This week’s parsha (Torah portion) is called Toldot (generations in English). Let’s look at what this word, generations, means. Generations implies cycles, and cycles are circles. Each generation is born, lives, and dies. That is its cycle or circle. However, before a generation dies, it creates a new generation, turning the circle into a spiral. I find it strange to call this parsha Generations when most of this parsha talks of one generation and prior parshas have also mentioned lineages or generations.
Perhaps what this parsha is trying to teach is not generations of people, but rather the generations that people go thru. Now remember that I am thinking of a generation in terms of a circle. What I am refering to are periods where you keep having to deal with the same problem over and over again. For example: maybe every job you take brings you down. You get a new job (birth), you have the job for a while (life), and then you hate it and either quit or get fired (death). Then you repeat the cycle over and over again. This is generation (singular). However, our parsha is called generations in the plural. So somehow this parsha is trying to show us that we can move beyond these cycles.
How does our parsha do this? Well, lets start with our friend Avimelech, whom we met in a previous parsha. Abraham and Sarah came to him and told him that they were brother and sister. He took Sarah and as a result, haShem prevented the women in his kingdom from getting pregnant. He eventually needed Abraham’s blessing to be able to create new generations. In this parsha, Yitzhak (Isaac) and Rivka (Rebecca) visit Avimelech and also tell him that they are brother and sister. However, instead of falling into the same pattern, Avimelech leaves them be and everything runs smoothly for him. On top of that, he never has to deal with this pattern again. He has learned how to deal with the family of Abraham, and hence has moved into a new generation of interacting with that family.
Way back in the first parsha, Breisheit (Genesis), we had one brother kill another out of jealousy. We see this cycle amost repeated when Yaakov (Jacob) receives Yitzhak’s blessings and Esau wants to kill him. Rivka intervenes, seperating her two sons by having Yaakov sent to her brother Laban. The result is that Esau’s jealousy and anger cools and they move beyond the cycle to a point where they can meet and hug and cry over each other (forgive me for jumping ahead :). They have moved into a new generation of sibling interaction, and we don’t see again a time where one brother wants to kill the other.
So how can we take this concept into our own lives. I am sure each one of us has at least one pattern that we would like to change. What often happens is that we struggle thru something and then we see the light, only to have that light buried under new difficulties. This too is talked about in this parsha, when Yitzhak uncovers the wells Abraham originally dug. The word for well in Hebrew (bet-aleph-reish) can be broken up into the prefix ‘bet’ which means ‘in’ or ‘with’ and the two letter root ‘aleph-reish’ which deals with light. So one way to interpret the word for, “Well,” (bet-aleph-reish) is, “With light,” or “Enlightened.” Now in our parsha, Yitzhak goes and uncovers the wells that Abraham first dug. The first two times he does this, he gets attacked and accused (accused is from the Hebrew word satan, btw). But he perserveres and on a wide plain uncovers a third well where his accusers make peace with him and then he receives water.
What I see here is a blueprint of how to move out of a stuck pattern. The original pattern is symbolized by Abraham and his wells of enlightenment are us moving past a difficult pattern and seeing clearly the pattern. Now we move out of the cycle of Abraham and rise into the generation of Yitzhak. However, we still need to get tested to make sure we learned the lesson. We need to grasp the enlightenment and not be detered by our internal doubt and accusations and disbelief. Only when we can calmly bring enlightenment to ourselves and to our doubts, accusations, and disbeliefs, will they let us be at peace, and we can enjoy the waters of enlightenment.
If not, we go around another cycle repeating the pattern until we learn. After all, we read the Torah every year. We can either read the same words over and over again, or we can gain new insights, building on what we have learned from our previous generations/cycles/years of reading Torah.
I bless you all that you can see each pattern as it unfolds and realize what seems like a difficulty is really there to help you move forward. Have a good shabbat.
PS. Just as a special bonus, I want to share another insight I had in regards to the end of the parsha. Esau first sells his birthright for a bowl of lentils. Ok, I can live with that. But I have a problem with him following his father’s command precisely and losing out on getting a blessing. Specifically, Yitzhak tells Esau to go catch some game, make it into something tasty, feed Yitzhak, and Yitzhak will bless him from his soul. Esau goes and does this, but before he returns from the hunt, Rivka makes a stew, dresses Yaakov in skins and sends Yaakov in to trick Yitzhak and get the blessing. And it works! Esau shows up, after doing everything letter perfect, and gives his dish to Yitzhak and Yitzhak says, “Sorry. Gave your blessing away.” At this Esau cries out from his heart and practically begs for some sort of blessing. Yitzhak then blesses him.
What are we being taught here? I see two things: One is that no matter how well planned something is, or how perfectly executed you do something, you are not guaranteed success. The second thing being taught is that when this happens (you are not successful even though you have done everything perfectly), if you cry out, really cry out from the depths of your soul, your prayers will be heard.
May you all have the power to persevere when everything seems to be going against you; may you know that haShem hears you and that he will provide.
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.