Parsha Toledot

(25,19) And these are the descendants of Yitzchok son of Avraham. Avraham was the father of Yitzchok.

(25,20) Yitzchok was forty years old when he took Rivkah, the daughter of Besueil, the Aramite, of Padan Aram, sister of Lavan, the Aramite, for a wife.

(25,21) Yitzchok prayed to Adonoy across from his wife, for she was barren. Adonoy granted his prayer and his wife, Rivkah, conceived.

(25,22) The children clashed inside her, and [when this happened] she said, If this is so, why did I desire this? She [then] went to inquire of Adonoy.

(25,23) Adonoy said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two Kingdoms will separate from within you. One government will be mightier than the other, but the greater one will serve the smaller one.

(25,24) When her days of pregnancy were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.

(25,25) The first one came out with a reddish complexion, covered completely with what was like a hairy robe, and they named him Eisov.

(25,26) After that his brother came out, his hand grasping the heel of Eisov, and he [Yitzchok] named him Yaakov. Yitzchok was sixty years old when she [Rivkah] gave birth to them.

(25,27) The lads grew up. Eisov became a skilled trapper, a man of the field. Yaakov was a wholesome man, living in tents.

(25,28) Yitzchok loved Eisov because he ate of his trappings, but Rivkah loved Yaakov.

(25,29) Yaakov was simmering a pottage when Eisov came in from the field, exhausted.

(25,30) Eisov said to Yaakov, Please give me a swallow of this red [pottage], for I am exhausted. He was therefore named Edom [Red].

(25,31) Yaakov said, As of this day, sell your birthright to me.

(25,32) Eisov said, Here I am going to die, what [good] is this birthright to me.

(25,33) Yaakov said, Swear to me as of this day. He swore to him, and sold his birthright to Yaakov.

(25,34) Yaakov then gave Eisov bread and a pottage of lentils. He [Eisov] ate and drank, got up and left. [Thus] Eisov scorned the birthright.

(26,1) There was a famine in the land, aside from the first famine that was in the days of Avraham. Yitzchok went to Avimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

(26,2) Adonoy appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt. Settle in the land that I will make known to you.

(26,3) Stay temporarily in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands. I will [thus] keep the oath that I swore to Avraham, your father.

(26,4) I will make your descendants [as numerous] as the stars of the heavens, and I will give your descendants all these lands. Through your descendants shall be blessed all the nations of the world.

(26,5) [All this is] because Avraham listened to My voice, and minded My mandate, My commandments, My decrees and My teachings.

(26,6) Yitzchok [thus] settled in Gerar.

(26,7) The local men asked about his wife, and he said, She is my sister. He was afraid to say, [she is] my wife, lest the local men kill me for Rivkah, for she is so good looking.

(26,8) Once, after [Yitzchok] had been there a long while, Avimelech, king of the Philistines, looked at the window, and he saw, and behold, Yitzchok was amusing himself with Rivkah, his wife.

(26,9) Avimelech called Yitzchok and he said, But she is your wife. How could you have said, She is my sister? Yitzchok said to him, Because I said, I might die because of her.

(26,10) Avimelech said, What have you done to us? One of the people could have easily slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.

(26,11) Avimelech [then] commanded all his people, saying, Whoever touches this man or his wife, shall die.

(26,12) Yitzchok planted in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundred fold, for Adonoy had blessed him.

(26,13) The man prospered. He continued to prosper until he became very great.

(26,14) He owned flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and many slaves, and the Philistines were jealous of him.

(26,15) All the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father, Avraham—the Philistines plugged them, and filled them with earth.

(26,16) Avimelech said to Yitzchok, Go away from us. You have become much more powerful than us.

(26,17) Yitzchok went away from there. He camped in the valley of Gerar and settled there.

(26,18) Yitzchok returned and excavated the wells of water which were dug in the days of his father, Avraham, and were plugged by the Philistines after Avraham’s death. He gave them the same names that his father had given them.

(26,19) Yitzchok’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water.

(26,20) The shepherds of Gerar argued with the shepherds of Yitzchok, saying, the water is ours. He named the well Eisek [Quarrel], because they had quarreled with him.

(26,21) They dug another well and they also argued about it. He named the well Sitnah [Obstruction].

(26,22) He moved away from there and he dug another well, and there was no argument over it. He named it Rechovos [Wide Spaces], and said, For now Adonoy has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

(26,23) From there he went to Beer Sheva.

(26,24) Adonoy appeared to him that night and said, I am the God of your father, Avraham. Do not fear for I am with you. I will bless you and make your descendants numerous, because of My servant, Avraham.

(26,25) He [Yitzchok] built an altar there, and proclaimed the Name of Adonoy. He set up his tent there, and Yitzchok’s servants dug a well there.

(26,26) Avimelech came to Yitzchok from Gerar along with a group of friends and Pichol, his general.

(26,27) Yitzchok said to them, Why have you come to me? You hate me and drove me away from you.

(26,28) They said, We have indeed seen that Adonoy is with you, and we said, Let there now be an oath between us, between ourselves and you, and let us make a covenant with you;

(26,29) that you will do us no harm, just as we did not touch you. We did nothing but good to you, and sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed one of Adonoy.

(26,30) He [Yitzchok] made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

(26,31) They got up early in the morning, and they each swore to the other. Yitzchok sent them away and they left in peace.

(26,32) On that day Yitzchok’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug; and they said to him, We have found water.

(26,33) He named it Shiva. Therefore the city is called Beer Sheva until this very day.

(26,34) Eisov was forty years old and he married Yehudis, the daughter of Be’eri, the Chittite and Bosmas, the daughter of Eylon the Chittite.

(26,35) They were rebellious of spirit to Yitzchok and Rivkah.

(27,1) And when Yitzchok grew old his eyesight faded and he could not see. He called Eisov, his elder son, and said to him, My son. [Eisov] said to him, Here I am.

(27,2) [Yitzchok] said, Behold, if you please, I am old. I do not know the day of my death.

(27,3) Now [therefore] please take your equipment, your sword and your bow, and go out to the field and trap [deer] for me.

(27,4) Make it into a tasty dish for me, the way I like it, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul will bless you before I die.

(27,5) Rivkah had [over]heard what Yitzchok said to his son, Eisov. Eisov went out to the field to trap [deer] to bring it [home.]

(27,6) Rivkah said to her son Yaakov, saying, Behold, I heard your father speaking to your brother Eisov, saying,

(27,7) Bring back [deer] for me and make it into a tasty dish for me and I will eat. I will then bless you in the presence of Adonoy before I die.

(27,8) Now my son, listen to me, concerning that which I command you.

(27,9) Go, please, to the sheep and take for me from there two choice young goats, and I will make [from] them a tasty dish for your father as he likes.

(27,10) You will [then] bring it to your father to eat, in order that he will bless you before he dies.

(27,11) Yaakov said to Rivkah, his mother, Behold, Eisov, my brother is a hairy person and I am a smooth-skinned person.

(27,12) Suppose my father touches me. I will be in his eyes as an impostor. I will bring upon myself a curse—not a blessing.

(27,13) His mother said to him, Your curse shall be upon me, my son; but listen to me. Go bring them to me.

(27,14) He went, took [them], and brought [them] to his mother. His mother make a tasty dish as his father liked.

(27,15) Rivkah took the garments of Eisov, her elder son, [the garments] that were precious [to him] that were in her keeping in the house, and put them on Yaakov, her younger son.

(27,16) The skins of the young goats she placed on his hands and the smooth part of his neck.

(27,17) She placed the tasty dish and the bread which she had made, in the hand of Yaakov, her son.

(27,18) He came to his father and said, My father. [Yitzchok] said, Here I am. Who are you my son?

(27,19) Yaakov said to his father, It is I, Eisov your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Rise, if you please, sit up and eat of my trapping so that your soul will bless me.

(27,20) Yitzchok said to his son, How is it that you found it so quickly my son? He [Yaakov] said, Because Adonoy, your God, brought it about for me.

(27,21) Yitzchok said to Yaakov, Come close, if you please, and let me touch you, my son. Are you my son Eisov or not?

(27,22) Yaakov came close to Yitzchok, his father, and he [Yitzchok] touched him. He said, The voice is the voice of Yaakov, but the hands are the hands of Eisov.

(27,23) He [Yitzchok] did not recognize him because his hands were like those of Eisov, his brother—they were hairy—and [thus] he blessed him.

(27,24) He said, Are you indeed my son, Eisov? [Yaakov] said, I am.

(27,25) He said, Bring it close to me and I will eat from my son’s trappings, so that my soul will bless you. He brought it close to him and he ate. He [then] brought him wine and he drank.

(27,26) His father Yitzchok said to him, Come close to me and kiss me, my son.

(27,27) He came close and kissed him. He [Yitzchok] smelled the fragrance of his garments, and he blessed him. He said, See, my son’s fragrance is like the fragrance of a field blessed by Adonoy.

(27,28) And may God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness [riches] of the land, and abundance of grain and wine.

(27,29) Peoples will serve you and nations bow to you. Be master over your brothers, and your mother’s sons will bow to you. Those who curse you are cursed, and those who bless you are blessed.

(27,30) It was when Yitzchok had finished blessing Yaakov, and Yaakov had just left the presence of Yitzchok, his father, that Eisov came back from his trapping.

(27,31) He too made a tasty dish and brought it to his father. He said to his father, Let my father rise and eat of his son’s trapping, that your soul may bless me.

(27,32) Yitzchok, his father, said to him, Who are you? He said, I am your son, your firstborn, Eisov.

(27,33) Yitzchok was seized with a powerful trembling; and said, Who, then, is he who trapped [deer] and brought it to me. I ate all of it before you came, and I blessed him. He shall be blessed.

(27,34) When Eisov heard his father’s words, he wailed a most loud and bitter cry, and he said to his father, Bless me too, my father.

(27,35) [Yitzchok] said, Your brother came with cunning and he took your blessing.

(27,36) [Eisov] said, Is he not rightly called Yaakov? He has deceived me twice; he took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing. He said, Have you not saved a blessing for me?

(27,37) Yitzchok replied and said to Eisov. Behold, I have made him your master, and all his brothers I have given him as slaves. I have sustained him with grain and wine. Where? What can I do for you, my son?

(27,38) Eisov said to his father, Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father, and Eisov raised his voice and wept.

(27,39) Yitzchok, his father replied and said to him, Behold the fatness [richness] of the earth shall be your dwelling, and of the dew of heaven from above.

(27,40) You shall live by your sword, and you shall serve your brother. When you have cause to be grieved, you will throw off his yoke from your neck.

(27,41) Eisov hated Yaakov because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Eisov said in his heart, The mourning days for my father are approaching. I will then kill my brother, Yaakov.

(27,42) Rivkah was informed about the words of Eisov, her older son, and she sent [a messenger] to call Yaakov, her younger son, and she said to him. Behold, your brother Eisov is consoled through you, [for he intends] to kill you.

(27,43) Now my son listen to me. Get up and flee to Lavan, my brother, to Charan.

(27,44) Remain with him a short time until your brother’s fury has subsided.

(27,45) Until your brother’s rage toward you has subsided, and he has forgotten what you did to him. I will then send [for you] and bring you [back] from there. Why should I lose both of you on one day?

(27,46) Rivkah said to Yitzchok, I am disgusted with my life because of the daughters of Cheis. If Yaakov marries a woman of the daughters of Cheis, like these, from the daughters of the land, what is life [worth] to me.

(28,1) Yitzchok called Yaakov and blessed him. He commanded him and said to him, Do not marry a woman of the daughters of Canaan.

(28,2) Set out and go to Padan Aram, to the house of Besueil, your mother’s father, and marry one of the daughters of Lavan, your mother’s brother.

(28,3) May the Almighty, Shaddai, bless you, make you fruitful and multiply you. May you become an assembly of peoples.

(28,4) May He give you the blessing of Avraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land of your dwelling which God gave to Avraham.

(28,5) Yitzchok sent Yaakov on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Lavan, son of Besueil the Aramean, the brother of Rivkah, mother of Yaakov and Eisov.

(28,6) Eisov saw that Yitzchok blessed Yaakov, and sent him to Paddan Aram, to find a wife there; and as he blessed him, he commanded him saying, Do not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

(28,7) And Yaakov listened to his father and mother, and went to Paddan Aram.

(28,8) Eisov [thus] realized that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Yitzchok, his father.

(28,9) Eisov [then] went to Yishmael, and took Mochalas, the daughter of Yishmael, the son of Avraham and sister of Nevayos, in addition to his other wives, for a wife.