(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)
“Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. She put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck. She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.”
(Genesis 27:15-17)
We know that Rebekah had access to Esau’s good clothes. That means that even though Esau had multiple wives and was seventy-seven years old, he didn’t keep everything at home in his own tents. Within the compound of Isaac’s family/possessions, there were some that Esau kept with his parents. It shows that he was not a completely trusting person – at least not with his wives.
Rebekah knew her husband’s eyesight was bad. She compensated for that by picking things that would blur the differences between these two twins. Esau was hairy, Jacob was not. The goat hair would take care of that. Esau dressed differently, his clothes would take care of that. Between the clothes and the animal hair, it would change Jacob’s scent. He would smell like the outdoors. Smell like he spent time with animals. He would smell like a man who didn’t spend his time in tents and around the home. Jacob would smell like Esau and would feel like Esau. Remember that their lifestyles and Esau’s hairiness were the only differences between these twins (Genesis 25:25-28).
Isaac hadn’t mentioned bread. But clearly, Rebekah knew that he liked bread with his savoury meats. She knew what he liked and made sure Jacob was going to him with the best and favourite meal. Rebekah knew her husband, even though they had distance between them. She prepared her favoured son for success. She was an intelligent woman.
Jacob was totally passive in this. He got what his mother told him to, but after that it was all Rebekah. She prepared everything, she planned everything, she did everything. He did nothing. He did not even earn his deceit by working it.
There is a legend that there is something special about Esau’s good clothes. The legend is the Esau had met Nimrod (Genesis 10:8–12) out in the wild and the two men had fought. Esau defeated Nimrod, killing him, and took Nimrod’s robe as a trophy. It was a rich and ornamented robe (which had its own legend), and he did not trust his wives not to steal it so he kept it in his parent’s tents. If you were going to receive THE great blessing from your father, this is the robe you would choose to wear. A special robe for a special blessing. And it was a robe that was so associated with Esau, that Isaac would expect him to wear it. There is nothing in the Word to prove this legend, or really to hint at it, but it has persisted in oral teaching down through the years. I do not believe it, but it does make for a nice legend.
The Torah: A Women’s Commentary writes: ‘that she had in the house. Images of domesticity fill Rebekah’s story. As Carol Meyers notes, women in ancient Israel held major roles within the household. They had the primary responsibility for educating the young as well as for transforming unprocessed ingredients into cooked, consumable food (Discovering Eve, 1988, pp. 145–146). Rebekah moves confidently throughout her family’s domain. She is in control of its clothing and of the preparation of its food. She decides when its livestock is to be slaughtered. Her tools for survival are the items immediately and easily available to her. Such things mark this as a woman’s story. dressed up her younger son Jacob. The covering up of Jacob is the central element of Rebekah’s act of subterfuge. Like Tamar in Genesis 38, who covers herself with a veil, Rebekah can be successful only through the act of covering up, not by acting directly and out in the open. she wrapped. The narrator repeatedly emphasizes Rebekah’s actions. she put the tasty food and the bread that she had made. As with the clothing in v. 15, Rebekah uses what is on hand in the female sphere. The seemingly harmless domestic items of food or bread become the tools she uses to influence the course of events. The verse is clear that these are items whose preparation Rebekah has personally directed (and perhaps has undertaken herself), emphasizing her purposefulness in executing the plan.’
The sage Tur HaAroch writes: ‘את בגדי עשו בנו הגדול, ”the garments of her older son Esau.” The use by the Torah of the terms בנו הגדול and בנו הקטן, instead of the customary בנו הבכור and בנו הצעיר, for the older son (the firstborn) or the younger son, is intended to underline that although, usually, honour is accorded to the firstborn, etc., Rivkah being aware that her firstborn son had forfeited any claim to such honour, thought of her two children in terms of the physically older one and the physically younger one, i.e. הגדול והקטון, respectively. She was now concerned with arranging for the transfer of the undeserved privileges of birth from her undeserving older son to her deserving younger son.’
The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 15 אשר אתה בבית, incidentaly, a characteristic peep into Esau’s married life. His best treasures he seems to have left in his mother’s keeping, did not entirely trust them to his wives.’
The sage Siftei Chakhamim writes: ‘The ones he coveted from Nimrod. Meaning: These garments bore pictures of all kinds of animals, and when Nimrod would wear them and go out to the field, the animals would think the pictures were animals, and would approach him. Eisov killed Nimrod and took the garments.’
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