Hairy Hands, Clear Voice - Toldot 5786

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“The voice is the voice of Yaakov and the hands are the hands of Eisav.”  These were the words that our forefather Yitzchak said when he was not sure which of his sons was standing before him.  He was blind in his old age, and he had planned to bless Eisav.  Rivkah his wife recognized that this would be a mistake, and she told Yaakov to go and impersonate Eisav and get the blessings.  Yaakov was concerned that his father would suspect that it was him, so Rivkah had him wear Eisav’s clothes and she put goat skins on his hands.  Yaakov had smooth skin and Eisav was hairy, and this way if Yitzchak felt Yaakov’s skin, which in fact he did, he would believe it was Eisav.  Hence “the voice of Yaakov and the hands  of Eisav.


This whole story raises many questions.  Why did Yitzchak want to bless his son Eisav, didn't he know who he was?  If Yaakov was the holy one, why did Yitzchak  favor Eisav?  How could Yaakov have “stolen” the blessings and misled his father? There are many articles written on this subject, for example here and here.


I want to take a mystical approach, based on the above verse.  Eisav did not have to be a wicked man.  He had free choice, and was born with a mission.  He is described in the Torah as a “man of the field,” and had he chosen to fulfill his mission, he would have used his knowledge and expertise in the field to transform the world.  Yaakov naturally gravitated to higher, spiritual pursuits.  It would have been a great partnership.  Yaakov providing the spiritual inspiration and learning, and Eisav bringing that holiness to the world.


But Eisav’s drives led him the other way.  He became a thief, murderer and rapist, and instead of elevating the world to holiness he became engulfed in unholiness and darkness,  Yitzchak’s desire to give him the blessings and thus inspiring him to use them to fulfil his mission would have had the opposite effect, and Eisav would have used them to intensify the evil  So Yaakov had to step into the dual role of connecting to the spiritual and transforming the physical at the same time.


In other words, Yaakov had to dress in Eisav’s clothes in order to fulfill Eisav’s mission.  

But Yaakov never forgot who he was and what his purpose of engaging the world was.  He elevated the field to holiness.  So while his hands were the hands of Eisav, while in practice he was involved in the physical world, his voice remained the voice of Yaakov, steeped in holiness and spirituality.


This is the message to each of us.  We have a Divine soul - the Yaakov within us.  But we have a mission to transform the physical world, to go into “the field” - Eisav’s domain.  We must be involved not only in Torah study and prayer, but also in “field work” - the world of commerce and all kinds of regular activities one would not describe as holy.  The Torah teaches us to always maintain our Yaakov voice.  We may be involved in worldly activities like everyone else, but we must maintain our connection to our soul and infuse everything we do with the holiness of Torah.  


Our business must be run honestly.  Our food must be kosher.  Shabbat is a day off work, and we must use our resources for the betterment of humankind and to spread the message of G-dliness.  Rather than get caught up in the darkness of the society around us, we must bring goodness, kindness and light to our environment. We must educate our children according to the Jewish Torah way of life in observant Jewish schools.  The importance of a proper, Torah true Jewish education has been borne out in the last two years, by the unfortunate fact that so many young Jews bought into the lies and anti-Jewish sentiment of the world.) This way we will get to the point where the world itself incorporates both parts together, the field becomes a home for Hashem.

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