The biblical motif of the revolutionary usurpation of the firstborn begins in the first Torah portion, Bereshit, when God favors the offering made by Abel and not that of his older brother Cain (Gen. 4:4-5). The motif reappears in Vayera when Sarah insists that the younger Isaac, and not Ishmael, will receive Abraham’s inheritance. And now the motif continues in this week’s Torah portion Toldot (“generations”) with Jacob and Esau. After they clash together in their mother's womb, Jacob emerges second grasping the heel of his firstborn brother Esau (Genesis 25:22, 26).
שני גיים בבטנך
ושני לאמים, ממעיך יפרדו
ולאם מלאם יאמץ
ורב יעבד צעיר
Two nations—in your womb,
two peoples from your loins shall issue.
People over people shall prevail,
the elder, the younger’s slave.
Genesis 25:23
Robert Alter points out the ambiguity of this verse. Which nation shall prevail over which? “The Hebrew syntax leaves unclear which noun is subject and which is object—‘the elder shall serve the younger,’ or, ‘the elder, the younger shall serve.’”
Jacob (also called Israel) is, of course, the progenitor of the Jewish nation, while his brother Esau is identified as the ancestor of the Edomites. Notwithstanding Jacob and Esau’s eventual reconciliation (Genesis 33), the Hebrew Bible relates that the Jewish nation under David’s leadership later conquered Edom (II Samuel 8:13, I Chronicles 18:12). The Encyclopaedia Judaica notes that the Hebrew Bible describes Edom as “the eternal enemy of Israel (and Judah, Amos 1:11; Ezek. 35:5) who not only always oppressed Israel, but at the time of the destruction of the First Temple took advantage of the situation and seized control of parts of Judah (Ezek. 25:12; 35:5, 10, 2; Obad. 11–16), and it is hinted that Edom also took part in the destruction of Jerusalem (Ps. 137:7; Obad. 11) and even in that of the Temple itself (Obad. 16).” Much later, around the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire, Edom was identified with Rome (ostensibly founded by the children of Esau and included among the cities of the chiefs of Esau mentioned at the end of Genesis 36).
Another interesting feature of this portion concerns Abimelech’s words to Isaac in Genesis 26:10: כמעט שכב אחד העם, את–אשתך (“one of the people might well have lain with your wife”). This is apparently the only place in the Hebrew Bible where the phrase אחד העם appears. According to Rashi, “one of the people” refers here to “the special one of the people, namely the king.” Of course, אחד העם was also the pen name of the great theoretician of cultural Zionism, Asher Ginzberg. As Ginzberg's biographer Steven Zipperstein points out with Rashi's commentary in mind, this pen name may have been a “bid for leadership” as much as a sign of anonymity, modesty, and humility. Asher, though, was no Jacob--he had no older brother, only two younger sisters.
