Parasha Tholdoth: Genesis 25:19-28:9

'Tholdot' means 'offspring,' and this parasha is all about Isaac's sons Jacob and Esau. Isaac and Rebecca married when Isaac was forty. Twenty years go by and still no children, so Isaac entreats God on behalf of Rebecca. God allows Rebecca to conceive. We find out that she has 'sons' agitating within her, which Rebecca obviously feels, because she says, 'If so, why am I thus?!' and then inquires of God. God tells her that she has two nations and two regimes in her womb, and that the elder will serve the younger. Rebecca takes this to heart, and when the boys are born she begins to groom Jacob for his destiny. Esau loves to hunt and is his father's favorite; Jacob sits in tents, is 'whole,' and is his mother's favorite. First Esau, in a moment of passionate hunger, sells his firstborn birthright, or right of inheritance, to Jacob for bread and a bowl of lentil stew. Then Rebecca schemes, with Jacob's acquiescence, to get Isaac to give Jacob the fatherly blessing. After all this, Esau is furious and swears to murder Jacob after his father's days of mourning are over. Rebecca has Jacob flee to her brother Laban's home, where the next parasha is a relatively happy one for Jacob.