Welcome back to another week of ModPop Torah! This week’s Torah portion is Toldot, and it is action-packed! In Toldot Isaac and Rebecca have two sons – Jacob and Esau. We know the story of Jacob holding onto Esau’s heel as they were born and how that meant that the younger son (Jacob) would be more successful than the older (Esau). The portion skips to when they are all grown up and Jacob steals Esau’s blessing *gasp*.
There have been many d’vrei Torah written about this portion, and they all contain fascinating theories. One we want to refer you to this week is written by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. In his Covenant & Conversation this week he writes about the miscommunication that happens in Toldot. He writes about how Rebecca and Isaac never communicated about the oracle she had before Jacob and Esau were born in which God tells her that, “the elder will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). Rabbi Sacks mentions that Isaac could have known the whole time that it was Jacob who was going to continue the covenant and not Esau, and that he was going to give Esau and Jacob blessings that were specific for them. However, he never got a chance to explain this. You can read the entire d’var here. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
We wanted to share Rabbi Sacks’ words with you this week because not only was he a phenomenal scholar and teacher, but he sadly passed away on Saturday, November 7th at the age of 72. He served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013 and was the recipient of numerous awards and prizes. His teachings were accessible to everyone. He wrote d’vrei Torah for adults and young people, and encouraged Jewish family discussions with meaningful questions. Rabbi Sacks was the author of around 32 publications ranging from collections of thoughts on the Torah portion of the week to siddurim. His work covered topics such as the qualities of a good leader, how Judaism relates to morality and the future of the Jewish people. Fun fact, he was a vegetarian! We encourage you to look into Rabbi Sacks’ work and learn from him. You can listen to some of the eulogies given at his funeral in the UK here.
Baruch Dayan HaEmet
Even as Rabbi Sacks was suffering from cancer, he was able to write an entire year’s worth of Covenant & Conversation based on his book Lessons in Leadership. In addition to reading this week’s which we have linked above, we encourage you to subscribe to the weekly emails so you can get them sent right to your inbox. Rabbi Sacks was a truly incredible scholar, and he will be dearly missed and his legacy will live on. Just as Isaac passed the torch of the covenant to Jacob, Rabbi Sacks’ impact has passed the torch of Jewish learning to us.
While we love sharing our own thoughts and teachings with you, we recognize how important it is to learn from others. From the beginning, especially in the early days of our previous blog HawkTorah, we turned to the teachings of others. They helped us gain a better understanding of the portions, which has, in turn, made us better teachers. We believe the best teachers are the ones who understand the idea that you never stop being a student and that there is still much to learn.
Love,
Amanda & Marissa
