.ותלד לו את זמרן, she raised them in his house, similar to the “five sons of Michal” who raised the children of her sister Merav who had died at an early age, and had born those to Adriel (compare Samuel II 21,8) Michal had no children of her own at all. Although Avraham had personally only sired Ishmael and Yitzchok, he had adopted these children as seems clear from Chronicles I 28, and 32.

Avraham gave gifts. He did not wish to rely on a will, so he distributed his property while he was alive.

בעודנו חי, while he had still been alive, as he did not want to rely on written instructions to be carried out after his death.

ושבע; he had achieved all he had set out to achieve and had wished for.

ויאסף אל עמיו, he was attached to the bundle of souls who are part of the life after death, all of whom the righteous of the various generations who were like him in lifestyle, [as in those regions biological relationships are irrelevant, and the term “his people” is applied to other common denominators than on earth. Ed.] The reason why the Torah employs the term עמיו his peoples” in the plural is that there are all kinds of different spiritual levels among the righteous souls, not all attained the same level of righteousness while on earth although all of them share the experience of enjoying eternal life. (compare statements in Baba Batra 75 on that subject.)

ואלה תולדת יצחק, his biography and his descendants.

אברהם הוליד את יצחק, only Yitzchok is truly called Avraham’s seed.

אחות לבן הארמי, and from her emerged Esau who was similar in character to the brother of his mother.

לנכח אשתו, even though he had been given an assurance from G’d that he would produce seed, he prayed to G’d that the mother of this child or children should be someone who was meritorious, someone of the calibre of Rivkah who was present and standing opposite him..

ותאמר אם כן, after it is a fact that these fetuses already are at each other’s throats I have reason to be afraid that one of them will die so that I endanger myself by giving birth to them, causing one of them to be stillborn.

למה זה אנכי, why were my relatives so concerned that it would be I who provide the seed for Yitzchok when they said את היי לאלפי רבבה, “may it be you who will be the source of millions.” (24,60) Also, why did my husband insist that I become the mother of his children?

שני גוים בבטנך, this is the reason for the quarrelling you experience inside your womb.

ושני לאמים, they will also be politically different from one another, being separate kingdoms.

ממעיך יפרדו, they will go their different ways after being born, neither of them will die at birth as you fear.

והנה תומים בבטנה, before they were born, the onlookers already realised that there were twins in her womb. Therefore, when the first one emerged being completely covered with hair, this was a birth which was presumed to be more difficult than the passage of Yaakov whose skin was smooth and did not cause friction with the lining of the womb, they called the first one עשו, attributing his easy passage to his twin brother who had helped push him out of the womb of his mother. [I believe that the author understands the plural ending in עשו, as equivalent to assu, i.e. the result of a combined effort by both him and his brother.]

ויקרא שמו יעקב. The word means he will remain at the heel, and the tail-end. This is based on the future mode of the word יעקב. Our sages (quoted by Rashi) say that the subject in our verse is G’d Who named Esau’s brother Yaakov, the reason for the unusual formulation being that after the destruction of the Kingdom of Edom and other nations, successor of Esau, only Yaakov and his descendants will remain. Our sages base all this on Jeremiah 46,28 אעשה כלה בכל הגויים...ואותך לא אעשה כלה, “I will make an end of all nations…but I will not make an end of you.”

איש שדה, an expert farmer.

יושב אהלים, the plural mode indicates that the Torah speaks of two distinctly different kinds of tents; one is the tent used by shepherds, the other the tent described as בל-יצען described in Isaiah 33,20, (a reference to Jerusalem or the Temple). The function of that “tent” is to help people come closer to G’d and to gain insight into His ways and as a result to become holy, inspired by His glory.

ויאהב יצחק את עשו, also Esau, not only Yaakov, even though he must have been aware that Esau was far less perfect than Yaakov.

ורבקה אוהבת את יעקב, she only loved Yaakov, recognising the wickedness of Esau.

על כן קרא שמו אדום. When he saw that Esau was so totally absorbed in his futile occupation, an occupation which does not represent the task of man on earth, that he could not even identify the lentils by their name but referred to them only by their colour, he called him by that name himself, i.e. אדום, in the imperative, meaning “paint yourself red by swallowing the red dish!”

מכרה כיום, seeing that as of now all your interests are focused on your work so that you are so tired that you cannot even recognise a dish of lentils for what it is, there is no question that you would not have the time or energy to perform the duties involved in the obligations associated with being a firstborn

הולך למות, through the excessive fatigue and exertion associated with my vocation.

השבעה לי, seeing that the purchase under discussion was something abstract, the oath would replace the act of physically taking possession of the object purchased and moving it.

וימכור את בכורתו, in accordance with the price they had mutually agreed upon. The Torah did not bother to spell out the exact sum.

ויעקב נתן לעשו, he had used the lentils or the dish containing them as the קנין חליפין, a token used to serve as symbol of the transfer of ownership of the object constituting the one being sold. Compare Ruth 4,7 where a shoe is mentioned as serving as such a token.

Eisov scorned the birthright. Even after the sale he did not consider the birthright to be worth the money he received for it. Therefore it is not correct to say that he was cheated.