A D’var Torah for Parshat Toldot by Rabbi Lydia Medwin
The story of our people, still in their early years, continues this week with the first recorded instance of a mother’s quickening in the Bible. And, evidently, it hurt. When Rebecca cries out to God in desperate pain, God responds: “Two גיים (nations) are in your womb, two separate peoples shall issue from your body; one people shall be mightier than the other, and the older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25: 23). This is the foreshadowing for the dramatic unfolding of events, instigated by Rebecca and her favorite son, Jacob, against her husband, Isaac and his favored son, Esau. The episode ends with Jacob stealing Esau’s blessing and birthright, and Esau vowing to murder his brother, who must now flee to another country. When the people of Israel finally receive the Ten Commandments, they’ll see many items from the “don’t” list here in this story. How does this story contribute to the calibration of our moral compass?
The Talmud offers us two perspectives on this story that can help us frame the biggest ethical questions of our day. Represented, of course, is the conventional way of thinking about this story. Commenting on Genesis 25, Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak teaches that “the one people shall be stronger than the other” means that when one nation rises, the other necessarily falls. (Megillah 6a) A classic example of scarcity mindset, this zero sum game paradigm dictates much of the remainder of the parshah. There’s not enough food, so Esau sells his birthright for a bowl of lentils. There’s not enough love, so each parent loves only one child. There’s not enough blessing to go around, so Isaac gives them all to one son and has only blessing scraps left for the other. There’s not enough forgiveness, so the threat of death is the only option for the brothers. There’s not enough water, so the adversarial Philistines fill in Isaac’s wells with dirt, despite limited access of their own to water in the midst of the desert. Their scarcity mindset creates conflict, hard-heartedness, self-centeredness, and ultimately, a narrowing of options for anyone in this family system to thrive.
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Morality cannot breathe in a scarcity mindset. From this story, we learn that a scarcity mindset leads to the implosion of a family that would never see repair and to people who cannot see beyond their own desperation into the hearts and minds of others.
But, the Talmud also gives us another option, another way to look at God’s response to Rebecca’s pleas. The word in Genesis 25:23 that is generally read goyim, nations, has an unusual spelling in the Torah scroll, with an extra letter yod instead of the letter vav. This leads Rav Yehudah to say, in the name of Rav, that it can be read as two individuals who will make us proud, geyim. (Avodah Zarah 11a) Rav Yehudah goes on to say that this verse was fulfilled by two prominent individuals who descended from Rebecca, the Roman officer Antoninus (who some say is actually Marcus Aurelius) and Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, who both enjoyed abundance. The Talmud delineates their abundance in terms of amounts and varieties of fresh produce, available to them year round. But in many other Jewish sources, the relationship between these two historical figures is painted as one of abundance in many dimensions, from the ways they debated one another with abundant respect and abundant room for challenge, to the ways they cared for and protected one another with the sending of advice and secret messages in the form of gifts, so as to shield each other’s identities. From a place of abundant pride, both men who counted Rebecca as their ancestor could benefit from the knowledge and love they shared. From this place of abundance, all kinds of creativity were possible. From this place of abundance, both peoples could thrive. From this place, generations of descendants might create worlds of hope and children who feel confident that, when their time comes, they will have the support they need to prosper.
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With this second reading in mind, we could faithfully retranslate the rest of Genesis 25:23 to reflect a mindset of abundance. Instead of “one people shall be mightier than the other, and the older shall serve the younger,” the Hebrew could also read “they’ll gain strength one from the other, and those in the majority will serve the needs of the youth/the future.”
When we consider a world of justice and mercy, we must reflect on the mindset we are cultivating. Parshat Toldot is a cautionary tale, in which the disastrous effects of the scarcity mindset are illuminated; it comes to highlight its devastating impact in our world. In contrast, a mindset of abundance can pay dividends. In speaking about the underfunding of Georgia’s public education, Senator Raphael Warnock recently said, “More money for one school does not have to mean less money for another school. There is plenty of money in Georgia. It’s a matter of what we prioritize.” This sentiment is true across the board: there is enough water in our world, enough food, enough money, enough care, enough forgiveness, enough compassion. 
When we train our minds, our spirits, and our civic discourse towards abundance, we are able to release a torrent of creativity and hope. And not just for us, but for the next generation of Jewish families and the broader communities in which we live.
Rabbi Lydia Medwin has served as the Director of Engagement and Outreach at The Temple in Atlanta, GA since 2014. She helps to lead the Rothschild Social Justice Institute at The Temple and is a convener with the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church of the national Multifaith Initiative to End Mass Incarceration (EMI). She is the co-author of The Relational Judaism Handbook: How to Create a Relational Engagement Campaign to Build and Deepen Relationships in Your Community (Kripke Institute).
