The Art of the War – Toldot
וַיִּתְרֹצֲצוּ הַבָּנִים בְּקִרְבָּהּ וַתֹּאמֶר אִם כֵּן לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי וַתֵּלֶךְ לִדְרֹשׁ אֶת ה'. (בראשית כה, כב)
Every parsha in the Torah is a world on its own and infinite in depth. Often the pshat of a parsha is straightforward and can mostly be understood at face value. For me, there is no parsha that defies understanding according to the pshat, more than Toldot. Today we will be digging much deeper than the pshat.
Parshat Toldot is also uncannily connected to current events, including, but not limited to, Yitzchak's altercation with Avimelech in Gaza.
Some of the topics we will be addressing in this shiur are - the principle of free choice vs. nature or nurture; the difference between an אוֹיֵב and a שׂוֹנֵא; how Jews should be behaving in galut today; why galut Edom is the longest galut; Israel's post war strategy.
Let's begin with a seeming paradox.
The Gemara (Rosh Hashana 16b) asks why HKB"H saved Yishmael from dying of thirst, after Avraham cast him and Hagar out. The angels asked HKB"H "Yishmael's descendants (Nebuchadnezzar) will kill Your children (Am Yisrael) with thirst (during the exile to Bavel - Yishayahu 21, 13-14) and You are now saving him by revealing the well to him?" HKB"H replied "What is Yishmael right now, a צַדִּיק or a רָשָׁע?" The angels said "A צַדִּיק". HKB"H replied "I judge him according to his current actions, not his future actions”.
This is a very difficult Gemara to understand, because the reason Sarah told Avraham to banish Hagar and Yishmael was because Yishmael was מְצַחֵק, which, according to Rashi (Breishit 21,9), means that he sinned with עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה, גִּלּוּי עֲרָיוֹת וּשְׁפִיכוּת דָּמִים. Despite this, according to the angels, Yishmael had not yet attained the title of a רָשָׁע and was still considered a צַדִּיק.
Prior to Yishmael's birth, however, HKB"H already revealed to Hagar, via an angel, that Yishmael would be a פֶּרֶא אָדָם (Breishit 16, 12). So how can that be? Before Yishmael was even born, HKB"H already knew his end, He even told Hagar what that end would be. If HKB"H and Hagar already knew Yishmael's outcome beforehand, where is his free choice?
In our parsha we have a similar case. Rivka is having a perplexing pregnancy, the fetus is behaving erratically, it is seemingly attracted to both קְדֻשָּׁה and also to טֻמְאָה. Rivka says אִם כֵּן לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי and goes to ask Shem (why she didn't ask Yitzchak or Avraham is a question for another shiur). Shem told her that it was not one, but two children – each with a different end. If HKB"H and Rivka already knew how Eisav was going to end up, where is his free choice?
To complicate the matter even further, in parshat Ki Teitzei, the Torah discusses the case of a בֶּן סוֹרֵר וּמוֹרֶה. Right now, despite his disturbing behavior, the child has not yet attained the title of a רָשָׁע. Even so, we are commanded to kill him, because of "his end". Where is his free choice?
The question "If HKB"H knows a person's end before they are born, then how does that person have free choice?" is a question that the Rambam (Hilchot Tshuva 5, 5) describes as אֲרֻכָּה מֵאֶרֶץ מִדָּהּ וּרְחָבָה מִנִּי יָם. It is a paradox – how can that person end up any different, if HKB"H foresees their end?
Perhaps the best way to explain it עַל רֶגֶל אַחַת is using the analogy of a chess game. If a person makes a specific move on the chessboard, that takes the game down a certain path, leading to a specific end. I am not sure how many permutations are possible in a chess game, if it is infinite or not, but to be sure - it is an astronomically large number. HKB"H, who is infinite, knows every possible move in a chess game and every possible outcome.
Just because HKB"H knows all the possible outcomes, does not detract from free choice. The person still has free choice to make any move they want. HKB"H does not know the person's end, HKB"H knows the person's ends – every possible end that there could be. Which specific end the person ultimately reaches, from all the infinite possible ends, is through their own free choice.
Until a son becomes a בֶּן סוֹרֵר וּמוֹרֶה, he still has free choice. However, once he reaches the parameters defined by the Torah as a בֶּן סוֹרֵר וּמוֹרֶה, there are no longer infinite possible outcomes for how he will end up, only one. This means that a person becomes a בֶּן סוֹרֵר וּמוֹרֶה through free choice. However, once someone reaches the stage of a בֶּן סוֹרֵר וּמוֹרֶה, they in effect erase the possibility of further free choice in themselves and their outcome is inevitable (like HKB"H punished Pharaoh by eventually eliminating his free choice).
We see from the above that neither Yishmael nor Eisav fitted the category of a בֶּן סוֹרֵר וּמוֹרֶה. The fact is, HKB"H did not command Avraham, nor Yitzchak, to kill Yishmael nor Eisav before they became the רְשָׁעִים that they became. If so, the ultimate ramifications that resulted from Yishmael and Eisav remaining alive and giving birth to descendants who were responsible for the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash and the galuyot - are an integral part of HKB"H's plan, otherwise He would simply have commanded Avraham to sacrifice Yishmael instead of Yitzchak (and follow through) and He would have commanded Yitzchak to sit in a Beit Din and sentence Eisav to death for his sins.
From all the above, it is clear that both Yishmael and Eisav became what they became - out of free choice. Yes, both had certain natural tendencies from birth, but they had the ability to transcend those natural tendencies. Instead, they both succumbed to their natural tendencies and freely chose the path of evil.
Equally clear is that HKB"H did not wipe them and their bloodline out, because they have not yet achieved their allotted purpose in HKB"H's plan.
An interesting thing to note, both in the case of Yishmael and Eisav, is that HKB"H revealed to their mothers, Hagar and Rivka, how they would end up before they were born. To what extent this affected their life choices is a matter of pure speculation. We know, because it is categorically stated in the passuk, that Rivka had favoritism for only one son - and it was not Eisav. I will leave it to the psychologists to hypothesize on how that reality in Yitzchak's home influenced Eisav's personality, if at all.
Another interesting tidbit to note is a difference between Yishmael and Eisav. In the case of Yishmael, HKB"H commanded Avraham to follow Sarah's advice and send Yishmael away from their home. In the case of Eisav, instead of Rivka telling Yitzchak to banish Eisav from their home, it was in fact Yaakov who was sent away, leaving Eisav behind in his father's home.
The Sifri (Bamidbar 69) says הֲלָכָה בְּיָדוּעַ שֶׁעֵשָׂו שׂוֹנֵא לְיַעֲקֹב. It is not just an "unfortunate reality" that things are this way, it is a halacha - it has to be that way! Soon, we will see why.
The pivotal point in Eisav and Yaakov's "relationship" was when, in our parsha, Yaakov "stole" Eisav's blessing. Until then the Torah does not elaborate how the brothers felt about each other. Following this episode, however, the Torah categorically states וַיִּשְׂטֹם עֵשָׂו אֶת יַעֲקֹב עַל הַבְּרָכָה אֲשֶׁר בֵּרֲכוֹ אָבִיו (בראשית כז, מא), that Eisav hated Yaakov.
Chazal tell us that Eisav and Yaakov, whilst still in the womb, divided up their inheritance. Yaakov would get the spiritual blessing while Eisav would get the material blessing. When Yaakov "overstepped the bounds" (at his mother's behest) and encroached on Eisav's "territory", that was the impasse. Why Rivka felt it necessary that Yaakov do so, is the subject of a previous shiur (Toldot 2021).
What is the difference between an אוֹיֵב and a שׂוֹנֵא? An אוֹיֵב is an adversary who battles you because of some (perceived?) dispute, be it territorial, monetary, religious etc. An אוֹיֵב battles you to reclaim what they believe is rightfully theirs. A שׂוֹנֵא on the other hand, battles you, not merely to reclaim something they believe is theirs. A שׂוֹנֵא will not be assuaged if they win the battle and reclaim what they believe is theirs. They will only be satiated when they totally wipe your existence off the face of the earth. A שׂוֹנֵא cannot coexist in the same world as you, under any circumstances.
The seeds of this irrational hate against Yaakov/Yisrael began with Eisav, whose dispute with Yaakov began as something rational. This hate was "institutionalized" two generations later by adding an additional element, through Timna, the concubine of Eliphaz, son of Eisav. Timna wanted to marry Avraham but he rejected her. She then tried with Yitzchak and he too rejected her. Finally, so too did Yaakov.
This festering resentment of everything that Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov stood for, combined with the hatred of grandfather Eisav for his brother Yaakov, resulted in Timna giving birth to a "nation of hate" – Amalek. Amalek had nothing constructive to contribute to mankind. Theirs was a culture purely of hate – they existed purely to wipe the descendants of Yaakov/Yisrael, off the face of the earth – either physically or spiritually.
This hate is inculcated from birth, 5 times daily in their prayers "The Jews will hide behind a tree or a rock and the rock or the tree will say: There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him" (Hadith, Imam Ahmad, vol. 2, p. 67, vol. 3, p. 119, and vol. 4, p. 338; and Ibn Majah, no. 4128).
As long as Amalek (or the philosophy of Amalek) exists, Am Yisrael cannot be safe. Amalek will not tire until they wipe us out. It is them or us, no coexistence is possible. In such a situation, we have to eliminate them before they eliminate us. This is why the Torah commands us to do exactly that.
Not all the descendants of Eisav (Edom) are Amalek. Amalek is a specific philosophy that can exist in other nations. It is possible to find the philosophy of Amalek also amongst the descendants of Yishmael, for example. We are not commanded to wipe out the nations of Edom or Yishmael - only Amalek. It is our duty to wipe them out, we cannot sit idly by and wait for HKB"H to do that for us.
It is possible to identify Amalek by their hallmark – irrational hatred for Am Yisrael, their inability to accept Am Yisrael's very existence. Mostly this hatred is not overt, but cleverly disguised and camouflaged. Seldom does it explode visibly for all to see in all its barbarity and vulgarity. It happened thousands of years ago in Shushan, it happened almost a century ago in WWII and it happened again on October 7, 2023. The modus operandi has always been the same. It is not enough to simply kill Am Yisrael, every trace of them must be eradicated.
In a previous shiur (Lech Lecha 2023) I brought numerous proofs from תורת הרמז to show that Hamas (and Iran) are the modern-day Amalek. Unfortunately, Hamas is not localized purely to Gaza. There are seeds of Hamas' (Amalek's) philosophy beating and throbbing all over the world, interspersed with the nations of Edom and Yishmael.
As with previous eruptions of Amalek against Am Yisrael, the latest atrocity has brought crumbling down - all the illusions Am Yisrael contrived about peacefully intermingling with the goyim and living in and amongst them in total harmony.
In the time of Achashverosh, the Jews in Shushan thought that if they diminish their "Jewishness", making themselves more "acceptable" to the goyim and participating with them in their feasts and cultural events, they could coexist with them in harmony. The result of that was Haman.
In the 1800's the Haskalah movement thought that by diminishing and downplaying their "Jewishness" and making themselves a more integral part of the society of the goyim in Europe, in academia, in the government, etc. they could endear themselves to the goyim and coexist in harmony. The result of that was Hitler.
(continued)
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