Комментарий к Берешит 25:26

ואחרי כן יצא אחיו וגו AND AFTERWARDS HIS BROTHER CAME OUT, ETC. — I have heard a homiletical midrash that expounds it according to its simple meaning: It was with justice that he was grabbing him to hold him back. Jacob was conceived from the first drop and Esau from the second. Go and learn from a tube with a narrow opening - put in it two stones, one after the other. The one that goes in first will come out last, and the one that goes in last will come out first. It comes out that Esau, who was conceived last, came out first, and Jacob, who was conceived first, came out last. And [so] Jacob came to hold him back, so that the first for birth would be the same as the first for conception; and he would open [his mother's] womb and take the first-born status with justice (see Genesis Rabbah 63:8).

ויקרא שמו יעקב. The word means he will remain at the heel, and the tail-end. This is based on the future mode of the word יעקב. Our sages (quoted by Rashi) say that the subject in our verse is G’d Who named Esau’s brother Yaakov, the reason for the unusual formulation being that after the destruction of the Kingdom of Edom and other nations, successor of Esau, only Yaakov and his descendants will remain. Our sages base all this on Jeremiah 46,28 אעשה כלה בכל הגויים...ואותך לא אעשה כלה, “I will make an end of all nations…but I will not make an end of you.”

ויקרא שמו יעקב. He called his name Jacob. The Torah refers to G'd, not to Isaac. Proof is that had Isaac been the subject in our verse, the Torah would not have continued : "and Isaac was sixty years, etc," but would have written: "and he was sixty years, etc."

ואחרי כן...וידו אוחזת בעקב עשו, this too, was an allusion that at the end of time he would dominate Esau, as a human being dominates something matters which he grabs with his hand. The heel is the lower end of the body. It was clearly a hint from G’d concerning the future, as a normal baby does not manage to extend his hand outside the placenta and make contact with its twin.

וידו אוחזת בעקב עשו, “and his hand was holding on to the heel of Esau.” He tried to keep Esau from becoming the firstborn. Possibly, Yaakov only wanted to emerge from his mother’s womb simultaneously with his brother. He did not want his mother to experience separate birth pangs on his account.

I heard an Aggadaic exposition that interprets it according to its plain meaning... Rashi is answering the question: If it is written, “The first one came out,” why then is it not written, “The second one came out”? Rashi answers: I heard an Aggadah that explains why it does not say, “The second one.” Yaakov rightfully should have come out first, just as he was conceived first!

ויקרא, da nannte er, Jizchak. Auf diesen Umstand hatte die Umgebung nicht geachtet, wohl aber Jizchak. Er sah dem Esau fast ähnlich; das bei ihrer Geburt erscheinende Besondere war aber ein Gegensatz. Esaus Besonderheit lag in seiner Persönlichkeit; Jakobs in dem, was er tat, oder in der Stellung, die er einnahm. Er nannte ihn יעקב: der wird hinterdrein kommen, lässt Esau den Vortritt, kommt aber nach, ist eben der צעיר, der Geringere, Schwächere, der unerwartet zuletzt als der erste dastehen wird. (עקב heißt unerwartet nachkommen. Daher עֵקֶב die nicht erwartete Folge, der nicht angestrebte Lohn. Daher auch עקב: jemanden unerwartet Leides tun, ihn überlisten). (Siehe zu Kap.22, 18).

ויקרא שמו יעקב, “he called his name Yaakov.” The name Yaakov has four letters, symbolising the four crowns with which his descendants would “crown” the Almighty. The letter י symbolises the Ten Commandments. The letter ע symbolises the seventy elders. The letter ק symbolises the length of hundred cubits of the Sanctuary built by King Solomon. (Kings I chapter 7) The letter ב symbolises the two Tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. The Israelites were redeemed from slavery in Egypt due to the merit of Yaakov. We know this from Psalms 105,10: ויעמידה ליעקב לחק, לישראל ברית עולם, “He confirmed it as a decree for Yaakov, as an eternal covenant for Israel.” If it had not been for the fact that G–d wanted Yaakov to be born, He would not have saved Avraham from Nimrod’s furnace. (B’reshit Rabbah 63,2).This is what the prophet Isaiah 29,22, had in mind when he wrote: כה אמר ה' אל בית יעקב אשר פדה את אברהם, “thus said the Lord to the house of Yaakov which had redeemed Avraham. A different interpretation of that verse in Isaiah [which begs the question, Ed.] by Yalkut Shimoni: Yaakov released Avraham from the heartache associated with trying to raise children. [He did so by successfully raising all his children in his spirit, something neither Avraham nor Yitzchok had been able to do. Ed.]

וידו אוחזת, “with his hand grabbing;” the younger baby’s had is portrayed as holding on to the older twin’s heel already while still inside Rivkah’s womb. The author cites as proof for this Hoseah 12,4: בבטן עקב את אחיו, “in the womb he tried to overtake his brother.” The word עקב is understood to mean: “heel, hoof.” Yaakov is presumed to have tried to prevent Esau from becoming the firstborn. He wanted to become the firstborn as he had developed from his father’s first drop of semen as quoted by Rabbi Yossi’s response to the lady’s question in Pessikta Zutrata. This would enable Yaakov to claim the status of being the legal firstborn. His failure to prevent Esau from emerging from Rivkah’s womb first, prompted him years later to acquire that status through buying the birthright from his brother.

בעקב עשו ESAU’S HEEL — a sign that this one (Esau) will hardly have time to complete his period of domination before the other would rise and take it (his power) from him

ויקרא שמו יעקב, Yitzchok named him thus.

ויקרא שמו יעקב, “his father called him ‘Yaakov.’” Seeing that Yitzchok’s name is not mentioned here as such, Rashi considers G’d Himself as the subject of the word ויקרא. His view has been confirmed by the Midrash. When the Jerusalem Talmud states that whereas both Yaakov and Avraham whose names had been given by their respective fathers, underwent changes of name, Yitzchok who had been named by G’d in the first place, never underwent such a change of name, this may not be a contradiction to the Midrash, but may mean that the reason Yitzchok’s name was never changed was that he was so named before Sarah had even conceived him. Seeing that Yaakov was not named by G’d until after he had been born, his name could be subject to change, [or in his case to an addition, seeing that the name Yaakov was never abolished. Ed.]

A sign that this one will not yet have completed his dominion... Otherwise the verse should have [omitted all mention of “the heel of Eisov,” and] just said, “His hand grasping him.”

בן ששים שנה, “sixty years old.” Rashi comments on this that during the first ten years of their marriage Rivkah had not been old enough to conceive, and that during the ten years following he had waited before praying to have children as had his father Avraham during the first ten years in the land of Canaan. When she had failed to conceive during these years, he realised that she was barren and prayed on her behalf. He did not want to sleep with a Canaanite concubine, as his status of having been a burnt offering on the altar on Mount Moriah made this inappropriate. All Canaanites are viewed as “slaves,” both males and females. [The author’s quoting this Rashi at this point is interesting as he had previously gone to some length to prove that Rivkah could not have been so young when she got married. Ed.]

ויקרא שמו יעקב AND HE CALLED HIS NAME JACOB — The Holy One, blessed be He, thus named him (Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 4). [Some versions add: He said to them (to those who gave Esau that name cf. Genesis 5:25): You have given your first-born a name, I, too, will give my son, my firstborn, (cf. Exodus 4:23) a name. That is what is written, “And He called his name, Jacob” (Genesis 26:26). Another explanation is: his father called him Jacob because he was grasping Esau’s heel

ויצחק בן ששים שנה, this is mentioned to let us know that Rivkah had been unable to bear a child during 20 years.

God called him... Rashi is answering the question: Why is it not written who named him? Furthermore, since it says [right afterward], “Yitzchok was sixty years old,” it is implied that until now the verse was not speaking of Yitzchok. Thus Rashi explains that Hashem named him.

בן ששים שנה THREESCORE YEARS OLD — Ten years passed from the time when he married her until she became thirteen years old and capable of child-bearing, and a further ten years he hopefully waited as his father did in regard to Sarah. When even then she did not become with child he realised that she was barren and he prayed for her. But He did not wish to take a maidservant as a second wife because he had been sanctified on Mount Moriah to be a burnt-offering without blemish.

Another explanation: his father called him... [Question: If so,] why is Yitzchok not written? [The answer is:] So the gentiles will not say that Yaakov’s father called him so because he knew Yaakov would deceive Eisov twice.

On account of his holding the heel. When Rashi said before that [holding the heel of Eisov is] “a sign that this one will not yet have completed his dominion,” this is according to the first explanation, that Hashem named him Yaakov. For if Hashem named him, we ask: “Why does it need to mention Eisov’s heel?” [And we answer:] “Perforce, it is a sign that...” But according to the alternate explanation, that his father named him, it means that Eisov’s heel is not mentioned superfluously at all. It is needed to explain why his father named him Yaakov, [so it is not a sign].

And the following ten years he hoped and waited for her... Rashi is answering the question: Why did Yitzchok wait until he was sixty before praying? Avraham waited only ten years, as Rashi explained in Parshas Lech Lecha (16:3), while Yitzchok waited twenty years. This is why Rashi explains as he does. And lest we say that from here we can learn that a husband who waits ten years [without children] should pray, not take another wife, Rashi explains: “He refused to marry a hand-maid because he was sanctified....” It was not just a hand-maid [that Yitzchok did not take; it was any other wife].