Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Genesis 27:6

You must realise that when you look at both the positive and the negative commandments in our Torah the underlying reason for all of them is that after G'd had examined His creatures and determined that there were evil elements amongst them He wanted to separate us (the Jewish people) from such elements; He examined the good elements and decided to sanctify us by means of these good elements. In the Tikkuney Hazohar section 21 we find the following comment in connection with Isaac requesting that Esau prepare for him delicious dishes as he loved them, (Genesis 27,6). Isaac referred to the positive commandments as the delicious dishes he loved, whereas he considered the negative commandments as something he hated [designed to ward off what he hated. Ed.] There is a statement in Sifri on Exodus 15,26 "for I the Lord am your Healer," according to which G'd said to Moses to tell the people that the words of Torah He gave to them are therapeutic and are life. The repetition of "therapeutic and life" presumably refer to the positive and negative commandments respectively. The therapeutic nature of negative commandments could be the avoidance of certain diseases by abstaining from forbidden foods, whereas the performance of positive commandments is considered as a life-giving activity. When G'd commanded in Leviticus 11,43 which animals we are not to eat, the Torah stated that the reason that we should not eat such creatures was so as not to make ourselves detestable and not to defile ourselves (Leviticus 18,24). Sexual permissiveness is also described by the Torah in terms of abominations. In other words, G'd's major objective in legislating all this was to protect us and enable us to attain sanctity.

In order to understand Rebeccah's special love for Jacob the following considerations may help. Rebeccah generally was looked upon askance because she had given birth to the wicked Esau. We find in nature that parts of a whole display an affinity for other parts of the same whole. Rebeccah testified that this rule did not apply in her case, that her deeds proved that she had no affinity for Esau. Her womb was indeed blessed, and the good part (Jacob) represented that which was normal, hence her love for Jacob. The Torah teaches us this by repeatedly describing Jacob as Rebeccah's son even in instances where these additional words are otherwise quite superfluous (compare verses 6,8,11,13,15,17,42). All of this is to underline that Jacob's righteousness was a direct outgrowth of his righteous mother. The fact that she had given birth also to an Esau was not a reflection on his mother's personality.