Toldos: 5785 - "And these are the generations of Yitzchok the son of Avraham". Rashi: "Because the scoffers of the generation were saying that Sarah conceived from Avimelech". Because of the scoffers of the generation, the Torah changes…

00:01 Speaker 1 The weekly parsha begins, “These are the generations of Yitzchak, the son of Avraham. Avraham fathered Yitzchak.” Rashi immediately asks: Isn’t that repetitive? If Yitzchak was Avraham’s son, obviously Avraham fathered him. So Rashi brings the Midrash: the scoffers of that generation would say that Sarah had conceived from Avimelech. What did Hakadosh Boruch Hu do to refute them? I don’t know who these “scoffers of the generation” were, but that’s what they’re called. What did Hakadosh Boruch Hu do? He made Yitzchak’s face resemble Avraham’s, and then everyone said, “Avraham fathered Yitzchak.” Look, we can see it: the same face, the same features. But here’s a question: a few scoffers in that generation said Sarah had conceived from Avimelech. Does the Torah need to write “Avraham fathered Yitzchak” especially for that? So they said it. A few scoffers said it—so what? Does the Torah have to write something specifically to refute them? The explanation is that this is very, very important. Why? Because this is how the world works. Someone throws out a line: “Yes, Sarah conceived from Avimelech.” Someone says to him, “Are you crazy? How can you speak that way about Avraham Avinu?” And he says, “No, come on, you don’t understand what we were joking about.” But someone else heard it and passes it on, and then it spreads, and everyone says, “Sarah conceived from Avimelech.” “What? How can you say such a thing?” “What do you mean? Everyone knows.” How does everyone know? Someone said it as a joke, and then everyone knows it as though it’s a well-known fact. Especially nowadays, with phones and WhatsApp. You put something out there, and within a few minutes it’s gone around the world. How careful we sometimes need to be about what we say.

02:08 Speaker 1 Because you don’t know where it will reach. So the Torah needs to state explicitly, “Avraham fathered Yitzchak”—even though only a few scoffers said otherwise. How careful we need to be with our words. Another point: later in the parsha, when Esav comes in to Yitzchak to receive the blessing, it says that “Yitzchak trembled with a great trembling,” and he tells him, “Your brother came with deceit and took your blessing.” How does Targum Onkelos translate “with deceit”? Onkelos says “with wisdom.” The question is: what wisdom? What kind of wisdom is that? If I ask someone, “Betzalel, what’s your name?”—his name is Betzalel—and he tells me, “My name is Yankel,” what great wisdom is that? What wisdom is there in changing his name? He said his name was something else. What’s clever about that? So they explain—a rabbi from Jerusalem offered a very interesting and beautiful interpretation. He explained it this way: this happened on Pesach. That’s why Rivkah told him, “Go bring two young goats,” one for the Pesach offering and one to prepare delicacies. So it was Pesach. Now, what did Yaakov do wisely? He thought it through: Yitzchak will bless me, but then Esav will come and he’ll bless him too. So what have we accomplished? He wanted to find a way that Yitzchak wouldn’t be able to bless Esav. What did he do? He gave him the afikoman to eat. It says, “One may not eat anything after the Pesach offering as afikoman.” In other words, after eating the afikoman, Yitzchak could no longer eat. Esav would come, and Yitzchak wouldn’t be able to eat what he brought. If he couldn’t eat it, he couldn’t bless him either. That was the wisdom in it: Yaakov gave him the afikoman to eat, so afterward he couldn’t bless Esav as well. And he offers this as proof: “with deceit” has the same gematria as “afikoman.” It comes out

04:10 Speaker 1 exactly right: “with deceit” has the same gematria as “afikoman.” That was the wisdom of Yaakov Avinu.

04:16 Speaker 2 That’s how it has to be.