Commentary for Genesis 27:29

בני אמך THY MOTHER’S SONS — Jacob, however, said to Judah (49:8) “Thy father’s sons (shall bow down to thee]”, because he had sons by several wives, but here, because he (Isaac) had but one wife he said “thy mother’s sons” (Genesis Rabbah 66:4).

CURSED BE EVERY ONE THAT CURSETH THEE, AND BLESSED BE EVERY ONE THAT BLESSETH THEE. But in the case of Balaam it says, Blessed be every one that blesseth thee, and cursed be every one that curseth thee.²²¹Numbers 24:9. The question thus arises: Why did Isaac mention first the curse and then the blessing while Balaam did the opposite? [The reason for this change in order is that] the righteous begin with affliction and ultimately attain tranquility, so that those who curse them precede those who bless them.²²²Therefore, Isaac, himself a righteous man, speaks first of those who afflict the righteous, and then mentions those who bless them. The opposite is true in the case of Balaam. But the wicked experience tranquility first and their end is affliction. Hence Balaam mentioned the blessing before the curse. This is Rashi’s language quoting Bereshith Rabbah.²²³Bereshith Rabbah 66:5.
But if this be so, why did the Holy One, blessed be He, say to Abraham, And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee?²²⁴Above, 12:3. Now here in the case of the righteous, it still mentions the blessing first! This however is no difficulty since He concludes there, And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Thus there is a blessing at the beginning and at the end. It may be, as we have explained it there, that He speaks in terms of both an individual and many,²²⁵The blessing is expressed in plural form — And I will bless ‘those’ who bless thee — while the curse is expressed in singular form — and curse ‘him’ that curseth thee. suggesting that Abraham will be universally blessed, and the single person who will curse him will be cursed.²²⁶Hence He mentions the blessing first as there will be many who will bless Abraham.

בני אמך, here the word וישתחו appears in the singular, whereas in a parallel blessing pronounced by Yaakov who had several wives (Genesis 49,8) the word וישתחוו appears in the plural.

וישתחוו לך לאומים, for even the kingdoms which will not serve you directly will be in a state of dependence on you seeing that you will be the superpower.

יעבדוך עמים וגו׳. "Nations will serve you, etc." This might mean that the king would not impose on the people the taxes due him. We find that even when the second Jewish commonwealth was still a satellite of the Persians, their leaders, i.e. their Torah scholars were exempt from taxes as we know from Ezra, 7,24. When verse 40 continues "and you will serve your brother," this refers to a descendant of Esau when the latter had become king.

יעבדוך....הוה גביר לאחיך, a reference to Esau’s sons (descendants); the same is meant when Yitzchok speaks about בני אמך, “your mother’s sons,” i.e. her descendants. These blessings came true in the time when David defeated the Edomites, and they will come true again in the days of the Messiah.

יעבדוך עמים וישתחוו לך לאומים, “nations will serve you, and states will pay homage to you.” This promise/blessing was fulfilled at the threshing grounds of Atad, (Genesis 50,11) when the various Canaanite kings, and representatives all paid homage to Yaakov’s coffin as it was on the way to burial in the cave of Machpelah. According to tradition, these kings saluted Yaakov by placing their crowns on the fence of that threshing ground.

Whereas here that he married only one woman he says, “Your mother’s sons.” [Yitzchok said it in this manner] because he did not want to say that his sons will be slaves, relating the curse to himself. (Gur Aryeh)

Völker und Staaten beugen sich nicht der geistigen, beugen sich nur der materiellen Größe. Jizchak meint ja, Esau stehe vor ihm. Gott hatte Abraham verheißen, sein Volk werde zum Segen werden für alle Völker. In dieser Aufgabe, meint Jizchak, sollte Esau das Pensum des materiellen Wohlstandes werden, dem sich der Respekt der Völker und Staaten zuwendet. הְֶנֵה ist Imperativ, nicht Segen, sondern Aufgabe: durch die materielle Fülle, die dir Gott gewähren wird, werden Völker und Staaten sich vor dir beugen; suche nun aber auch mit Jakob um die geistige Größe zu wetteifern, dass nicht bloß die Fremden dich achten, dass auch die Söhne deiner Mutter mit Achtung vor dir sich beugen, du auch ihnen als "Mann" dastehest, dann, wenn dir dies gelungen, dann: אורריך ארור ומברכיך ברוך!

ארריך ארור ומברכיך ברוך THEY THAT CURSE THEE SHALL BE CURSED AND THEY THAT BLESS THEE SHALL BE BLESSED — But in the case of Balaam Scripture says (Numbers 24:9) “Blessed be everyone that blesseth thee and cursed be every one that curseth thee”. The explanation is: the righteous have sufferings first and happiness afterwards, so that in point of time those who curse and afflict them (cause them suffering) come before those who bless them (cause them happiness) — therefore Isaac, a righteous man, invokes a curse upon those who themselves curse before he invokes a blessing upon those who bless. The wicked however have happiness first and suffering afterwards; therefore Balaam, a wicked man, invokes the blessing before the curse (Genesis Rabbah 66:4).

הוה גביר לאחיך, seeing that Yitzchok was under the impression that he was speaking to Esau, he thought that it would be in Yaakov’s interest to endure some degree dependence upon Esau while at the same time holding on to the Land of Israel as its Abrahamitic heritage. Such a political dependence would ensure that Yaakov’s descendants would turn their attention to matters other than geo-politics, conquest, etc. The fact is, that at some time in the future the Jewish state did display expansionary tendencies, only to suffer setbacks as a result. The prophet Amos 6,8 already warned his people against such tendencies when he quotes G’d’s loathing for power politics practiced by the Kingdom of the ten tribes under the kings of Samaria. Moreover, Yitzchok thought that if Yaakov had to be subjected to foreign domination, it would be better for it to be subjected to the rule by his brother than by other nations which would treat it more cruelly. Our sages (Gittin 17) phrased this as או בטולך או בטולך דבר עשו, “it is better to be under the protection of You (G’d), or the protection of the descendants of Esau than to have to live under the rule of the Persians.” The way Yitzchok phrased his blessing was based on his knowledge that the Land of Israel would be Yaakov’s descendants exclusively, that Esau’s descendants would not have a share in it. This is why he made no mention at all of the blessing G’d gave to Avraham, nor did he make any mention of the Land of Israel.

אררך ארור, in the singular mode, meaning each person cursing you will be cursed individually.

הוי גביר לאחיך, “be your brother’s superior, etc.” Seeing that at this point Yitzchok thought that Esau stood in front of him, we cannot escape the conclusion that Rivkah had never told him of the prophecy that the younger son would be the superior one, otherwise Yitzchok would have now rebelled against the prophecy.

Regarding Bilam it states, “Those who bless you... and those who curse you...” Meaning: Concerning the righteous, the troubles come first. Thus Yitzchok mentioned the curses of the cursers first. The Ramban asks: Why is it written in Lech Lecha (12:3), “I will bless those who bless you, and he who curses you, I will curse”? He answers: Because it is written afterward, “And through you, will be blessed...” Thus, the curses of the cursers indeed precede the blessings of those who bless. Although Bilam said to B’nei Yisrael, “Those who bless you are blessed,” he spoke as he did because he was accustomed to addressing the wicked. Alternatively, he blessed them with the reward of the wicked: B’nei Yisrael too, should have tranquility at the beginning.

הוה גביר לאחיך. "Be your brother's superior;" This refers to Esau personally, i.e. that Esau himself will never become Jacob's servant, as opposed to some of his descendants to whom the words וישתחוו לך בני אמך, "your mother's sons will bow down to you" will apply.

אוויך ארור, the word אורריך is in the plural mode seeing that there would be numerous nations or individuals who would curse the kings and ministers of Esau when they would not be granted their rightful aspirations. The Torah therefore warned the Jewish people not to curse the political leadership or the judiciary as such curses might backfire (Exodus 22,27)

אורריך ארור ומברכיך ברוך, “the ones who will curse you will themselves become cursed, and those who will bless you will themselves become blessed.” In Bileam’s blessings, the order is reversed; he said מברכיך ברוך ואורריך ארור, “those who bless you will themselves be blessed, and those that curse you will find themselves cursed.” The righteous will endure problems before finding themselves rewarded and blessed, whereas the wicked may start out as if enjoying blessings, whereas in reality they will wind up being accursed. Still, when G’d spoke to Avraham in chapter 12,2-3 He phrased it thus: ונברכו בך כל משפחות האדמה, “all the families of the earth will enjoy blessing, thanks to you.” Seeing G’d wanted to conclude with this blessing, He commenced also with a blessing.

Another meaning contained in the blessing may be that as long as Jacob will exercise his dominion over Esau by serving the Lord in holiness, the blessing would remain in effect; were he not to do so, one brother could never become a servant to another brother. Should Jacob (or his descendants) fail to serve the Lord, Esau would assume dominion over him. This is why we find that even a relatively mild dereliction of duty towards G'd by the kingdom of Yehudah led to Edom recovering politically (Kings II 8,22).

אררך ארור ומברכיך ברוך. "Those who curse you will be cursed and those who bless you will be blessed." Those who plan to curse you in the future will already be cursed now so as to make their curse ineffective, whereas those who plan to bless you will already be blessed now so as to make their blessing effective.

The reason the Torah employs the plural when referring to those who will bless, whereas the word "will be blessed" is in the singular, (and similarly when referring to the cursers and the cursed) is to tell us that not all those who curse will be cursed, such as in the case of Achiyah Hashiloni and people like him (Kings I 11,29). The same applies in reverse to people such as Bileam who blessed the Jewish people. He was not blessed as a result because his intention was not honourable.

The reason the Torah adds the conjunctive letter ו before the word ומברכיך is to allude to the type of person who curses and is yet within the category of people deserving blessings since he uses the wording of a curse in order to bestow a blessing. We find an example of this in Moed Katan 9 where the Rabbis couched their blessing for Rabbi Eleazar, son of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, in words which sounded like a curse. We are therefore able to read the verse as if the three words ארריך ארור ומברכיך belonged together.