Parasha From a Poets Perspective: Parashas Toldos - Voice of Yaakov

In this weeks Parasha we learn about the birth and personalities of Yaakov and Esav. We learn about how Esav was a man good at trapping and the commentators say this refers to his actual trapping of the animals when he would hunt in the fields as well as the way he would fool his father with his words, by asking such ridiculous question to "trap" his father, Yitzchak Avinu and make him think Esav was a righteous man, when in fact he was a wicked one.

Quite possibly for the majority of people this Parasha talks about how Yaakov received the blessings from Yitzchak. Yitzchak was intending to give it to Esav, however, G-d arranged it so that Yaakov trick his father and rightfully receive them for himself, as G-d wanted. We know that the verse says about Esav, that was a hairy man, hence why Yaakov dresses in the hairy coat of Esav, in order to make his father think he was blessing Esav but in reality he is not. He is blessing Yaakov instead.

In this passage or part of the Parasha we read the famed line Yitzchak Avinu states "The voice is the voice of Yaakov, yet the hands are the hands of Esav." According to the story we know what this verse literally means, however for the sake of the poem, I wish to offer the novel interpretation which I developed as the baseline for this piece.

Sometimes, we have very strong desires to do something we know we should not. We have the desire to use our hands like "the hands of Esav," for wrong, sinful acts. We know its wrong, yet we cannot fight these crushing urges and we sometimes stumble and sin. Then we feel bad and berate ourselves and damage our self-worth with words of disgust and shame.

On some occasions however, we are able to fight off these desires and one way we do so, is through prayer. We pray to Hashem to remove the thoughts of evil, sinfulness and hurt, as we use our voice, not for evil like Esav, but "like the voice of Yaakov" who spoke with respect, honor and cleanly. We pray to Hashem in a desperate plea for help, with the melody of prayer, with the spirit of Yaakov Avinu's voice within us, and beg him to guide us away from the harms of sin.

So hence, the voice of Yaakov, our voice of justice, reason and moral goodness has emerged victorious against the evil, schemes of the hands of Esav.

That is what the poem for the Parasha of Toldos is about. I hope you enjoy it. Please, if you wish to follow along with the recording, find it here.

Have a glorious week ahead,

Your friend,

Yitzy Schweitzer

Parasha From a Poets Perspective: Parashas Toldos - Voice of Yaakov

We always try to do the right thing in life,
But sometimes we have the urge to do that which is wrong,
In our minds we know, we should not follow this harmful path,
But against our better judgement, that desire is too strong.

Sometimes, it’s true we stumble,
But within our hearts we know we must do what is right and correct,
The strength of our evil inclination, has overpowered us,
Sent forth our hands to perform an act we will certainly regret.

But sometimes, even when the desire is so strong,
We manage with great strength to overcome this crushing weight,
Instead of using our hands for evil, we raise them to the heavens,
Instead of using our words to berate ourselves, we use them to pray.

We ask Hashem to remove our evil thoughts,
To remove the hand of Esav from upon us, from within our midst,
We beg, we pray, we hope, to use our voice like the voice of Yaakov,
In song, in praise, in thanks, not in anger, hate and malice.

When the hand of evil becomes oh, so strong,
When Esav’s hand seems to be waiting to sin,
We must remember what Yitzchak Avinu, our forefather Yitzchak said,
When he gave Yaakov his deserved, heavenly blessings.

For he said, the voice is the voice of Yaakov, yet the hands are the hands of Esav
To teach us a lesson so beautiful and profound,
When Esav’s desire for evil grabs our hands, and threatens to overwhelm us,
We must not give in to his hate, we must stand tall and proud.

For we know if we would do wrong, we would only hurt ourselves,
Then, we would berate ourselves and damage our self-worth,
We must use our own inner voice of Yaakov, our voice of reason and goodness,
To silence the evil thoughts and in victory we must emerge.

Esav’s hands are those for evil and hatred,
Yaakov’s voice is sweet, honest and speaks words of the Eternal truth,
His voice is our true voice, when we pray for help, his voice joins with ours,
For yes, a little note of Yaakov’s voice, lives within each one of us, me and you.