The Alchemy of Perfection

And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb.” Rav Judah noted, quoting his teacher Rav, the word is not nations (goyim) but overwhelming powerful leaders (gayim).1


In the aftermath of the Great Flood, the few survivors began to venture out and repopulate the world. Essentially, they were no different than the first dyad of the universe, Adam and Eve. Noah and his family were the new founders of the human race. The world needed to be re-seeded and this time goodness must prevail over evil.

However, there were differences between this first family and Adam and Eve. The Garden was gone. Expelled from a world of perfection, Noah and family had only a dim memory of that place. For them Eden was only a distant story. Also now present in the world were consequences of actions. The world was obliterated because of its propensity towards evil. Cain was marked and shunned because of his vicious act of murder. And the final and ultimate change in the universe was the proximity of God to His children. Gone were the days of the close watchful eye of the Shechina over the world. God was more distant.

While the unfolding story of Genesis sounds bleak (after all, if people failed the test of Eden, what chance does humanity have?) there is a subtext, a quiet almost unnoticeable tale, being woven between the pages of the holy Torah. This subtext first makes its first appearance at the conclusion of the story of Noah. There, our attention is gently directed to one of the sons of Noah, Shem. In chapter ten, the wording describing his life is significant. Firstly, the line of Shem is motioned twice. Secondly, the words used to describe Shem and his lineage arrests the searching mind. There is something here.

Shem, together with his great-grandson Ever, began to look at the universe differently than anyone had seen it before. They studied. They argued. Shem and Ever founded an Academy, a Yeshiva, where Torah became the key Text. Torah? Where is the Torah? Of course, Mt. Sinai had not happened! How could there a Torah to study?

It had always been waiting to be discovered. The implicit Torah is first revealed in the early chapters of Genesis when God differentiates two types of animals on the Ark, pure and impure. More is revealed when the Holy One gives seven commandments to the fledgling civilization, survivors of the Flood. 2 Piecing these fragments together, Shem and Ever began to realize that not only was there a God but a design as well. How could it be otherwise? they reasoned. Every idea starts with a sketch. Every building needs a plan as well as an architect. Torah is the blueprint of the world, the underpinning of all that exists.

Quietly they spent their time in Canaan studying Torah and developing a deep understanding as men of God. They invited students into the universe of the Divine. Bringing them great light, Shem and Ever coursed an unerring path to God. While the Yeshiva of Shem and Ever continued its process of deliberate and careful study, Abraham began to discern the meaning of God in distant Babylonia.

As Abraham traveled, he opened his tents with a dual purpose. His generosity of spirit compelled the patriarch toward tzedaka. The Midrash tells his tent was open from all fours sides so that Abraham could spot a traveler from a long distance from any direction. He would then rush to invite them to his home. Simultaneously, the Patriarch had another purpose in mind. Abraham would take the opportunity to educate the idolatrous masses. Abraham used his considerable wisdom to teach the people of the land the meaning and purpose of life. Revealing to his visitors the breadth of a universe with God as its Creator, Abraham opened eyes and unblocked souls wherever he drove his tent pegs into the earth. That is why the Torah mentions that when it was time to leave for Canaan Abraham and Sarah took “all the souls they had made in Haran.” 3

Time brought new life and different responsibilities. With the birth of his son, Isaac, Abraham began to educate his offspring by example. He taught him how to behave, what to do and how to find God. It was not enough, though. A father can do only so much. Even Abraham.

Isaac was thirty-seven years old. Sarah became acutely aware of the great need for their son to learn more Torah. Abraham and Sarah both saw their limitations; it was time send Isaac away. The experience of learning from his peers would also be invaluable for him. They sent Isaac to study at the famous Yeshiva of Shem and Ever. There he rifled through the ancient tomes and refined his character for many years.

Shem, old and wizened, personally taught Isaac having seen in his eyes vast depths. New avenues of the mystic realm were opened up before Isaac. Everything he was taught he kept. Each morsel of knowledge was held fast. An illui, one of the luminaries, Isaac embraced and seemed to almost intuit everything he was taught. The Holy One Himself was moved to bless Isaac. 4 Finally, the son returned home from his studies.
As with all people since the time of Adam, Abraham passed from this plane of the universe. He was mourned by his many students and family. Interred in the resting place he had purchased for Sarah, Shem and Ever came to present the eulogy for Father Abraham. They quietly intoned, “Woe to the generation that has lost its captain.” 5

The wheel revolves: Death was overshadowed by the joy of new life. Isaac bound himself to a woman, Rivkeh. Rivkeh became pregnant. Yet the carrying did not go as it ought to have gone. It was wrong. Terrifying clashes inside of Rivkeh made her shake and fear. Time would not pass quickly enough as every moment caused Rivkeh to suffer. “If this is how it is, how can I go on?” she cried. Remembering what she had heard from her husband countless times before, Rivkeh went to “inquire of God.” Where would she go to find the answers she needed but to the Yeshiva of Shem and Ever? A renowned prophet, Shem would direct Rivkeh. He would tell her what to do. 6

She told the venerable tzaddik, ‘On the way here I passed an idolatrous temple and one of my children pushed hard to make his way through the birth canal. Now that I am here in your Yeshiva the other is moving to come out!’

Shem nodded. He then deciphered the internal agony of Rivkeh: “Two nations are in your womb.”

Isaac was not Abraham. Abraham had hundreds of students throughout his long life. Isaac had only one: Jacob. 7 When Shem pronounced the prophecy over Rivkeh’s feuding unborn children that one would be good and the other evil, Isaac patiently waited watched and listened. Jacob became the sole focus of his father because Isaac had learned something invaluable in his long years of study at the Yeshiva.

Isaac was not Abraham. The old Patriarch was expansive. Abraham reached out toward everyone. He was intent on turning the world toward goodness. He was a powerful force for monotheism. Abraham used all his energy to change the world. Isaac knew it was folly. Redemption begins with only one, he thought. The birth of twins was no accident. It was a deliberate separation of the tangled and confused mass of Cain and Abel, Abraham and Lot, and now Jacob and Esau. The intertwining of good and evil must be broken, Isaac believed. First, I must weed out the dangerous, most invidious side of humanity. In Jacob, will be found all that is good, noble and right. He will forever be the righteous warrior against the forces of evil in the world.

And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb.” Rav Judah noted, quoting his teacher Rav, the word is not nations (goyim) but overwhelming powerful leaders (gayim).





1 Avodah Zarah 11a
2 Genesis 9:1-17
3 Genesis 12:5
4 Genesis 25:11
5 Baba Batra 5
6 Rashi
7 Rambam, Avodah Zarah Rambam 1:2