? I Also, they were a whole caveat for have ya bechah it in common lot of kids we can't look at your cat over a ham Look at this the brachah give to my son of raham every Friday night. Look how's our high talk? Luis to hot air. It's McGurrach. I don't really have a arm that you shouldn't hear it the land in other words The brachah of kids and land that's been hot over a ham What's going on? so I believe that it works as follows. I believe it's the simplest way to read through the entire thing What is the bahora? It is the mandate that the oldest son inherits the entire state father dies the bahor takes over he controls everything and He either takes care of his brothers or he gives them a certain amount of money and let's them go and he's in charge of the estate. He inherits everything Why does Yitzhak favor a sav? What does it say? Kitzayyad befiv A sav is a hunter and a farmer, which means He can provide for the family He's the best provider So Yitzhak favors him because he feeds the family He's the guy who could take over best and can support us great So what does he do when he thinks he's gonna die? he says to a sav Go hunt something why cuz that's the proof of your worth of your worthiness Go hunt something and bring it for me, and I'll give you a nice brachah Want to have the object that creates the brachah in front of us all right great What happens Yaakov uses deception? and Gets that brachah What does Yitzhak realize now when a sav comes in? That Yaakov is more worthy than a sav to run the family Because what did Yaakov do he took? whatever traits Physical mental traits that I caught his bark who gave him and he used them brilliantly with great strategy to get what he needed That's better than the brawn of a sav So when Yitzhak realizes what happens he says Gamba Rukhya he has the brachah He's the one who has the brachah You you get second second place, but he's the one who gets the brachah What happens at the end? When Yitzhak who always understood that Yaakov was the one to continue the tradition of Abraham That Yaakov would be the one to pass on Dara Hashem that Yaakov would be the one to raise the Zara That was promised to Avraham Then he gave him the khatavram that was always for Yaakov that was never on the table for Ya for a sub What was on the table for a sub was you're going to be the manager of the estate You're gonna own the estate and you're gonna control it all because you're the powerful guy And that's something that can only go to one person. You're the only one person in charge What Happened is that yeah, Yitzhak realized like that the Yaakov for all of his Retiring personality and all his shyness and all his perhaps seeming not naivete is actually way sharper And is more capable of taking care of the family in all sorts of circumstances, which of course he eventually does so hopefully a different perspective on understanding of the whole Brahma scene and One that once we step back from how we assume what a Brahma is But khatavram and realize that the whole issue of the bhura is one of control which we can see from the wording of the Brahma that That Yitzhak gave when he thought it was Asav was not about children not about the land But it's about power and if that was something that ultimately Yaakov proved himself more worthy of Some like to look at him. This is something worthy thinking about That the the original model was that Yaakov and Asav would be teammates Ya Asav would be the one in charge of the estate and Yaakov would be in charge of the teaching the tradition and that what happened in the end is the Yaakov got him both and Asav got Asav sorry for the pun
