A Baker's Dozen: Amalek's birth

(20) As for Ishmael, I have heeded you. I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and exceedingly numerous. He shall be the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation.

I have already alluded to the fact that Avraham Avinu gave an inheritance to the Powers of Impurity, to these twelve princes, from the Right Side. Corresponding to them are the twelve diagonal edges from the Side of Purity, alluding to the twelve sons of Yaakov.

So Esau went to Ishmael and took to wife, in addition to the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, sister of Nebaioth.

(2) Esau took his wives from among the Canaanite women—Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah daughter of Zibeon the Hivite— (3) and also Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

"Esau realized that the Canaanite women displeased his father Isaac, so Esav went to Yishmael" (Breishit 28:8-9). R. Yehoshua ben Levi said, it was his intent to convert. [That's why his new wife had the name] Mahalat, that ha-Shem would expunge [mahal] all his sins. [That's why his new wife had the second name] Basmat, that his intention would have the fragrance of sweet spices [basma].

(1) For the leader; on [the instrument called] mahalath. A maskil of David.

(9) This, then, is the line of Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites, in the hill country of Seir. (10)

These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau’s wife Adah; Reuel, the son of Esau’s wife Basemath. (11) The sons of Eliphaz were Teman[1], Omar[2], Zepho[3], Gatam[4], and Kenaz[5]. (12) Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz; she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. Those were the descendants of Esau’s wife Adah [aka Basemath].

(13) And these were the sons of Reuel: Nahath[7], Zerah[8], Shammah[9], and Mizzah[10]. Those were the descendants of Esau’s wife Basemath [aka Mahalat].

(14) And these were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah [aka Yehudit], daughter of Anah daughter of Zibeon: she bore to Esau Jeush[11], Jalam[12], and Korah[6] [the product of an incestuous union between Yehudit and Eliphaz].

(15) These are the clans of the children of Esau. The descendants of Esau’s first-born Eliphaz: the clans Teman[1], Omar[2], Zepho[3], Kenaz[5], (16) Korah[6], Gatam[4], and Amalek[13]; these are the clans of Eliphaz in the land of Edom. Those are the descendants of Adah [Basemath].

(17) And these are the descendants of Esau’s son Reuel: the clans Nahath[7], Zerah[8], Shammah[9], and Mizzah[10]; these are the clans of Reuel in the land of Edom. Those are the descendants of Esau’s wife Basemath [Mahalat].

(18) And these are the descendants of Esau’s wife Oholibamah [Yehudit]: the clans Jeush[11], Jalam[12], and Korah[6]; these are the clans of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.

(1) And God remembered Rachel (Gen. 30:22). May our master teach us whether a man may recite the prayer “May it be Your will that my wife give birth to a son” if she is already pregnant. Our masters teach us: The man who prays “May it be Your will that my wife give birth to a son” when she has already conceived is uttering a vain prayer (and is taking the Lord’s name in vain).

(2) R. Huna, however, maintained in the name of R. Yosé: Though we have been taught that the husband of a pregnant woman who prays “May it be Thy will that my wife bear a son” is uttering a vain prayer, this is not so. In fact, he may pray for the birth of a son even as she commences labor, for it is not difficult for the Holy One, blessed be He, to convert females into males and males into females. He quoted a verse from Jeremiah to support this statement: Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was at his work on the wheels. And whensoever the vessel he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it (Jer. 18:3–4). And did not the Holy One, blessed be He, say to Jeremiah: O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? (ibid., v. 6).

(3) You find that this happened to Leah. After she had given birth to six sons, she foresaw in a dream that Jacob would ultimately have twelve sons. Since she had already given birth to six sons, and was pregnant with her seventh child, and the two handmaidens had each borne two sons, making ten sons in all, Leah arose and pleaded with the Holy One, saying: Master of the Universe, twelve tribes are to descend from Jacob, and since I have already given birth to six sons, and am pregnant with a seventh child, and each of the handmaidens has born two sons, which accounts for ten sons, if the child within me is a male, my sister will not bear even as many sons as the handmaidens. The Holy One, blessed be He, hearkened to her prayer and converted the fetus in her womb into a female, as it is said: And afterwards she bore a daughter and called her Dinah (Gen. 30:21). The masculine form of afterwards is written in this verse, and not the feminine form (thus signifying that the fetus was originally that of a male child).

"Leah said, 'God has given me a choice gift; this time my husband will exalt me, for I have borne him six sons.' So she named him Zebulun" (Breishit 30:20). This field, every time you fertilize and hoe it, it bears fruit.

"Last, she bore him a daughter, and named her Dinah" (Breishit 30:21). As it is taught, what [is an example of a vain prayer]? When his wife is pregnant, and he davens, "may it be Your will that my wife will birth a son." Behold, this is a vain prayer [because the fetus is already formed and the gender is fixed]. In the house of R. Yannai it is taught, this refers to one who is already upon the birthing chair. R. Yehudah ben Pazi says, even when one is upon the birthing chair, the [gender] could still change, as it is written: "O House of Israel, can I not deal with you like this potter?—says ha-Shem. Just like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in My hands, O House of Israel!" (Yirmiyahu 18:6). What kind of a potter is this? One who, after creating a vessel, shatters it and creates another. So too can I accomplish, even upon the birthing chair.

An objection was raised, for isn't it written, "Last [or 'another'], she bore him a daughter"? The child was essentially male, but when Rachel davenned, "May ha-Shem add another son for me", it was made female. R. Hanina ben Pazi said, the Foremothers were prophetesses, and Rachel was one of the Foremothers. It isn't recorded that she said, "May ha-Shem add additional sons [plural] for me", rather one additional son...

Manasseh said: But did Moses need to write only insignificant matters that teach nothing, for example: “And Lotan’s sister was Timna” (Genesis 36:22), or: “And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, son of Esau” (Genesis 36:12), or: “And Reuben went in the days of the wheat harvest and found duda’im in the field” (Genesis 30:14)? A Divine Voice emerged and said to him: “You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done, and should I have kept silence, you would imagine that I was like you, but I will reprove you, and set the matter before your eyes” (Psalms 50:20–21). The verses in the Torah are not empty matters, with regard to which you can decide their import.

The eighth principle That the Torah is from Heaven and that is that we believe that this Torah that is given to us through Moshe, our teacher - peace be upon him - is completely from the mouth of the Almighty; which is to say that it all came to him from God, may He be blessed, in a manner that is metaphorically called speech. And no one knows how it came to him except Moshe himself, peace be upon him - since it came to him. And [we believe] that he was like a scribe who is dictated to and writes down all of the events, the stories and the commandments. And therefore [Moshe] is called the engraver. And there is no difference between "And the sons of Cham were Kush and Mitsrayim" (Genesis 10:6), "and his wife's name was" Meheitabel" (Genesis 36:39), "And Timnah was his concubine" (Genesis 36:12) [ on the one hand] and "I am the Lord, your God" (Exodus 20:2) and "Hear Israel" (Deuteronomy 6:4) [on the other]; since they are all from the mouth of the Almighty and it is all the Torah of God - complete, pure and holy truth. And anyone who says, "These type of verses or stories were written by Moshe on his own," is for our sages and prophets a heretic, and one who reveals [incorrect] faces [of the Torah] more than all of the heretics; since he thinks that there is a heart and a peel to the Torah and that these chronicles and stories don't have a point to them and that they are from Moshe our teacher - peace be upon him. And this matter of one who holds that the Torah is not from Heaven, the sages said about it (Sanhedrin 99a), that it is one who believes the whole Torah is from the mouth of the Almighty except for this one verse, which the Holy One, blessed be He, did not say, but rather it was from Moshe himself. And this is "Since he disgraced the word of the Lord" (Numbers 13:31) - God, may He be blessed, is above the statements of the heretics. Rather every single word of the Torah contains wisdom and wonders for the one who understands them. And their ultimate wisdom is not [fully] grasped, as 'its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.' And a man should only walk in the footsteps of of David, the anointed of the God of Yaakov, who prayed (Psalms 119:18), "Uncover my eyes and I shall look upon the wonders of Your Torah." And so too, the accepted understanding of the Torah is also from the Almighty; and [so] that which we today make a [certain] form for the sukkah, the lulav, the shofar, the tsitsit, the tefilllin and other [such maters], it is the exact form that God, may He be blessed, said to Moshe, and which [Moshe] told to us - and he is reliable in his charge. And the statement that indicates this principle is that which is stated (Numbers 16:28), "with this shall you know that it is the Lord that sent me to do all of these acts, and it is not from my heart."

(Exodus 17:8) "And Amalek came": This verse is recondite and is explicated by (Iyyov 8:11) "Can the rush grow without swamp? Can grass grow without water?" So, Israel without Torah. And because Israel separated from Torah, therefore, the foe (Amalek) came upon them. For the foe comes only by reason of sin and transgression. Thus, "And Amalek came, etc." R. Elazar Hamodai says: "And Amalek came": Amalek "sneaked" under the edges of the cloud and snatched souls of Israel and killed them, viz. (Devarim 25:18) (Amalek) "who met you on the way … when you were faint and weary and (Amalek) did not fear G d." Others say: This refers to Israel, who (at that time) did not have mitzvoth in their hands.