Parshat Toldot

Rabbi Andrue Kahn - November 21, 2025

Delivered in absentia due to Rabbi Andy falling ill

This past week was one of the largest gatherings of Jewish people and power in the world - the Jewish Federation's General Assembly. For those who may now know, the Federation system distributes over 2.3 billion dollars a year worldwide. That's more money than all but the top 10 countries' GDPs. A particular recording from the GA has been making the rounds. Sarah Hurwitz, a former speechwriter for both Obamas, and the writer of the book “Here All Along,” and the new “As a Jew,” speaks quite clearly about her take on this moment:

“The very smart bet that we made on Holocaust education to serve as anti-semitism education in this new media environment…may be confusing some of our young people about antisemitism…when they see powerful Israelis hurting weak, skinny Palestinians, it's not surprising that they think, 'Oh, I know the lesson of the Holocaust is you fight Israel. You fight the big powerful people hurting the weak people.' That's not how the Holocaust happened…The Germans insisted that the Jews, about 1% of their population, were responsible for all of their problems, just like Israel, the size of New Jersey, is responsible for all the world's problems today.”

To her, the lesson of the Holocaust is that non-Jews hate Jews, that the state of Israel is the bulwark against that hatred, so it, too, is hated. What she is saying functions as a sort of smoke screen for the genocide Israel is enacting - she is claiming that the reason people seek to fight Israel is antisemitism, not because of the tangible actions Israel has been undertaking.

The story of Jacob and Esau, as it goes in the Torah, is that Jacob defrauded his brother of his inheritance and birthright - this week's portion gives all the details. When you read the rabbinic commentaries, they try to construct an excuse for Jacob's deception - providing flimsy midrash to show that he didn't lie; he just allowed Isaac to come to his own conclusions. For instance, when Isaac asks Jacob, “Esau, is it you, my son? In the text, Jacob responds, “Ani,” “I am.” But Rashi twists it to overcome this lie, claiming, ”Jacob did not say, “I am Esau”, but “It is I”.

The true p'shat, simple, reading is clear - Jacob tricked Esau and Isaac in order to inherit both the power and the wealth of Abraham. After this trick, Esau, in utter dismay, says to his father, “Have you but one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!” And wept aloud.

The rabbis, continuing in their attempt to absolve Jacob of his own wrongdoing, eventually come to a conclusion, found in the midrash, “It is halachah (a clear and unalterable law) that Esau hates Jacob.” As Professor Shaul Magid writes, “In traditional Jewish circles, the phrase “Esau hates Jacob” is often deployed as a theological maxim to define antisemitism…but (quoting Malachi Hacohen), Russian and Polish acculturated Jewish writers . . . adopted popular conceptions of Esau from the rabbinic idiom and turned them into ethnic ones. Esau emerged as the Goy, the non- Jew, the quintessential Other. Zionist writer Hayim Nahman Bialik provided the equivalent in Hebrew, as did other authors.”

In short, the “why” of antisemitism here is that inherent to Esau, the goy, or non-Jews, is a hatred of Jews. The obverse, in this line of thinking, is true as well- Jewish existence is predicated upon this same universal, eternal hatred. The founder of Political Zionism, Theodore Herzl, concurred, saying:

“We are a group, a historical group of people who clearly belong together and have a common enemy; this seems to me an adequate definition of a nation. We are a historical group held together by a common foe. This is what we are, whether we know it or not, and whether we desire it or not.”

This construction of antisemitism is one that does not base itself in material reality - it does not seek to understand the wider contexts and forces at play which lead to such hatred; it does not wish to actually overcome antisemitism, because if it did, the binding force of what is understood to be a Jew would lose its coherence. And, so, antisemitism must be an eternal reality - it must be halachah. It must be that Esau always has, and always will, hate Jacob.

In the plain reading of the ongoing Torah story, Jacob knows his own guilt, and, in the course of many years, works to overcome this impulse within him. In doing so, as beautifully literary as the Torah ever is, he is given a new name which is the opposite of his old name. The commentator Ibn Ezra notes that the Hebrew root (Akov) of Jacob can be read to mean “deceptive.” He also alludes to a reading of the root of the name Israel, which Jacob receives in having overcome his deceptive nature, is Yashar, related to being upright, or straightforward.

Esau had good reason to hate Jacob for his deception. Jacob overcame the nature that led to his behavior, received a new name, and then, we will see later in the Torah, they reconciled. This is not to say that the parallel with antisemitism works here, too - of course, antisemitism does not exist because Jews did something wrong. But the way in which Sarah Hurwitz, and others, seek to use antisemitism as a cover for true wrongdoings committed by Jews is mirrored in this historical idea. Antisemitism, of course, should not be used to dodge and evade responsibility. Had Jacob continued to evade his responsibility, the name Israel would not even exist - the only reason it does was his willingness to take responsibility for his own actions, and to be righteous. Perhaps, then, that is our path as well - even in the face of the bigoted hatreds of antisemitism that do certainly exist, we must follow Yashar-El - the God of uprightness, and be the ones to live in the image of Jacob, the true Israel.