Commentaire de citation sur La Genèse 25:13

את צדון בכורו, I have not been able to find a good reason for the Torah describing צדון as a firstborn, seeing that no other firstborn son of these people is described as such. Normally, the first named son is presumed to be the firstborn, so that there is no need for adding that attribute, unless we are to assume that the Torah, in naming someone as the first in a list of sons, does so because he possessed superior qualities to those of his brothers. One such example would be the mention of Shem ahead of his brothers, although he was not the oldest (5,32), according to those commentators who believe that Yaphet was Noach’s oldest son. It is possible that Tzidon did possess superior qualities when compared to his brothers, so that by describing him as the firstborn the Torah wanted to draw attention to both of these distinctions. We find something parallel in Genesis 25,13 where Nevayot is described as the firstborn son of Ishmael. We have reason to believe that he possessed outstanding qualities because his sister Machalat is not described only as the daughter of her father Ishmael, and her grandfather Avraham, but also as the sister of Nevayot, her brother. (Genesis 28,9)

He who is now thy ally, and will then become thy enemy, will fall.²⁹This explanation seems to be based on the meaning of the two prepositions אתך and את ;עליך with indicates alliance, friendship; על against, enmity and war. I take גור יגור in its usual meaning and explain the verse thus: Can there dwell any stranger with thee in my land, except it be with my will; he who desires to dwell with thee in my land, עליך יפול must surrender to thee.³⁰A. V., Shall fall for thy sake. The verb נפל has here the same meaning as in אל הכשדים אתה נופל thou fallest away to the Chaldӕans (Jer. 37:13); and in על פני כל אחיו נפל he surrendered to all his brethren (Gen. 25:18); namely: to submit to the authority of.³¹In his commentary on Gen. 23:18, I. E. gives three meanings of the verb נפל in the two passages quoted here: 1. His lot or portion fell. 2. He went away. 3. He died. The meaning adopted here to surrender, is not even mentioned there.

you shall lift up for yourselves We translate according to the words of the Exegetes — since they do not contradict the plain meaning of Scripture — even though elsewhere we translate “every man shall acquire for himself a lamb, for the family group” [Exodus 12:3]. The Exegetes have also transmitted to us the tradition that the fruit of the hadar tree denotes the citron, and, in truth, there is no tree with fruit more beautiful [Hebrew: hadar]. They also called it “the fruit that resides [Hebrew: haddar] on its tree” as a kind of mnemonic [Sukka 35a], as I have explained above concerning the passage “to other people” [Exodus 21:8] [the reference is to an earlier commentary on Exodus, known as the Perush Haqqaṣar — Translator]. The Sadducees [a derogatory reference to Karaites — Translator] have said that the Sukka must be built from these four species, bringing a proof from Ezra’s book [Nehemiah 8:15]. Didn’t these half-wits notice that no mention is made there of the brook-willow , nor of any kind of fruit? On the contrary, it is only a list of branches from five kinds of trees (the fact that “myrtle branches” are mentioned separately from “thick-tree branches” [Nehemiah 8:15] poses no problem to the traditional interpretation; there are two varieties — one tall and one short — and there the term “myrtle” denotes the short variety).