Friday: The Use of Trickery

Am I the only one here who cannot conciliate the trickery of Rebecca and her son? I still feel something was wrong and Esau was ripped off. Reply

I think that maybe Issac was telling Esau that Jacob was acting just like him; not taking the proper route to secure a blessing. The brothers had much in common. Labeling deceitfulness as mere trickery (for a good purpose), or worse yet, as cleverness, is sending a very mixed message. A lot of people could take this as permission to not be honest. Elsewhere in Torah it says to be straightforward and honest, etc. I think that message should also be included in this writing. Reply

As the Zohar teaches us "Conciousness is everything " Jacob had the Conciousness of Hashem in not only his thoughts, but speech & action and also with the wisdom & blessing of his Mother he fulfilled his divine mission in obtaining the blessing. The inner dimension (Kabbalistic aspect) of this story is far more profound than the literal level of it. Reply

Here’s a thought, perhaps Esau was not attentive to the family business, he wanted to go hunting , to see what is over the next hill, and not tend to chores.
Where Jacob was interested in the family business and stayed close to learn and do all things necessary, Esau was caught by his ego, his arrogance, the “ I will do what I want” rather than what must be done humbly , the life style of herdsmen “ranching” is filled with work from sun up to dark, not much time to hunt.
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I, too, have struggled with the concept of 'trickery' and deception to attain one's goals. Ultimately, I tend to think it is a matter of good triumphing over evil. In order to be triumphant, one must use similar, perhaps better, tactics to achieve such. To good hearted, G-dly persons, this is often a challenge and creates inner conflict. Perhaps this is why Rivka was the catalyst to aiding Yakov into taking his brother's place, for she knew that Yakov would be the better leader. I agree with her. I also believe Yitzhak may have openly known what was going on, and covered for Rivka and Yakov, whom he loved dearly. It is sometimes easier to deceive the deceptor (Esau) than to admit otherwise. The choices were made, and I believe Yitzhak and Rivka chose wisely. Elders are Blessed with wisdom and experience to guide them. They had the wherewithall to look out for the world's best interests. G-d gave them wisdom, and His Blessings. I am sure HaShem knew what would happen. בייה Reply

Being blessed I struggle with the idea that Jacob’s trickery is actually a lesson for hiding true intention. Jacob stole his father’s blessing, and this blessing was intrinsically linked with receiving a blessing from G-d. (I believe there was an earlier Chabad daily lesson that touched on the extensive heavenly process that involves angels and deals with blessings.) Later, when Jacob ran away, he had to ‘wrestle’ an angel for a blessing. I think he wrestled for that same blessing that he stole. Perhaps the ‘wrestling’ was a philosophical argument to justify his actions? Perhaps Jacob argued that Esau’s exit from the womb wasn’t fair? Or that his intent with the blessing was to honor G-d, whereas Esau’s intent may have been different? Whatever his argument (or ‘wrestle’) was about, he persuaded the angel to bless him. Perhaps the lesson in this story is more about where the blessing truly comes from? You cannot steal a blessing, or fool someone to get it. A person is blessed if G-d allows it. Reply

I agree with Mr. Fishbain's perspective. Associating cleverness with what is trickery in this case, is unbecoming of the definition of wisdom. This was trickery and there is nothing clever about trickery. Anyone can use trickery. The issue is which moral person and especially of faith would use trickery for his or her means? Trickery is exactly that, tricking another and it is immoral. Reply

You call betrayal of your father (a patriarch of our people) and coached by your mother no matter for what reason “cleverness”? A patriarch like Isaac, who was blessed with divine wisdom would see the wisdom when discussed in honesty with him why it should be Jacob! Reply

To me the story about Esau and Jacob does sound like trickery, however, I do agree that Jacob was the more able minded son to handle the blessings that his father Isaac was going to bestow upon. Jacob’s body, mind and spirit was centered around matters of G d first and foremost and Esau’s mind, body and spirit was mainly centered around taking care of feeding his body and not so much his mind and spirit. Reply

I appreciate the viewpoint expressed here, but cannot accept that duplicity and consciously misleading someone-even for a Holy purpose- is the correct behavior one should exhibit.
I would have expected a more honest or honorable way for Jacob to receive the blessing he 'needed'. Reply

After how many thousands of years? I think this is one of the teachings by which people just hate Jews. Because after thousands of years they carry on thinking that to trick others when in business it is not only permissible but denotes cleverness and is a duty. Reply

It just sounds like making excuses for deviousness to me! Reply