What's in a List of Names? The Edomite Genealogy in Genesis 36

I invite you to read Genesis 36 and, as you do, to see if any part of it speaks to you spiritually or religiously.

Did you find a spiritual or religious connection with this text?

Some rabbinic commentators, in contemplating why this chapter goes into great detail about the genealogy of Esau, not seemingly relevant to the history of the Jewish people, come to the astonishing conclusion that this chapter must contain some of the deepest Kabbalistic mysteries in the Torah. We could undertake a many-part series of classes looking at this topic, but suffice it to give the example that the first king, Bela ben Beor, is likened to Balaam (same spelling except for the letter mem), the great prophet among the Gentiles like Moses in Israel, Moses being the good da'at/knowledge and Balaam the evil da'at/knowledge, knowing the one moment when G!d is angry each day and issuing curses that are powerful as a result - hence, son of Burning. But there was a tikkun by the seventh generation, with Bela becoming Baal Chanan ben Achbor - letters of Bela/Baal rearranged, and Chanan, meaning "gracious", indicating Chesed - and Achbor having the same letters as Beor but with the addition of a kaf for Chesed. 

Here is the Kedushat Levi discussing another interpretive reading, based on wording differences between Edom leaving the land and Israel leaving the land: "Both the Ari z’al and others preceding him, ‎including Rashi, stated that holiness is also known as ‎אחת‎, ‎‎'a state of unity.' Rashi points out that when the ‎descendants of Yaakov set out on their journey to Egypt and ‎their names had been listed individually, the Torah (Genesis ‎‎46,27) concluded the list with ‎כל הנפש‎, “the sum total of the ‎soul,” (singular) when referring to this family. On the other hand, ‎when the Torah reports Esau and his family leaving the Holy Land ‎in order to settle in the region of Seir, (Genesis 36,6) Esau’s ‎descendants are referred to as ‎נפשות‎, “souls” (pl.). Such nuances ‎in the Torah reveal to us that not all souls originate in the same ‎region of the diagram portraying the emanations.‎" (Kedushat Levi, Toldot 22)

Not convinced? I'm not sure I am, either - but this raises the important question of what to do with our sacred texts. There are parts of the Torah that are very meaningful - I think of the Ten Commandments, the Thirteen Attributes, the Exodus from Egypt we celebrate at Pesach, and Ve'ahavta Le'Reacha Kamocha/You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And then there are the parts we struggle with, to find meaning in - like this chapter - like the commandment to observe yibum and chalitzah (levirate marriage and the often degrading ceremony to get out of it) - like the commandments to wipe out the nations inhabiting the land of Israel when entering in. And I'm just speaking here of the Five Books - when we expand our gaze to the Tanach, the Mishnah, the Talmud - even other works in the broader Jewish canon - we expand both the list of things we find profoundly meaningful and the list of things we recoil in horror from (or at least roll our eyes at, or that make us yawn - as perhaps this chapter does). 

Is the Torah a smorgasbord, from which we can pick and choose those dishes we like? Or is it a prie-fixe menu, where we are served what we're served and expected to eat all of it, trusting that the parts we find distasteful will nourish us in ways we cannot understand? Are there herbs and spices - also known as hermeneutics, or interpretive principles, that we can apply to the dishes, er I mean texts, to make them more palatable, to bring out flavors we might not be able to detect without them? 

What does it even mean to have a sacred text? What role does it play in our lives? In the lives of the sacred communities of which we are a part? How can a community remain a sacred beloved community connecting its members to the Divine and to one another when its members have different - sometimes radically different relationships to the text? 

To wrestle with these questions is part of what it means to be of the house of Israel, the one who wrestles with G!d.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

1. Which sections of the Torah do you eagerly await hearing each year, which make your heart sing and lift your spirit - and which sections do you dread, knowing that you find them difficult to find meaning in?

2. What is the role of sacred text in your own life? What metaphor would you use to describe that role?

3. What interpretive lens do you bring to the text? E.g., do you look for spiritual meaning? Religious commands? Expressions of Jewish peoplehood? Psychological insights? Modern scholarship? Midrash? Artistic inspiration?

4. Everyone has a letter in the Torah - do you know what yours is and why? What Torah in the broader sense do you have to add to the Torah of the Jewish people?

These are the notes, lightly revised, I used in teaching Genesis 36 in the 929 class at the South Philadelphia Shtiebel in March, 2022.