וַיִּקְרָ֥א יִצְחָ֛ק אֶֽל־יַעֲקֹ֖ב וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֹת֑וֹ וַיְצַוֵּ֙הוּ֙ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֔וֹ לֹֽא־תִקַּ֥ח אִשָּׁ֖ה מִבְּנ֥וֹת כְּנָֽעַן׃
האָט יצחק גערופֿן יעקבן, און האָט אים געבענטשט, און האָט אים באַפֿױלן, און האָט צו אים געזאָגט: זאָלסט ניט נעמען אַ װײַב פֿון די טעכטער פֿון כּנַעַן.
Rabbeinu Bahya
ויקרא יעקב אל בניו, “Yaakov called in his sons.” According to a Midrash, Yaakov commenced his blessing from the point where Yitzchak had concluded blessing his son as it is written: “Yitzchak called Yaakov and blessed him” (Genesis 28,1). Moses in turn commenced his blessing (Deut. 33,1) from the point where Yaakov had left off. David in turn, at the commencement of the Book of Psalms, began with the words with which Moses had left off, i.e. אשרי האיש, “happy the man who has not followed the counsel of the wicked.” Moses had concluded (Deut. 33,29) his blessings of the Jewish people with the words: “happy Israel, who can compare to you?” Referring to this David said in Psalms 119,100 “I have gained more understanding than my elders .”
Ramban
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
Vayeitzei
Radak
ויחל נח איש האדמה, we had already pointed out in 5,29 that Noach was a farmer and excelled in this vocation. Now, after the deluge, he acquired additional expertise in combining different strains of grapes and making wine out of the grapes. Up until this time people had used grapes only as a fruit to eat, and had not learned how to make intoxicating wine. When the Torah writes ויחל ויטע, this means that he began by planting grapes and ended by making wine. The expression ויחל is usually associated with the first stage תחלה, in a process requiring several stages. Alternately, the word ויחל is used in the same sense as in Samuel I 14,35 החל לבנות מזבח, “it was the first altar which he (Saul) established” Or, the meaning of the word ויחל may be similar to Joshua 3,7 אחל גדלך, “I will establish your greatness.” and similar to Genesis 10,8 הוא החל להיות גבור, “he was the first to become a hero, a warrior.” Or, the word simply means “he began with this work of farming, as part of which he planted a vineyard.” The line may simply mean that Noach began to plant a vineyard, [in which case we gain the impression that this was his major concern at this time. Ed.] What leads to all these explanations is the repetition of two verbs in close succession ויחל ...ויטע, without the Torah telling us what Noach had done. We have such a construction in Genesis 28,10 ויצא יעקב מבאר שבע וילך חרנה, “Yaakov left Beer Shevah heading towards Charan,” where we are also forced to understand the second verb וילך as meaning ללכת, to go. This story has to be understood as portraying two separate subjects. First we have to remember that Canaan, Cham’s son and his offspring were a cursed tribe, cursed by Noach, that is. We observe throughout the Book of Genesis how careful our ancestors were not to intermarry with members of such a cursed part of mankind. Avraham not only went out of his way to forbid Eliezer to take a wife from such people for his son Yitzchok (Genesis 24,3) but Yitzchok and Rivkah both warned Yaakov against such liaisons (Genesis 28,1). The Torah introduces a story showing how Canaan was even worse than his father Cham, so that the Torah makes a point of calling Cham “the father of Canaan,” [although he was the youngest of his four sons. (10,6) G’d had foreseen already that the offspring of Canaan would be totally corrupt, depraved. This is why He had encouraged Noach to curse his own grandson. (compare our comment on verse 8 on the wording of G’d’s address to Noach) Seeing that Noach was a prophet, his curse came true. Another aspect of this story is to warn anyone drinking wine not to overindulge, as this will impair the functioning of his brain, that which separates him from the animals. Solomon in Proverbs 23,2 is extremely critical of people who drink to excess. Also the prophets, (Isaiah 5,22; 28,1, and Amos 6,6) are very outspoken about the detrimental effects of drinking too much intoxicating wine. If the first human being ever to drink wine, i.e. Noach, became so drunk that he was unaware that he had disrobed himself, this serves as a warning to all of his descendants to be very careful in the manner in which the treat such intoxicating drink.