Parshat Toldot Yaakov Avinu is considered in our tradition to be the greatest of the Avot, the forefathers, from several points of view. He was the one who satisfied the criterion of "mitato shelemah," "his (marital) bed was complete," in the sense that all of his children were righteous. He also stood on the shoulders of giants; on the shoulders of Yitzchak, the "Olah Temima," the "unblemished sacrifice," who stood on the shoulders of Avraham, the "amud ha-chesed," "pillar of kindness, or outer-directedness." His image is "inscribed," in some sense, on the "throne" of G-d. And he is considered, of all the Avot, to be the representative of the Divine attribute of "Emet," "Truth." Glaring, at first glance, in the light of the above characterization, is Yaakov's behavior in this week's Parshah. From birth, he is portrayed as attempting to reverse the birth-order of himself and his older twin, Esav. He is born clinging to the heel of Esav, as if to hold him back. As a young man, he "acquires" the birthright from Esav, the price being some lentil soup, a transaction in which he appears to take advantage of his brother's exhaustion. Then in one of the central dramatic scenes in Tanach, Yaakov, acting at the behest of his mother, Rivkah, impersonates Esav, and acquires from his father, Yitzchak, the blessing meant for his brother. His name itself, "Yaakov," has as its "shoresh," its "root," not only the Hebrew word for "heel," but also the related Hebrew word for "bent," or "crooked." He is seen subsequently to be punished time after time by being the victim of deceit. His father-in-law, Lavan, switches his designated bride, on his wedding night, from the beloved Rachel, to her sister, Leah. Yaakov works for Lavan for twenty two years, enduring desert conditions by day, and freezing, sleepless nights, absorbing himself the cost of any lost sheep. He is rewarded by having the terms of his payment switched "ten times," to which he responds, in the end, by a counter-deceitful strategem, aided from Heaven, by which he is able to extract from the wicked Lavan his just salary. Shimon and Levi bring shame upon Yaakov by taking revenge against the inhabitants of Shechem, for the rape of Dinah, by a deceitful ruse. And, most cruelly, he is deceived by his sons, when, after a fateful gesture of sibling rivalry in which they sell Yoseph into slavery, they show him Yoseph's cloak, dipped in goat's blood, saying they'd found it, allowing him to come to the false conclusion that Yoseph had been killed by a wild beast. Yet, en route home, Yaakov struggles with the heavenly representative of Esav, and his name is changed to "Yisrael," because "you have struggled with heavenly beings and with men, and you have prevailed." The unusual word "sarita," translated as "you have struggled," first of all already in itself contains an element of victory and triumph, from the related "sar," or "ruler." Furthermore, by a reversal of letters, it can be read as "yasharta," "you were more straight," as in "ve'asita ha'yashar ve'hatov be'aynai Hashem" "and you shall do that which is straight and good in the eyes of Hashem," indicating that Yaakov, knowing that his cause was just, struggled for the triumph of the truth! When referring to Avraham, only his modified name may be used; not Avram. When referring to Yaakov, however, both the modified and original names are permissible; Yisrael, the name which contains within its structure, straightness and truth, as explained above, as well as Yaakov, which contains allowances for occasional bending of the truth. This may have to do with the fact that in "this world," the "Olam HaSheker," the "World of Falsehood," there are occasions when an individual is permitted, nay required, to behave in a manner not representative of his true nature. An example would be when King David feigned madness when he was in danger of harm from Avimelech. And sometimes, in order to preserve Shalom Bayit, Peace in the Home, or not to hurt someone's feelings, and G-d Himself is the example for this behavior, the "whole truth" is not required to be spoken. The permissible use of both names teaches us that after a lifetime of difficult and painful experiences, Yaakov Avinu became not only the "man of truth," but the "master of truth," for he knew when to apply the full rigors of truthfulness, but also when the specific situation required that the whole truth not necessarily be the only standard. Decades after his encounter with "saro shel Esav," having endured the loss of Yoseph and experienced their reunification, and been present at the beginning of the Egyptian Exile, Yaakov is summoned to an audience with the Pharaoh. The ruler of Egypt asks him, "How many are the days of the years of your life?" to which Yaakov responds with the following puzzling statement, "Few and unworthy have been the days of the years of my life…." Why is Yaakov being ungrateful to G-d? The commentators have dealt extensively with this question. But perhaps another, gematria-based ("gematria" is the sum of the Hebrew numerical equivalents of the letters of a word) idea can be suggested. The Hebrew expression for "few and unworthy" is "me'at ve'raim;" the gematria of that expression is 445; the gematria of the word "ha'emet," "the truth," is 446 (in the world of gematria, a discrepancy of 1 is acceptable, perhaps even desirable). Thus, Yaakov was responding to Pharaoh in code, not wishing to brag about, but only to allude to, his life-accomplishment, which was that he had become the "ish ha'emet," "the man," or the "master of truth," a role model for his descendants for all Eternity. Rabbi Pinchas Frankel Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU |
