Commentary for Genesis 28:5

אם יעקב ועשו MOTHER OF JACOB AND ESAU — I do not know what the addition of these words is intended to tell us.

THE BROTHER OF REBEKAH, JACOB’s AND ESAU’s MOTHER. Because it stated²⁶³It is obvious that Ramban has in mind the words of Rashi, whose comment upon the expression, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother, was, “I do not know what this intends to tell us.” Ramban then proceeds to offer an explanation. that Isaac commanded Jacob to get a wife from the daughters of Laban, his mother’s brother, Scripture mentions that he was also the brother of Esau’s mother. It would have been proper for Isaac to have commanded Esau likewise, but since he knew that the blessing of Abraham would apply only to Jacob and his seed, he did so only to Jacob. Now Scripture further mentions that Esau heard that his father had commanded Jacob not to take a wife from among the daughters of Canaan²⁶⁴Verse 1 here. and that he should go to his mother’s brother Laban. He [Esau] heeded his father’s will that one not take a wife from among the daughters of Canaan, but he did not act properly and take a wife from the daughters of Laban, despite his [Laban’s] being his mother’s brother. Scripture further mentions that he took her²⁶⁵Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael. (Verse 9 here.) besides his former wives, and he did not divorce the evil wives since he followed his heart’s desire more than he followed the will of his father.
Vayeitzei

וישלח יצחק, Isaac sent away, etc. Why is Laban described as Rebeccah's brother, something we have known for a long time? Why is Rebeccah described here once more as both Jacob's and Esau's mother?

וישלח, he sent him off to proceed in the direction he had instructed him. Yaakov complied with his father’s instruction, as the Torah continues וילך פדנה ארם, he took with him sufficient supplies of money and food to last him until he would arrive there. His parents knew that once he would be at his uncle Lavan he would not be short of any of his needs.

אחי רבקה, אם יעקב ועשו, “the brother of Rivkah, who was the mother of Yaakov and Esau. Nachmanides explains that the reason why Rivkah is described here by the Torah as “the mother of Yaakov and Esau,” [something that we all know perfectly well, Ed.] is because Yitzchok had commanded Yaakov to select a wife from among the daughters of Lavan, “the brother of your mother.” The Torah is at pains to remind us that Lavan was also the brother of Esau’s mother, and because of this it would have been appropriate for Yitzchok to command Esau also to take a wife from among his uncle’s daughters. However, seeing that the seed of Avraham would be carried on only through Yaakov, there was no point in Esau marrying someone from Lavan’s family. Other commentators feel that the Torah was at pains to give Yaakov precedence over Esau who was biologically his senior, as soon as Yaakov had secured the blessing of his father. The Torah’s mentioning “Yaakov and Esau” in that order, serves as proof that the blessing was indeed fulfilled, and that Yaakov would henceforth be deemed as senior to his brothers, i.e.הוי גביר לאחיך as we read in All of this, in spite of the fact that after Yitzchok’s death the Torah reverts to mentioning Esau first when it reports Yitzchok’s funeral. This was because Esau had never left the land of Israel, attending to his father’s needs, whereas Yaakov had been outside the Holy Land for over 20 years. [I find this difficult as Esau had voluntarily left the Holy Land (Genesis 36,6), not because of his life being in danger and his father having sent him out of the land to get a wife without giving him a dowry, 11 years before his father died. Ed.] Some commentators say that the reason why the Torah repeats these details about Yaakov’s genealogy is in order for you not to be dismayed that from two such righteous parents as Yitzchok and Rivkah, a wicked person such as Esau could have been produced. The Torah does not want us to forget for a moment that Rivkah herself had a brother who was everything but righteous. Our sages have established a rule (based on empirical knowledge, Ed.] according to which most children have a tendency to develop in accordance with their mother’s brother(s).

I do not know what this teaches us. Some ask: What is Rashi telling us — that he does not know? If he does not know, let him not comment! The answer is: Rashi knew a number of answers that could be given, but did not know which is true according to the simple meaning of Scripture. (Kitzur Mizrachi; see Tzeidah L’Derech)

אם יעקב ועשו, “mother of Yaakov and Esau.” The Torah had to repeat this although the reader knows it, as the reader might wonder how a couple such as Yitzchok and Rivkah had produced a person as wicked as Esau. If Rivkah had not been the sister of a wicked person such as Lavan and daughter of a wicked person such as Betuel, the question would have been more serious.[Personally, I think the verse is important as the Torah’s mentioning Yaakov first, i.e. confirming that he was the firstborn legally, having purchased that status from his brother. Moreover, we know that from the marriage of King Chizkiyah to the daughter of the prophet Isaiah the great prophet, a Jewish rasha came forth, so that such phenomena are not strange seeing we have been given the freedom of choice. Ed.] Our sages, not basing themselves on the DNA factors, stated in Baba Batra 110, that most children reflect the character of their maternal uncles. An alternate exegesis: the reason that mention is made of their mother here is that the Torah wants the reader to know that Rivkah did what she did for the benefit of both her children. This is in line to when she said: “why would I have to lose both my children in one day?

אחי רבקה, Rivkah’s brother. He had ample reason to go there if he had to flee some place, seeing his uncle was a brother of his mother. In this phrase Yaakov is mentioned ahead of Esau, although he was the younger, because his relationship to Rivkah who was also his mother was much closer than that of Rivkah to Esau her older son. Everyone of her family in Padan Aram was aware of their sister Rivkah’s special fondness for Yaakov.

Actually, the Torah found it necessary to explain why Isaac would send a pious son to a person such as Laban, seeing the latter was known to be wicked. True, Abraham had despatched Eliezer to take a wife for Isaac from the house of Bethuel; however, Bethuel was not a well known רשע, an evil person such as Laban. Besides, Abraham had never told Eliezer in so many words to go to the house of Bethuel whereas he had named Laban specifically as Jacob's destination. He instructed him to marry a daughter of the wicked Laban. By repeating that Laban was after all a brother of the pious Rebeccah the Torah alerts us to the probability that one or both of Laban's daughters could be just as pious as Rebeccah who stemmed from the house of Bethuel. One must not assume that the children and grandchildren of a wicked father or grandfather will automatically turn out to be of evil character. The Torah hints at this by reminding us that even Rebeccah was the mother of both a pious person such as Jacob and an evil person such as Esau.

You have to appreciate that in the period under discussion [prior to the revelation at Mount Sinai in which all the holy souls participated Ed.] the holy souls had not yet been separated from the regions in which they were imprisoned. Seeing that Abraham's family was recognised as a region where holiness had found a foothold, both he and Sarah being the first proselytes, anyone who would subsequently convert to Judaism would be called either Abraham if a male or Sarah if a female. It is a fact that holy members of a holy species look for other members of the same species. Abraham was still incomplete in this regard as neither he nor his son Isaac had as yet produced female offspring, i.e. holy female souls. Perhaps this is even the reason that we are told in Genesis 25,19: "Abraham begat Isaac," to remind us that he had succeeded only in producing a holy male soul. This situation still existed when Isaac sent out Jacob to secure a wife. The holy female souls had not yet been separated from their place of imprisonment. Isaac therefore had to send Jacob to search for his lost mate, i.e. the girl in whose body such a holy soul was imprisoned.

It was only during subsequent generations that Jews were no longer forced to roam the world to find their mates amongst the Gentiles. If nonetheless some "sparks" of holiness (holy souls in captivity) still exist amongst the Gentiles they will eventually convert and then be recognised as holy souls returning to their home (the Jewish people).

This raises the question of Abraham's insistence that Isaac not marry someone of Canaanite descent. Isaac also instructed Jacob not to marry a Canaanite. Bereshit Rabbah explains this prohibition to marry girls of Canaanite descent as being due to that tribe being cursed whereas Abraham's seed was blessed. Actually the words of the Midrash are somewhat obscure. In light of what we have written Abraham may have meant that Canaan [Noach's grandson] had been denied holy female souls amongst his seed as a result of Noach's curse. Hence there was no chance of finding the girl who possessed a holy soul amongst that tribe. This is the deeper meaning of Noach's curse, i.e. that Canaan would be denied access to holiness.

Whereas it is a fact that even nowadays we still experience conversions to Judaism amongst the Gentiles, it is remarkable that we have no record of members of the Canaanites ever converting to Judaism as did some Romans and other nationals, for instance. This proves our theory. This may also have been the real reason that the Torah commanded the Jewish people not to allow a single Canaanite soul to survive [in the campaign to capture the land of Israel] as we know from Deuteronomy 20,16. The Torah may have stressed the word "soul" in that verse to indicate that none of these people had a holy soul worth preserving. This was the difference between the Canaanites and nations such as Ammon and Moab.

Since G'd has revealed all this to us we must try and understand what purpose our subjugation by Canaanite tribes served (compare Judges 4,2), seeing that the purpose of exile is to extract the sparks of holiness that are scattered amongst the Gentiles, and there are no such "sparks" amongst the Canaanites. Our sages have told us in Pessachim 119 that "our forefathers did not depart from Egypt until they had turned Egypt into a trap that did not contain any bait and into a deep pool of water devoid of fish." The scriptural proof cited is Exodus 12,36: "they emptied Egypt." The Ari zal in his שער הגלגולים explains that it was necessary to empty Egypt of any such stray holy souls to make a return by the Jewish people in the future pointless. In view of all this, what purpose could subjugation of the Jewish people by the Canaanites have served if there was not even a chance to save some stray holy soul through all our suffering?

We find in לקוטי תורה פרשת מקץ that there are two different "sparks" of holy souls which are imprisoned in the קליפה. One is the type of soul which is freed through being "born," i.e. through entering a human body at birth. Examples of such souls are: Abraham, Sarah, Rebeccah, Rachel, as well as the soul of Rabbi Chaninah ben Tradyon which emanated from Shechem's having slept with Jacob's daughter Dinah. Ruth the Moabite and Naamon the Ammonite are also examples of such souls. The other type of holy soul imprisoned in the קליפה is one that is firmly attached to its קליפה and is not capable of exiting from its source unless its קליפה causes anguish to Israel. When that happens the holy soul trapped within the קליפה is released and able to return to its origin. Now we understand why there is a purpose to Israel being subjected to exile at the hands of such people [representatives of such קליפות Ed.]. The prophet Ovadiah said concerning such an exile: "This sickening exile for the children of Israel under the Canaanites as far as Tzorfat (Ovadiah 1,20)." This verse which uses the term החל must then be understood similarly to Daniel 8,27: נהייתי ונחליתי, "I was broken up and I was sick." Such an exile achieves its objective in a manner different from all other exiles of the Jewish people. When Ovadiah speaks of כנענים instead of בכנענים when describing that exile, as well as describing Canaan in the plural instead of in the singular as is the case with other nations where Israel was exiled, this may be a veiled reference to the "sparks" of holiness still hidden within the קליפה of Canaan which are known as כנענים. In short, Ovadiah describes the purpose of that exile as being the chance of "rescuing" holy souls that were still identified with כנענים prior to the ultimate redemption, thus enabling those souls to participate in that redemption.