Commentaire de citation sur La Genèse 28:6

וישמע יעקב AND THAT JACOB HEARKENED — This is to be connected with the proceeding statement, (v. 6) thus: And when Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and that he had sent him away to Padan-aram … and that Jacob had hearkened to his father and had gone to Padan-aram and that the daughters of Canaan were evil … then he also determined to take a wife from his own family and went to Ishmael.

ויצא יעקב AND JACOB WENT OUT— Owing to the fact that it was because the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Isaac, his father, that Esau went to Ishmael, Scripture broke off the narrative contained, in the section dealing with Jacob, and wrote (verse 6 till verse 9), “Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed [Jacob] etc., that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Isaac and so he went to Ishmael” and when it finished this (the account of Esau’s further marriage) it resumes the previous subject.

“Jacob obeyed his father” [28:7]. Jacob obeyed and went to Paddan-aram. Bahya asks a question. If Isaac and Rebecca had told Jacob to go to Paddanaram, why did the Holy One punish Jacob that he tarried in the house of Laban and did not honor his father? We find that Joseph the Righteous One was lost to his father for twenty-two years and Jacob did not receive any honor from Joseph, because Jacob did not honor Isaac for twenty-two years, because he was in the house of Laban. The explanation is that Isaac sent Jacob that he should marry Laban’s oldest daughter, who was Leah, and should not tarry there long. Jacob liked Rachel and tarried because of Rachel and that is why the Holy One punished him.⁸⁹Bahya, Genesis, 28:6.