Bar-Ilan University
Parshat Hashavua Study Center
Parshat Toldot 5775/November 22, 2014
This series of faculty lectures on the weekly Parsha is made possible by the Department of Basic Jewish
Studies, the Paul and Helene Shulman Basic Jewish Studies Center, the Office of the Campus Rabbi,
Bar-Ilan University's International Center for Jewish Identity and the Computer Center Staff at Bar-Ilan
University. For inquiries, please contact Avi Woolf at: opdycke1861@yahoo.com.
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"Bread and lentil stew"—Le-Hayyim or Payment?
By Ron S. Kleinman*
Once, when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open,
famished. And Esau said to Jacob, "Give me some of that red stuff to gulp
down, for I am famished"—which is why he was named Edom [play on Heb.
adom = red]. Jacob said, "First [lit. "this day"] sell me your birthright." And
Esau said, "I am at the point of death, so of what use is my birthright to
me?" But Jacob said, "Swear to me this day." So he swore to him, and sold
his birthright to Jacob. Jacob then gave Esau bread and lentil stew; he ate
and drank, and he rose and went away. Thus did Esau spurn the birthright.
(Gen. 25:29-34)
*
Rabbi Professor Kleinman teaches Jewish Law and Tortes at the Law Faculty of Ono Academic
College and serves as Chairman of the Israeli Committee of the Jewish Law Association.
1
Rashbam and other French Rabbis on this passage
According to the plain sense, "bread and lentil stew" were given in exchange for the
birthright, as indeed several exegetes interpreted (e.g., Ibn Ezra and Radak). Rashbam,
however, read the text differently (loc. cit., Lokshin ed., par. 31, 33):
Sell me this day—i.e., forthwith…for money that I will give you, and then I
will give you the food as testimony of feasance, as in Genesis 31:46—"they
partook of a meal there by the mound"—to seal the covenant made
between Laban and Jacob.
And sold his birthright—for money. Afterwards, "Jacob gave Esau" etc., as is
the practice of people when confirming something.
In two respects Rashbam departed from the plain sense of Scripture:
A. According to him, the remuneration for the birthright was not "bread and lentil stew,"
but money. However, as mentioned, the Scriptural text implies that the birthright was not
bought for money, rather as a barter transaction: Esau sold his birthright, and "Jacob gave
Esau" in return "bread and lentil stew."1
B. According to his interpretation, giving bread and stew was not in lieu of the birthright, as
the plain sense implies, rather it was intended as "testimony" of "feasance" of the sale of the
birthright, that is, as confirmation of the transaction.2
Rashbam's remarks imply reference to a custom practiced by merchants in his time (11th-12th
century France)—"as is the practice of people when confirming something." Other biblical
exegetes, living in France and Provence in the 12th-13th centuries also interpreted, apparently
in the wake of Rashbam, that Esau's eating was intended as confirmation of the purchase. It
follows from their remarks, as from Rashbam's, that this interpretation reflects the practice
of merchants in their day to close a deal with a meal that included an alcoholic beverage
(drinking "le-hayyim").
1
Another difficulty with Rashbam's interpretation is that it requires a detail which does not appear in
the Torah: money being given to Esau. Perhaps Rashbam thought it self-evident that selling ("and he
sold his birth-right") is for money, and therefore the Torah did not bother to mention this.
2
Also Rashbam's example of eating "on the mound" is not analogous to the case at hand, for there
both sides ate together, whereas here only Esau is presented as eating. (I wish to thank Amos Frisch
for calling my attention to this detail.)
2
The author of Pe`aneah Raza (late 13th-century France), for example, interpreted: "Jacob
then gave Esau, etc.—in order to confirm the transaction, as it is said in the vernacular
[German], Leinkauf; but for the purchase itself he gave him a large sum of money."3 The text
is interpreted similarly by Radak's father,4 Rabbi Joseph Kimhi (12th-century Provence),
Hizkuni (Rabbi Hezekaiah b. Rabbi Manoah, 13th-century Provence)5 and other French
commentators.
From Pe`aneah Raza's mention of Leinkauf we learn that this commercial practice was
followed not only in France and Provence but also in 13th-century Germany. From historical
German dictionaries, as well as Jewish sources, we see that German had three words for the
practice of sealing a deal by drinking a toast: Weinkauf, Leinkauf and Leikauf, and that all
these words meant: sale by drinking of wine.6
Rabbi Joseph Bekhor Shor (one of the tosafists, disciple of Rabbenu Tam, 12th-century
France), as well, was acquainted with the interpretation of Rashbam and other French rabbis
but strenuously opposed it, apparently because it deviated from the plain sense of the text:
"Some interpreters say Jacob bought the birthright for money and that the food was the
feast for the sale, known as Beuverie, but in my eyes this is a fiction."7 An historical French
dictionary defines Beuverie as drinking wine to the point of intoxication at a meeting of
friends. The word is old French, dating back to the 12th century.8 Note that 12th-century
France precisely matches the time and place of Rabbi Joseph Bekhor Shor.
3
Pe`aneah Raza (attributed to Rabbi Isaac b. Rabbi Judah Ha-Levy, among the authors of Tosafot
Shanz), Gen. 25:34, citing Maharar Moshe.
4
Radak, loc. cit., citing his father: "for both of them would eat to mark conclusion of the sale." As we
have said, Radak himself did not interpret it this way.
5
Hizkuni, Chavelle ed., loc. cit.: "In testimony of closing the sale, as is the practice of all who make a
purchase."
6
Cf. Ron S. Kleinman, "Weinkauf—Perek be-Toledot Minhagei ha-Soharim bi-Yemei ha-Beinayim:
Halakhah, Re'alia ve-Historia," Dinei Yisrael 22 (2004), pp. 221-240; ibid., Darkhei Kinyan u-Minhagei
Mis'har ba-Mishpat ha-Ivri: Mishpat, Re'alia ve-Historia, Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University, 2013, pp.
173-176.
7
Perushei Rabbi Yosef Bekhor Shor `al ha-Torah, Nevo ed., Genesis 25:34.
8
Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris, 1976, Vol. I, p. 423.
3
A possible explanation why the French commentators deviated from the plain sense
Biblical commentators reflect their surroundings. It is only natural for commentators to read
the Torah through the eyes of their time and place, and for their commentaries to reflect the
practices of merchants in their environment. This, however, does not provide sufficient
answer to the question why in the case at hand Rashbam and other commentators departed
from the plain sense of the text and did not take "bread and lentil stew" to be payment for
the birthright.
An answer to this question has been proposed by several rabbis who related to Rashbam's
commentary. For example, Eleazar Touitou wrote that Rashbam and Rabbi Y. Bekhor-Shor
had a greater tendency than did Rashi to note that their interpretation is in "response to the
minim [unbelievers],"9 meaning was written in the context of Jewish-Christian polemics.
However, "close textual analysis shows that even more interpretations of the text than those
explicitly noted as being 'in response to the un-believer' were written as a contribution to
the Jewish-Christian polemic. More than a few polemical interpretations have been set
forth, even when not explicitly noted as such." This can be seen from examining the
contents of the commentaries.10
In Touitou's opinion, also the interpretation that Jacob paid Esau for the birthright in money
and not just a lentil stew served as a response to the Christians,11 as clearly implied by the
testimony of Rabbi Joseph b. Rabbi Nathan Official (mid-13th-century France) in his work,
Sefer Yosef ha-Mekaneh:
A Dominican monk found Rabbi Joseph on the road to Paris, and said to him:
Your forefather Jacob was a thief, and there is no usurer like him; for in
exchange for a single bowl of food worth half [a coin] he bought the
birthright, worth a thousand zekukim.
9
For example, Rashbam, Ex. 3:22; 20:13; Lev. 11:34, Deut. 22:6.
10
Eleazar Touitou, "Hafshatot ha-Mit'hadshim be-khol Yom": Iyyunim be-Ferusho shel Rashbam la-
Torah, Ramat-Gan: Bar Ilan University, 2003, pp. 44-45.
11
Also D. Rozin writes in his edition of Rashbam's commentary (Jerusalem, 1970, p. 28, note 12) that
Rashbam interpreted the text thus in order "to silence the unbelievers' criticism of Jacob regarding
this sale."
4
He answered him… that Jacob said: "Sell me your birthright this day…this
day, meaning for what it is worth today…and I will pay you (in accordance
with) the interest it carries." "So he sold his birthright to Jacob" [Gen. 25:33)
calculated monetarily. "And Jacob gave Esau bread…" [Gen. 25:34]. It does
not say he sold his birthright to Jacob for bread and lentil stew, rather
"Jacob gave to Esau," gave him gratis, in addition to the money of the
transaction, in token of the sale, as is still the practice of merchants today.12
We should add to Touitou's remarks that several biblical exegetes, following the Sages,
viewed Esau as the father of Christianity.13 Selling the birthright to Jacob thus confirmed the
preferential status of Judaism over Christianity, and hence it is clear why in the religious
polemic between these faiths the commenters wished to show that this sale involved no
exploitation of Esau's hardship.
Several later commentators, as well, were troubled by the possibility that the description of
the sale of the birthright might be interpreted as taking advantage of Esau's hardship in
order to buy the birthright from him in exchange for a lentil stew, and attempted to cope
with this problem.14
In conclusion, according to the plain sense of Scripture, the "bread and lentil stew" were
payment for the birthright, but according to the reading of several rabbis from France and
Provence, first and foremost Rashbam, the birthright was purchased for money, while
"bread and lentil stew" were the feast marking the sale, its function being to seal the deal
and confirm it, as was the custom of merchants in medieval Provence, France, and Germany.
We suggested, in the name of several rabbis, that this interpretation was designed to serve
the needs of the Jewish-Christian polemic.
Translated by Rachel Rowen
12
Yosef ha-Mekaneh, Y. Rosenthal ed., Jerusalem 1970, p. 40 (cited in Touitou, note 10 above). See
the introduction, loc. cit., pp. 15-20, for dating of this work.
13
For example, Rashi, Gen. 25:23: "Two nations are in your womb—these were Anthony and Rabbi";
Gen. 27:39 (in the blessing given Esau): "The fatness of the earth—this refers to the Greek portions of
Italy (Graeca Magna)."
14
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Gen. 25:34; Ha-Ktav ve-ha-Kabbalah, loc. cit., 31.
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