Literary Devices – Bereshit 27/0

Literary Devices – Bereshit 27

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Key Words

Tanakh Lab indicates that the most frequent words in Bereshit 27 are בֵּן ,אָב, ברך and אָח, reflecting the narrative’s focus on complex family dynamics surrounding the bestowal of blessing.  

Blessing

Not surprisingly, given the focus of the chapter, the root "ברך" and noun "ברכה" together are among the most prevalent words in the chapter.¹

Family Relationships

The word "בֵּן" (son) appears 25 times, "‎אָב‎" (father)  24 times and "אָח‎" (brother) 23 times, highlighting the family relationships around which the story revolves. Interestingly, despite Rivka's masterminding the drama, the noun "אֵם" (mother) appears only five times in the narrative.  Perhaps this reflects her subtle, hidden involvement which takes place only behind the scenes.

Food

When looking at the relative usage of words here versus in the rest of Tanakh, two other words emerge as being significant:  "מַטְעַמִּים" and "צַיִד".‎² The role that food plays the giving of blessing is somewhat surprising and invites questioning. Compare how R"Y Bekhor Shor, R. Avraham b. HaRambam and R. D"Z Hoffman each understand why Yitzchak made the blessing contingent on bringing him a meal.

Wordplay

The chapter contains several examples of wordplay surrounding the names of the brothers:

• Da'at Mikra³ notes that the description of Esav as an אִישׁ שָׂעִר (Bereshit 27:11)⁴ foreshadows his possession of the land of Seir and serves as a play on words.
• Esav describes Yaakov’s deceit through a play on his name:"הֲכִי קָרָא שְׁמוֹ יַעֲקֹב וַיַּעְקְבֵנִי זֶה פַעֲמַיִם" (Bereshit 27:36).⁵  

Consecutive Verbs

When Tanakh uses several verbs in succession, it means to highlight speed and energy of action. This convention appears in 27:14 (“He went, took, and brought them for his mother”), to describe Yaakov’s alacrity in carrying out his mother’s instructions. It calls to mind the string of verbs in 25:34 with which Esav consummates the exchange of the lentil stew for the birthright.

Parallelism

Biblical parallelism refers to the literary structure in which adjacent phrases parallel each other. An example of parallelism is found in Yitzchak’s blessing of Yaakov:⁶

• וְיִתֶּן לְךָ הָאֱלֹהִים מִטַּל הַשָּׁמַיִם וּמִשְׁמַנֵּי הָאָרֶץ וְרֹב דָּגָן וְתִירֹשׁ.
• יַעַבְדוּךָ עַמִּים וְיִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְךָ לְאֻמִּים / הֱוֵה גְבִיר לְאַחֶיךָ וְיִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְךָ בְּנֵי אִמֶּךָ
• אֹרְרֶיךָ אָרוּר / וּמְבָרְכֶיךָ בָּרוּךְ

Characterization

Tanakh rarely describes a personality outright; instead, it paints character through subtle hints.

Esav

Robert Alter, in his commentary on Bereshit, points out that Rivka’s knowledge of Esav’s plot against Yaakov (27:42), despite the verses recording only his internal thoughts on the matter, indicates that he was unable to refrain from spilling his secret.  This hints to his impulsive nature.

Articles

See Robert Alter’s article Character in the Bible, as well as his chapter on characterization in The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York, 1981):114-130, for exploration of methods of characterization in Tanakh.

¹ The verb appears 17 times and the noun six times.

² The word "מטעמים" appears six times in the unit and only two more times in the rest of Tanakh making it 359 times more prevalent here than elsewhere.  The word "ציד" appears seven times, and only ten more times in the rest of Tanakh.

³ See Da'at Mikra Bereshit, ed. Y. Keel (Jerusalem, 2000),

⁴ See also the description of him at birth "כְּאַדֶּרֶת שֵׂעָר" (Bereshit 25:25).

⁵ It is interesting to consider why there is so much wordplay connected to Esav’s and Yaakov’s names, both in this chapter and in Chapter 25.

⁶ For more information about the nature of Biblical parallelism, see Dr. Mayer I. Gruber’s article The Meaning of Biblical Parallelism: A Biblical Perspective and Dr. Adele Berlin’s Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism. Other resources (not available online) are Dr. Robert Alter’s The Art of Biblical Poetry pp. 3-61, Dr. Adele Berlin’s The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism, and Dr. James Kugel’s The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History.