Jacob

Falling face-down on the ground, with hands and feet outstretched, was a common gesture of honor and respect in the Bible. Why is prostration only performed today on the High Holidays?

Jacob’s standoff with Esau, including dividing his camp in two so that if one should be attacked, “the camp which is left shall escape” (Genesis 32:9), is seen as a precursor and strategy for Jewish survival throughout the generations. This story and verse played a significant role in the attitude of Orthodox Jewry toward America.

Jacob’s vision of angels of God going up and down is an allegory, a mise en abyme for the patriarchs’ journey to and from the land, and should be understood as a counterpart to YHWH’s reassurance to Jacob that he will return (Genesis 28:15).

Why are Israelites blessed with agricultural abundance while the Edomites live in a semi-arid land and are forced to hunt? Isaac’s blessing is an etiological story to explain this reality from an Israelite perspective.

The patriarchs Isaac and Jacob are both described as blind from old age when they give blessings to the next generations. Eli the priest and Ahijah the prophet are also blind. How did the biblical authors use disability as a narrative device?

Jacob and Samson celebrate their marriages for seven days. The earliest mention of marriage ​blessings, however, is in the apocryphal book of Tobit and the Dead Sea Scrolls, both from the late second Temple times. 3, 5, 6 and even 7 blessings circulated in Jewish society before the rabbis formalized the series as the “Sheva Berakhot” by early medieval times. Their recitation by guests ​​during the celebratory week was promoted by the rabbis as occasions to engage in an “act of lovingkindness” ​(gemilut ḥasadim).​

Jacob the patriarch’s face is said to be carved on the divine throne. Similarly, a 13th cent. masorah figurate of the four creatures drawing Ezekiel’s chariot portrays Jacob as the human creature in the form of a knight, playing off the phrase אביר יעקב, avir Yaakov (Genesis 49:24).‎

After Joseph’s goblet is found in Benjamin’s sack, Judah makes a passionate speech to save Benjamin, in which he claims that if Benjamin leaves his father, “he will die.” Who will die? Why does the Torah phrase this so ambiguously?

Jacob makes a series of strategic preparations in anticipation of meeting his estranged brother Esau. Instead of the expected confrontation, we get a totally unexpected, unanticipated, and unprepared for wrestling between Jacob and a mysterious stranger at the ford of Jabbok. By juxtaposing these two accounts, the narrative invites us to think about both the human impulse to control and its limitations.

Upon meeting again after twenty years, Esau approaches his brother with a buoyant spirit and a warm embrace. Jacob, however, is formal and submissive. Why doesn’t he reciprocate Esau’s overtures?

Isaac and Rebecca live in Beersheba (Gen 26:23), Beer-lahai-roi (Gen 25:11) and Kiryat-arba (Gen 35:27). When Jacob sets off to Laban’s house, where is he leaving from?

Traditional commentators have grappled with why Jacob risks Esau’s wrath by sending him a message that he is on his way. Understanding the history of the text shows that in an older version of this story, Jacob had no choice: he was heading to his parents’ home in the Seir region.

As part of a complaint by God against Israel and Judah, Hosea 12 mentions several stories about Jacob, intended to serve as a model for behavior. But is Jacob a good or bad role model?

Rachel weeps over her exiled descendants and God hears her plea (Jeremiah 31:14–16). Expanding on this passage, the rabbis in Midrash Eichah Rabbah envision Jeremiah awakening the patriarchs and Moses to plead with God to have mercy on Israel. Upon their failure to move God, the matriarch Rachel intervenes successfully.

The story of Moses follows a pattern that is typical of ancient Near Eastern fugitive hero narratives. However, when Moses goes to Mount Horeb, the plot deviates from the usual “divine encounter” feature. What does this tell us about the composition of the story of Moses and the Burning Bush?

The merging of two different accounts of Jacob’s return home is reflected in the double etymologies for Mahanaim and Penuel. Why do both sources have Jacob pass through these two cities one after the other? The answer lies in geography.

Behind the story of Jacob’s struggle with his older twin Esau, stands a political allegory, reflecting how Israel (=Jacob) first dominated Edom (=Esau) in the 10th-9th centuries B.C.E. and then lost control over it in the late 8th century.

Bringing Parashat Vayechi to Life

God tells Jacob, “I Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I Myself will also bring you back” (Genesis 46:4), a reassurance intended to speak to readers in the exilic period.

Esau’s plan to kill Jacob and his “dotted” kiss upon their reunion has been cited by rabbinic authorities, such as Rav Moshe Feinstein, as evidence that antisemitism is inherent. This idea is not found in the Torah or the Talmud.

The vow Jacob makes to God is ambiguous. Where does the condition of the vow end and his action begin?

On his way to Haran, Jacob stops at a place, later named Beth-El, and sees in a dream angels going up and down a staircase to the gateway of heaven. In the story, Jacob also notices YHWH standing beside him and YHWH speaks to him. Examined closely, this short story is beset with literary difficulties that suggest it is composed of two independent narratives.

Originally the sons of Jacob saw the interest Shechem took in marrying their sister as an opportunity to plunder Shechem. A later editor, uncomfortable with this story, blamed the carnage on Simeon and Levi, and added the rape of Dinah as a motivation for their actions.

Clothing, beginning with Joseph’s coat, functions both as a marker of distinction and as the source of undoing in the Joseph story. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer adds layers of history to this coat: it is the original garments made from the sloughed skin of the serpent that God gave to Adam and Eve, which was then worn by Nimrod, Esau, and Jacob. Midrash Tanchuma claims it to be the (future) High Priest’s tunic.

Esau’s kiss to Jacob is written with scribal dots over the word וַׄיִּׄשָּׁׄקֵ֑ׄהׄוּׄ, “and he kissed him.” Traditional commentators suggest this hints to Esau’s feelings or state of mind. Critical scholarship, however, points to something much more prosaic, a question of syntax.

Why the rabbis ended Parashat Miketz with a cliffhanger (in both the Babylonian and the Eretz-Yisraeli traditions), and what the Ancient Near Eastern legal context of “evidence law” can clarify for us about the background of the story.

The Book of Exodus begins with an accounting of the members of Jacob's family who went with him to Egypt. Our Torah, the Masoretic Text, lists 70 people. Dead Sea Scroll manuscript 4QEx^b, however, records 75 people. How do we account for this and other differences between the texts?

Reactive vs. Goal-oriented

Three distinct themes in Parashat Vayetzei are intertwined: Jacob’s encounter with God at Bethel, the birth of Jacob’s sons, and Jacob’s departure from Haran.