Every year on the Shabbat of Parashat Toledot, I make something with lentils. (This is what I’ll be eating for Shabbat lunch.) Lentils are infamous in this parashah. The whole story hinges on them. Esav was working in the fields and returned famished, only to find Ya’akov cooking up a delicious looking lentil stew. He asked for some, and Ya’akov would only agree if Esav offered his birthright in exchange. Esav didn’t feel like he had much to lose (“I’ll die anyway if I don’t eat, so what use is my birthright then?”), and he agrees.
Later, when Yitzchak their father wants to offer the final birthright blessing before his passing, Rebecca connives with Ya’akov for him to get the blessing instead. Ya’akov poses as Esav and essentially takes the blessing intended for Esav. I’ve been thinking about the underlying reason why Ya’akov tricked his father in this way, why he even used the lentils in the first place to get Esav to sell his birthright. I don’t think it was something specific about the blessing intended for Esav that Ya’akov wanted, I think it was simply because he thought there was a limited amount of blessing. That somehow, there couldn’t be enough for both of them.
How much conflict arises when we think we have to fight for blessing? When we worry that there’s not enough blessing to go around, that in some way there is a finite amount and if you get some then I inherently get less. So much jealousy and conflict emerge in relationships when we think we’re in a competition for blessing.
When Rebecca is telling Ya’akov that he should trick his father, Ya’akov worries that Yitzchak will pick up on his ruse and says, “perhaps I’ll bring upon myself curse instead of blessing.” Ya’akov does go along with the plan, but his observation beforehand is a powerful and instructive one. When we operate from the place of competition around blessing, we end up accomplishing the opposite of what we had hoped: we end up bringing pain and difficulty upon ourselves instead of blessing. But when we believe there’s enough for all of us, we open ourselves up to even more.
This year, I think we’re all looking for blessing. It may not be obvious where to find it, but there’s enough for each of us. This week, perhaps blessing can emerge from a mere bowl of lentils, reminding me that there truly is enough blessing to go around.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
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