All In the Family

Weekly Torah Lesson

Parasha: Toldot – Generations
Torah: Bereishit 25:19 – 28:9

** When the descendants of Avraham grew up and began looking for wives, they had to make choices to guarantee that the blood line would continue from Adam. We know that the seed continued from Avraham to Yitzak because Avraham and Sarah actually had the same father (Terah). When it came time to find a wife for Yitzaak, Avraham sent his servant back to his family to bring back his “great niece (his brother’s granddaughter) for Yitzaak to marry. Yitzaak actually married his second cousin. Now we have Yitzaak’s sons, Asav and Yaakov. Here is how the Scripture explains the process.

34 When Asav was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, 35 and they made life bitter for Yitzaak and Rivkah.”

** Wrong choices. For the “seed of Avraham” to be considered “perfect” and thereby be worthy to carry on the family bloodline, both the father and the mother must be descendants of Avraham’s seed. Just as the “seed” (Yishmael) that came through Hagar was not acceptable, so the Hittite wives of Asav were not able to pass on the bloodline.

46 Then Rivkah said to Yitzaak, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Yaakov marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?””

“28:1 Then Yitzaak called Yaakov and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. 2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Lavan your mother’s brother. 3 El Shaddai bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 4 May he give the blessing of Avraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that Avinu gave to Avraham!” 5 Thus Yitzaak sent Yaakov away. And he went to Paddan-aram, to Lavan, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rivkah, Yaakov’s and Asav’s mother.”

“6 Now Asav saw that Yitzaak had blessed Yaakov and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” 7 and that Yaakov had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 So when Asav saw that the Canaanite women did not please Yitzaak his father, 9 Asav went to Yishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Yishmael, Avraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.” )

** Remember that Yishmael’s mother was an Egyptian. Yishmael’s seed could not qualify to be “the “correct” Avrahamic bloodline”.

** Asav seems to have a hard time figuring out whom he should marry to comply with the bloodline requirements.

** Yaakov went to his uncle’s home and over a twenty year period married his two cousins and their respective nursemaids. He returned to Canaan as Israel with twelve sons, 1 daughter and a great amount of livestock.

The “seed of Avraham” returned to the promised land.