Parasha Toledot (תולדות) — Bereshit 25:19 – 28:9. Read on Shabbat, November 14, 2026.
Summary of Parasha Toledot
Yitzchak marries Rivkah at the age of forty. Rivkah is barren; Yitzchak prays for her, and she conceives twins who struggle within her. Rivkah goes to inquire of G-d, who tells her that two nations are in her womb and that the elder will serve the younger. Esav is born first, ruddy and hairy, and then Yaakov, holding on to his brother’s heel. Esav becomes a hunter, a man of the field; Yaakov, a man of integrity who dwells in tents. Returning exhausted from the field, Esav sells his birthright to Yaakov for a dish of lentils. During a famine, G-d commands Yitzchak not to go down to Egypt and reaffirms to him the promise made to Avraham. In Gerar, Yitzchak presents Rivkah as his sister; Avimelech discovers the truth. Yitzchak sows and prospers; he re-digs the wells of Avraham that the Philistines had stopped up, then digs new ones, whose names recall the quarrels and the reconciliation. Avimelech makes a covenant with him. Grown old and blind, Yitzchak asks Esav to bring him game so that he may bless him. Rivkah arranges for Yaakov, in disguise, to receive the blessing in his place. Esav, on his return, obtains a different blessing and plots to kill his brother. On Rivkah’s advice, Yaakov is sent to Lavan to find a wife there, and Yitzchak blesses him with the blessing of Avraham.
The Themes
- Two brothers, two paths
- The birthright
- Yitzchak’s blessing
Rav Raphaël Benizri’s Lectures on Toledot
Study booklets for each lecture: questions for the Shabbat table
A Question for the Shabbat Table
Two children from the same family can be very different: how can each one find his own path?
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Summary by the Pensées Juives editorial team. The Rav’s teachings are found in his lectures, linked above.