toldos: enmity
sholem aleichem,
there’s a thought i’ve returned to a few times over the past year, of someone born in gaza around the same time i was born in the US. of being 10 at the start of the second intifada, 16 during the 2006 election, 28 during the great march of return.
this is a self-centered line of thought, of course. but hillel teaches אַל תָּדִין אֶת חֲבֵרְךָ עַד שֶׁתַּגִּיעַ לִמְקוֹמוֹ (do not judge your fellow until you reach his place), and this is one (hugely insufficient) way for me to reach vainly toward that place, to try to come into contact with the other i am told to hate.
in the end, i don’t know what i would do in their place, or what i would have done in the last 34 years. or if i would have survived them. i cannot know: our places are too far removed.
but i know that i am not their enemy. there are people who want me to think that way, because of the circumstances of our births. i refuse.
in our portion this week, rivkah is pregnant with yaakov and esav:
וַיִּמְלְאוּ יָמֶיהָ לָלֶדֶת וְהִנֵּה תוֹמִם בְּבִטְנָהּ
her days for bearing were fulfilled, and behold! twins in her womb
a similar verse appears later, with tamar:
ויהי בעת לדתה והנה תאומים בבטנה
and it was the time of her birthing, and behold! twins in her womb
the endings of these verses are identical, in english, but have a subtle difference in hebrew.
in rivkah’s case, the word “twins” is spelled תומם, and in tamar’s תאומים.
why are א and י missing for rivkah? rashi offers one explanation:
חסר, ובתמר תאומים מלא, לפי ששניהם צדיקים; אבל כאן אחד צדיק ואחד רשע
[here, the word “twins” is in a] diminished [form], and [in the case of tamar] “twins” is written in full [with א and י], because the two of them [tamar’s children] were tzadikim, but here one is a tzadik and one is evil
so before yaakov and esav are even born, they are pitted against each other: one is good, one is evil, and the good will subjugate the evil.
but here’s another explanation for תומם.
the missing א and י in תומם add up to 11, a number that indicates subservience:
וַיַּחֲלֹם עוֹד חֲלוֹם אַחֵר וַיְסַפֵּר אֹתוֹ לְאֶחָיו וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה חָלַמְתִּי חֲלוֹם עוֹד וְהִנֵּה הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וְהַיָּרֵחַ וְאַחַד עָשָׂר כּוֹכָבִים מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים לִי
[yosef] dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers. he said: behold! i have dreamed another dream, and here: the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed themselves to me
the eleven stars, according to yaakov, represent yosef’s brothers bowing before him — just as, in our portion, esav is to submit to his brother yaakov.
but the א and י are missing from the description of yaakov and esav as twins. the 11 that signifies subservience is taken away in describing their birth.
hashem does tell rivkah that two peoples will be divided from her, and that the older will serve the younger. but the torah immediately qualifies that prediction in the spelling of תומם: this is not inevitable, this is not determined from birth. no one is innately evil, no great enmity is written in the stars or torah or nature of humanity.
in this context, hashem’s prediction sounds more like a warning. rivkah does not heed the warning. but we can.
so: please gd may we no longer dream of subjugation. may we no longer prophesy violence.
may we find ourselves in our fellow’s place.
good shabbos,
ada
p.s. registration is still open for my class! in every tongue will explore the role of translation in judaism. can the torah be understood in any language? does hebrew always take precedence? i can’t wait to explore these questions with y’all.
p.p.s. i found this neat page describing all sorts of symbolism associated with the number 11 in judaism. then it turned out to be potentially messianic (tho the author claims to be genuinely jewish)? in any case, it does seem to have some good and authentic info (i did not read the whole page tho), and led me in some valuable directions as i meditated on the “deficient” spelling of twins in this parsha.