Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?” He said to him, “Here I am.” He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death. Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and get me venison. Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.””
(Genesis 27:1-4)

Forty years have passed since the end of Chapter twenty-six. This makes Issac 137 years old. He’s having issues seeing. He’s thinking of the end of his life. He’s thinking of what he can pass onto his children. He hasn’t been commanded by God to do this. This is all his own idea. He is turning to his favourite son (Genesis 25:28) for his favourite food and looking to bless him for it. Esau hasn’t been a great son. His choices in wives has caused problems. So instead of blessing him outright, Isaac gives him a task he can do. Something within his abilities, but something that can show him honouring his father. Making him expend some effort outside of himself.

Isaac lived for another forty-three years, dying at the age of 180 years old. This ‘final blessing’ was unnecessary. It was premature. That is one reason we know this was not God led. God’s timing is always perfect. This also is evidence that Rachel hadn’t told Isaac what God had told her about her children (Genesis 25:23). The husband-wife team were not completely open with each other and that would be the root cause of the problems they have in this situation.

At this point, we don’t know what kind of blessing Isaac is talking about. Is he trying to pass on the blessing of the Lord? Was he trying to force God’s hand and get his favourite son in the favoured position? That certainly seems to be what his wife and kids thought. It seems to provide the motivation for the lengths they all went to and the feelings that came on them.

The sage Rashi writes: ‘לא ידעתי יום מותי I KNOW NOT THE DAY OF MY DEATH — R. Joshua the son of Korcha said: When a person approaches the age at which his parents died he may well be anxious five years before and five years after. Isaac was then one hundred and twenty three years old and he said, “Perhaps I shall only reach the age of my mother who died at the age of 127 and I am now within five years of her age: therefore, I know not the day of my death —I may only reach the age of my mother or it may be the age of my father” (Genesis Rabbah 65:12). שא נא — The word שא means sharpen, similar to what שא read in the Mishna (Beitzah 28a) “One may not sharpen the knife in the usual manner but one may sharpen it by passing it (משיאין) over another”. Isaac said to Esau, “Sharpen your knife and slaughter an animal according to the regulations so that you may not give me to eat נבלה” (i.e. the flesh of animal that is not killed according to the ritual rules) (Genesis Rabbah 65:13). תליך means thy sword which is usually hung (at the side). צודה לי AND HUNT FOR ME [SOME VENISON] of animals that are ownerless, but not of such as are acquired by theft (literally, by robbery).’

The sage Sforno writes: ‘ותכהינה עיניו, just as what happened to the High Priest Eli who had not protested the wrongs committed by his sons. (Samuel I 3,13) In that instance the expression used is ועיניו קמה ולא יכול לראות, (Samuel I 4,15) Neither Avraham nor Yaakov experienced such problems in their old age at the age at which Yitzchok was struck by this affliction. They were both far older than Eli who died at the age of only 98. In fact, the Torah reports Avraham’s youthfulness in 25,1 when it reports him as taking another wife. Yaakov, with all the troubles he had experienced during his life was still able to see at 147 years of age, though with difficulty, (may be was very shortsighted then) as in Genesis 48,8 he is reported as clearly seeing Joseph’s sons, though they may have resembled each other so that he could not tell apart which one was Efrayim and which one was Menashe, This was in spite of the Torah (48,10) having told us ועיני ישראל כבדו מזוקן, “Yaakov’s eyes were heavy with old age,” (problems keeping the lids open?) At any rate, he could see, though not with clarity. לא ידעתי יום מותי. Although the blessing will prove more effective the closer the one dispensing is to death, as was the case in the blessings dispensed by Yaakov and Moses, seeing that their souls were already closer to heaven at the time when they dispensed the blessing, Yitzchok was not aware of when he would die so that he could to time his blessing accordingly. Made it into a tasty dish. Yitzchok knew that Eisov was not worthy of the blessing that he wished to confer upon him. For this reason he instructed him to perform an act of honor towards him to give him merit. By contrast when he blessed Yaakov (28:3) he knew that he needed no additional merit.’

The sage Ramban writes: ‘THAT MY SOUL MAY BLESS THEE. It was Isaac’s intent to bless Esau that he merit the blessing of Abraham to inherit the land and to become the one with whom G-d would make the covenant since he was the firstborn.
It would appear that Rebekah never told Isaac of the prophecy which G-d had related to her, i.e., And the elder shall serve the younger, else how would Isaac transgress the commandment of the Eternal, seeing that it shall not prosper. Now at first she did not tell it to him due to ethical modesty, for the verse, And she went to inquire of the Eternal, suggests that she went without Isaac’s permission. [Perhaps she did not tell him because] she said, “I need not relate a prophecy to a prophet for Isaac is greater than the one who told it to me.” And now she did not want to tell him, “So was it said to me in the name of G-d before I gave birth,” for she reasoned that because of his love for Esau he will not bless Jacob, but he will leave everything in the hands of Heaven. And she further knew that by this arrangement of hers, Jacob will be blessed from Isaac’s mouth by an undivided heart and a willing mind. Perhaps these are causes induced by G-d so that Jacob would be blessed, and Esau as well with the blessing of the sword, And by Him alone actions are weighed.’

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘Vv. 2, 3 & 4 What could have been Isaac’s motive in saying to his son whom he wishes to bless, “first cook a nice dish for me!” One has tried to find a parallel case with Elisha and his request for stringed music (II K. III. 15); as if a good piece of roast meat had some power to inspire lofty feelings! But then it must have been overlooked that here it says, not בעבור אברכך but בעבור תברכך נפשי. That is not to be found at any similar blessing. The person himself gives the blessing, but never some special part of himself as נפש. The only similar expression can be found in Job: אם לא ברכוני חלציו (Ch. XXXI. 20). There the meaning of the expression is clear. The loins, the warmed body of the poor naked man, feel the benevolence of his benefactor and bless him for it. Similarly from Man to God: ברכי נפשי which expresses the demand that not only is God to be “blessed” (i.e. recognised and given satisfaction I.L.) generally, but that the person is to be inspired to feel through and through all that God has done for him, so that every fibre of his being “blesses” i.e. serves Him. Consequently here too the meaning may be clear. Isaac wanted to bless Esau in the sense of his future calling. As he hoped that his natural tendencies would come to be employed for useful moral purposes, he wanted him to show that he was turning in that direction at the time he received the blessing. Let him for once employ his wild sport for a true humane purpose. For it certainly seems that this hunting of Esau’s was not usually pursued for the purpose of providing his old weak father with a strengthening meal. What he enjoyed was the hunt for its own sake, the sight of the steaming blood gushing out after pitting his wits against the brute strength and evasive cunning of the animals. But to hunt for providing refreshment for somebody who was weak and ill, would not enter Esau’s mind, it was not in his character to do so. “Now for once gather up the weapons of your daily occupation, stalk some game, and, you yourself, prepare a dainty dish for me”; you are now for once to use your love of hunting for a benevolent purpose, for the refreshment of an old man, are to feel, for once, how good it feels to use one’s strength and skill to give someone else pleasure. That is also why, in the blessing he gave to the supposed Esau (V. 27), he led him from the joy of hunting over to that of agriculture, to “the field blessed by God”, with an eye to the prosperity of the future Jewish National Life. This becoming refreshed, and this receiving the blessing by having brought about the refreshment lies in the בעבור תברכך נפשי. That is also why it says in V. 5.: Then Esau went out on the hunt for once for the purpose להביא, “to bring it home”.’