The Parsha of Toldos Cont.

The Parsha of Toldos Cont.

This is a continuation from the post The Parsha of Toldos, to view it please click here.

In Rashi’s second pshat on the first posuk, he says that the added words were necessary to be written because of the laitzainai hador.

All the years I always wondered, who are these laitzainai hador that the Torah keveyachol had to write extra words to knock out their claim? Now, when I matured a little and saw a Torah commentary or two on Rashi, I realized that the second half of the question is not a question. The Mizrachi explains the words of Rashi, not that the extra words come to prove anything to the laitzainai hador, rather that the words come to tell us that there was a need for a proof, and that indeed the Almight’y gave the proof when he made Yitzchak’s face so resemble Avraham’s.

But who were they? The Mizrachi learns that there was a dispute about the claim of the laitzim within the household of Avraham Avinu. It occurred to me this year another pshat — he was the granddaddy of all troublemakers, Lavan. About Lavan we read in the Passover Haggadah that whereas Pharaoh only wanted to kill the males, Lavan wanted to destroy everything. If I remember correctly, the commentators on the Haggadah say two things — either Lavan when he chased after Yaakov he planned on killing him, and G-d stopped him when he warned him in a dream the night before. Or that Lavan wanted to bring them back to his place, so that Yaakov and his family would always be under his influence, which is the proverbial “six of one, half a dozen of the other.” For either way that would be the end of Klal Yisroel.

I heard once a pshat from a darshan, actually someone very respected, who said a chiddush (a Torah novelty), which I never saw before or heard from anyone else since then. He said that the Divine plan was that Yaakov marry Rachel first. Then Yosef would be the full fledged bechor, also a bechor le’nachala. Then after Binyamin she would die young, and Yaakov would then marry Leah. Thus there wouldn’t be the kitrug of marrying two sisters. Lavan, by giving Leah to Yaakov first, reduced the level of Yosef, and also awakened a kitrug of marrying two sisters. In this way he hoped to put a finish to Klal Yisroel.

I know, it’s a big chiddush, and it really needs a source. If any of my readers can tell me of a source for the above, I’ll be deeply appreciative.

With the pshat or without it, however you learn, Lavan wanted to destroy Klal Yisroel, Everything. By being a laitz and questioning the yichus of Yitzchak Avinu, Lavan wanted separate the generations of Klal Yisroel from its roots. And even if we would know 100%, say through prophecy, still, if the world didn’t recognize it, then the revelation that the Chosen People’s task is to accomplish would never be. I speak overly brief, that which seems to me appropriate for online.

Thus the Almight’y had to “hakheh es shinav”, and he created Yitzchak in a way that everybody had to admit, Avraham fathered Yitzchak. And these are the extra words that the Torah tells us about.