Shevi'i - Bereishis/Genesis - Parshas Toldos 28:5-9

"אֵם יַעֲקֹב וְעֵשָׂו" ("The mother of Yaakov and Esav") — I do not know what this teaches us.^א׳

We already know that Rivkah is the mother of Yaakov and Esav, and Rashi finds no plain-meaning reason for the Torah to repeat it here; rather than offer a forced explanation, he says openly that he does not know.

"וַיִּשְׁמַע יַעֲקֹב" ("And Yaakov listened") — This is joined to the matter above: "Esav saw that Yitzchak had blessed...", and that he had sent him to Padan Aram, and that Yaakov listened to his father and went to Padan Aram, and that the daughters of Canaan were evil; and he too went to Yishmael.^ב׳

This pasuk does not come to tell us again that Yaakov went, for the Torah has already said so (pasuk 5). It continues the list of what Esav saw: the blessing, the sending, and Yaakov's obedience; then (pasuk 8) that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father. All this led Esav to go to Yishmael.

"אֲחוֹת נְבָיוֹת" ("The sister of Nevayos") — From its saying "the daughter of Yishmael", do I not know that she is "the sister of Nevayos"? Rather, it teaches us that Yishmael died after he had betrothed her to Esav and before her marriage, and Nevayos her brother gave her in marriage. It also teaches us that Yaakov was 63 at that time: Yishmael was 74 when Yaakov was born, for Yishmael was fourteen years older than Yitzchak (above, 25:26), "and Yitzchak was sixty when they were born": that makes 74. His years were 137, as it says (above, 25:17), "These are the years of the life of Yishmael...". So when Yishmael died, Yaakov was 63.

And we learn from here that he was hidden in the house of Ever for fourteen years, and after that went to Charan. For he stayed in Lavan's house before the birth of Yosef only fourteen years, as it says (below, 31:41), "I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks", and the wages of the flocks began after Yosef was born, as it says (below, 30:25), "When Rachel had given birth to Yosef...". Yosef was thirty when he became ruler, and from then until Yaakov went down to Egypt was nine years, seven of plenty and two of famine; and Yaakov said to Pharaoh (below, 47:9), "The days of the years of my sojournings are 130 years". Go and count: fourteen years before Yosef's birth, thirty of Yosef, and nine from when he ruled until Yaakov came, which makes 53. When he left his father he was 63: that makes 116. Yet he says "130 years"; fourteen years are missing! So you have learned that after he received the blessings, he was hidden in the house of Ever for fourteen years.

[But he was not punished for them, in the merit of Torah. For Yosef was separated from his father only twenty-two years, from seventeen to thirty-nine, corresponding to the twenty-two years that Yaakov was separated from his father and did not honor him: twenty years in Lavan's house and two years on the way, as it is written (below, 33:17), "He built himself a house, and for his cattle he made booths"; and our Rabbis explained from this verse that he spent eighteen months on the way, for "a house" is for the rainy season and "booths" for the summer (Megillah 17a). By the reckoning of the verses we counted above, from when he left his father until he went down to Egypt at 130, we find another fourteen years. So he was certainly hidden in the house of Ever on his way to Lavan's house, to learn Torah from him, and in the merit of Torah he was not punished for them. And Yosef was separated from him only twenty-two years, measure for measure.]

"עַל נָשָׁיו" ("In addition to his wives") — He added wickedness to his wickedness, for he did not divorce the earlier ones.^ג׳

From the words "the sister of Nevayos", which seem to add nothing, Rashi learns the timing: Yishmael had died, so Nevayos gave her away. Yishmael's age at his death fixes Yaakov's age at this time, 63, and the count of Yaakov's years then shows fourteen years unaccounted for: the years he spent learning Torah in the house of Ever before going to Lavan. And "in addition to his wives" shows that Esav's new marriage was not a true change of heart, since he kept the wives who had grieved his parents.