{"id":3734,"date":"2012-11-16T11:17:31","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T17:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=3734"},"modified":"2012-11-16T11:18:12","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T17:18:12","slug":"thats-gotta-hurt-toledot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/thats-gotta-hurt-toledot\/","title":{"rendered":"That&#8217;s Gotta Hurt: TOLEDOT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RABBI DAVID POLSKY, Congregation Anshe Sfard<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2498\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Polsky_David.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2498\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2498 lazyload\" title=\"Polsky_David\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Polsky_David-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2498\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2498\" title=\"Polsky_David\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Polsky_David-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2498\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The new spiritual leader of Congregation Anshe S&#39;Fard, Rabbi David Polsky<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>One of the highlights of parashat Toledot is Jacob\u2019s theft of Esau\u2019s blessings and birthright. Most traditional interpreters justify Jacob\u2019s deeds as being necessary. Such readings of Jacob\u2019s deception have led us to laugh at or ignore Esau\u2019s emotional distress when discovering that his blessings were seized from him (<em>Genesis 27:34<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>One Midrash, however, takes Esau\u2019s cries seriously, arguing that Jacob\u2019s descendents were punished for causing Esau to cry out. Such retribution comes in the form of Haman, who, in the rabbinic imagination, is a descendent of Esau. The Midrash makes this argument by noticing the linguistic parallels between Esau\u2019s cries and those of Mordechai after discovering Ahasuerus\u2019 decree regarding the Jews: \u201cJacob caused Esau to cry out, as it is written, \u2018and he cried with a great and bitter cry.\u2019 When was he repaid for it? At Shushan the capital, as it is written, \u2018and he cried with a great and bitter cry\u2019 (Esther 4:1).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The implications of the midrash are clear. No matter how warranted Jacob\u2019s actions were, he must still be punished for causing emotional pain to someone else. Even when we have no choice but to cause others physical or emotional pain, we ignore their suffering at our own risk.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"That%27s%20Gotta%20Hurt%3A%20TOLEDOT\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[172,8790,8795,8788,560,591,1233,859],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3734"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3741,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions\/3741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}