This weeks parsha is Parshat Toldot. The bulk of the parsha talks about Ya’akov and Asav. One particular story that I will focus on is how, according to Asav, Ya’akov stole the blessings. A brief summary of this story is that Yitzchak was going to give brachot (blessings) to Asav, his first born (Ya’akov and Asav were twins but Asav was born first). Rivka tells Ya’kov about Yitzchak wanting to give the brachot to Asav. To try to deceive Yitchak and get the brachot, Rivka dressed up Ya’akov in fury clothing to feel like Asav because Asav was a very hairy man. Yitzchak was blind which is why dressing up Ya’akov would be a way that would deceive him and make him think that Ya’akov is Asav. Ya’akov went into the room of where his father was, pretending to be Asav, and Yitzchak gave Ya’akov the blessings that were intended for Asav. The blessings were that he would be great, a great nation would come from him and that nothing can hurt him. Ya’akov then walks out of the room and Asav walks in. I kind of imagine it like there are two doors and as soon as Ya’akov walks out, Asav walks in. Asav then says he is ready for his brachot. Yitzchak was confused because he thought that he had already given him the brachot. Yitchak then figures out that Ya’akov must of gotten the brachot while pretending that he was Asav. Yitzchak then gives Asav a different bracha that although Ya’akov will be a great nation and he will not be overcome by his enemies as long as he does the right thing, that once he stops doing the right thing and strays off the right path he will be able to be overcome by Asav.

This is sort of the “pre-curse” to every tragedy that has ever happened in Jewish history so far. You could look at the book of Shoftim (book of Judges), you have the constant cycle of the Jews: they sin, worship idols, they are invaded by a foreign nation, life become terrible, they pray to G-d, G-d saves them and then they worship idols again. As soon we do the wrong thing, disaster starts to happen. The lesson we can take out of this is that as long as we continue to be good people and do the right thing, nothing can hurt us. With that in mind we should always strive to be better people and to worship G-d with all of our strength.