Parshat Toldot: Our Children’s Children

"We are doing this not for ourselves but for our children and our children’s children, and those who will follow in their footsteps."

Queen Elizabeth II - Speech to the COP26 Conference, 1st November 2021. 

This week's Parsha has a very special place in my heart as it is my Bar Mitzvah sedra.  My Hebrew birthday was two days ago on 29th Mar-Cheshvan, which also happens that be the same date in October in the Gregorian calendar on which my parents were married…as I explained last week.

In addition to its special personal status, I have always considered Toldot to be one of the seminal parshiot in the Torah as it describes in vivid detail the 'succession plan' of our Patriarchs following the death of Avraham at the end of last week's reading.

In considering this, the name of the Parsha, ‘Toldot’ as a word is difficult to translate and although I have researched a number of different versions, the one that I was taught and that I have always understood is the term: ‘Generations’.  The Sforno expounds on the word and states that this is describing Yitzchak's biography and he comments in tandem with Rashi who explains that the word refers not only to Avraham and Yitzchak but also to the birth of the twins in this Parsha, namely, as per my understanding, the next generation.

On the face of it, one might be inclined to think that the focus of the Parsha rests on the birth and troubled relationship between the twins Jacob and Esau (Yaakov and Esau).  However, if you look a little deeper, it becomes apparent that in fact, it is their father Isaac (Yitzchak) upon whom Toldot's spotlight squarely falls.

Yitzchak is the quiet and contemplative Patriarch caught between the charismatic chalutz (pioneer) that was his father Avraham and the future progenitor of the twelve tribes, Yaakov whose life is troubled by challenge after challenge, as we shall soon be relating.  Yitzchak, of whom the Torah tells us precious little, is the man of the moment and one gets the feeling that he would rather not have been thus cast.

We know that Yitzchak was a very loved child, but from the outset, he was mocked by his half-brother, Ishmael, and then almost slaughtered by his father.  In this week's Parsha, we read how he had to re-dig his father's wells of water that had been stopped by the Philistines, and to cap it all off, he then picked the wrong son to dote on!  This resulted in the ruse that his younger child had to employ, as his elderly father was afflicted by blindness.  Yitzchak almost forfeited his duty to continue the sterling work undertaken by his father, through giving the blessing to the wrong child!  Thank Gd for the good sense that his wife Rebecca (Rivka) had in averting the disaster that would have resulted had Eisav received the blessing reserved for the firstborn instead of his more erstwhile brother, Yaakov.

The common denominator in all the above is not only the inexorable link between the three Patriarchs through biology but also the responsibility that lies on Yitzchak's shoulders to pass the baton on from his father's generation to his sons'. As we read this week, it is a heavy and ultimately necessary burden to undertake, especially if one’s character traits are analogous to the person I have described above.

From the outset, Yitzchak realized that he had a duty to transfer the Mesorah, the Tradition that had been gifted to him by his father - the man who brought monotheism into the known world.  The person who, although he preceded the giving of the Torah by hundreds of years, promoted a value system that was as alien to his environment as idol-worship is to ours.

Having been raised by no less a couple than Avraham and Sarah, Yitzchak was acutely aware of how crucial his role was and, by extension, the powers he possessed to pass that tradition on to the next generation.

A great deal of thought, opinion and rhetoric has been spent over the last few weeks describing our generation's role in preserving this planet for ‘our children, our children's children and those who will follow in their footsteps'.  I am conscious that I have a responsibility to continue the mesorah that was handed down to me by my parents and grandparents.  This ostensibly means that as a parent and teacher, I have a mission to share my deep and abiding love of the Torah with those who will one day become tomorrow's Jewish parents, leaders and perhaps teachers.  It has not escaped my attention that our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is three years older than me and Israel's PM, Naftali Bennett is four years younger.  We three are examples of those in our generation who chose to dedicate our lives to making a difference for others, although I have no political ambitions whatsoever!

In the week that many of the world's leaders chose to descend on Glasgow to discuss ways in which their respective countries could protect the planet for the next generations, our Torah provides a striking parallel when describing the blessings that Yitzchak gave to Yaakov:

Genesis 27: (26) Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come close, if you please and kiss me, my son”; (27) so he drew close and he kissed him.  And he smelled the fragrance of his clothes and he blessed him, saying, “Ah, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of the fields that Hashem has blessed.  (28) “And May Gd give you of the dew of heavens and the fatness of the earth and abundant grain and wine.

בראשית כ״ז: (כו) וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֵלָ֖יו יִצְחָ֣ק אָבִ֑יו גְּשָׁה־נָּ֥א וּשְׁקָה־לִּ֖י בְּנִֽי׃ (כז) וַיִּגַּשׁ֙ וַיִּשַּׁק־ל֔וֹ וַיָּ֛רַח אֶת־רֵ֥יחַ בְּגָדָ֖יו וַֽיְבָרְכֵ֑הוּ וַיֹּ֗אמֶר רְאֵה֙ רֵ֣יחַ בְּנִ֔י כְּרֵ֣יחַ שָׂדֶ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר בֵּרְכ֖וֹ ה'׃ (כח) וְיִֽתֶּן־לְךָ֙ הָאֱלֹקִ֔ים מִטַּל֙ הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וּמִשְׁמַנֵּ֖י הָאָ֑רֶץ וְרֹ֥ב דָּגָ֖ן וְתִירֹֽשׁ׃

Yitzchak's blessing to Yaakov revolved around the gifts that Gd would provide to his son through the natural order inherent in the operation of a healthy climate.  How can crops grow in a drought or the other extreme, flooding?  How can the earth give of its 'fatness' if the delicate balance upon which the earth can operate is so damaged?

We, this generation, can only transmit our tradition if we respect the environment in which we live.  From the outset, Gd created the heaven and the earth and Adam's only job was to take care of his surroundings.  He forfeited his gift in eating of the fruit and it was not too long before Gd responded to man's evil behaviour by sending The Flood.

The difference between those days and ours is that, if we continue abusing the planet in the way we have, it will not be Gd who will punish our descendants – it will be us, by our negligence.

Just like our patriarch, we must make the right choice when it comes to the actions we take for our children and future descendants.  That he did so through having been tricked by Yaakov should not deter us from 'doing the right thing'.

As Hillel writes in Pirkei Avot 1.14

'If not now then when?'

Our generation owe it to the next to respond to the question imminently.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov.