Parshat Vezot Haberakhah5 min read

The Fire That Each Nation Handed Back at Seir and Paran

The sons of Esau asked what was written in it. God named one command. They remembered Isaac's blessing and would not take the rest.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Light Over Seir
  2. The Sword Isaac Left Them
  3. What Ishmael Would Not Surrender
  4. Give It to Your Own People
  5. They Did Not Ask What Was Written
The Fire That Each Nation Handed Back at Seir and Paran Click for full size

Light Over Seir

The houses of Seir filled with a light that had no lamp behind it. Men ran into the street with their hands over their eyes. Cedars on the ridge cracked. The red country of Esau shook before anyone had spoken a word of law.

They ran to Balaam and demanded to know what was happening. "Is the Holy One bringing another flood?" He told them no. After Noah, God had sworn that water would not cover the earth again. "A flood of fire, then?" Neither, Balaam said. "The Holy One wishes to give the Torah to His people." They turned to go home. God did not let them go so easily.

He dawned over Seir the way morning does, except the light had a voice in it. He held the fire out toward Esau's sons. "Will you accept the Torah upon yourselves?"

The Sword Isaac Left Them

They did not say yes. They did not say no. They asked the question every nation would ask. "What is written in it?"

God answered with a single command. "You shall not murder."

A man at the front of the crowd looked at his own hands. They had been taught for the sword since the day they could close around a hilt. They handed the fire back. "This is the inheritance our father left us." They remembered the tent, the blind Isaac, the words that could not be unsaid. "By your sword you shall live." A law against killing was a law against their own bones. They could not take it and remain themselves.

God did not argue. He took the fire and turned.

What Ishmael Would Not Surrender

He shone next from Mount Paran, where the children of Ishmael lived in the wilderness, and held the same fire out to them. "Will you accept the Torah upon yourselves?" They asked it too. "What is written in it?"

This time the command was different. "You shall not steal."

The sons of Ishmael shook their heads. Their father had been called a wild man, his hand against everyone, and taking was the trade their blood had carried since the desert. To prove it they reached for an old wound. They quoted Joseph from the Egyptian prison. "I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews." If theft was a thing the Hebrews themselves wept over, why should the sons of Ishmael swear it away?

They gave the fire back. The sand took their footprints by noon. God had heard the refusal before the wind erased it.

Give It to Your Own People

God sent messengers to the rest of the nations. "Will you receive the Torah?" They asked what was written in it. He told them the first word of all. "You shall have no other gods before Me."

They answered plainly. They took no delight in the Torah. Let Him give it to His own people. Every door He knocked on opened to a refusal shaped like the nation behind it. Each one heard the one command that named its oldest habit, and each one handed the burning law back into His hands.

He already knew they would refuse. He came anyway. Later no nation would be able to stand up and say it had never been asked. The fire still burned in His right hand when He left their doors.

They Did Not Ask What Was Written

Only one people was left, gathered at the base of a smoking mountain in a wilderness that belonged to no kingdom. When God came to Israel, twenty thousand holy ones stood at His side, and chariots beyond counting. His right hand held the fiery law. He did not begin with the question this time. The law was already burning there.

Israel did not ask what was written in it. They did not bargain over a single command or measure it against their fathers. They opened their mouths together and said the words the other nations had been too careful to say. "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will hear." Na'aseh venishma (נעשה ונשמע). They promised the doing before they had even heard the terms.

The fire that every other nation had pushed away came down and stayed. God stood and measured the earth. The nations who had handed the law back leaped, as if the ground itself had thrown them. They scattered to their places. The one people who had taken the fire without counting the cost stood inside a covenant the whole world had been offered and had refused.

SinaiTorahEsauIshmaelCovenantMidrashVzot Haberachah
← All myths

From the tradition

Sources

2 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, V'Zot HaBerachah 3:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, V'Zot HaBerachah

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

(Deut. 33:2:) "AND HE SAID, THE LORD CAME FROM SINAI," etc. This teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the Torah around to the nations of the world, and they did not accept it, until He came to Israel, and they accepted it. As it is stated (ibid.): "AND DAWNED UPON THEM FROM SEIR", these are the children of Esau, who are the children of Seir. "HE SHONE FORTH FROM MOUNT PARAN" (ibid.), these are the children of Ishmael, as it is stated, "And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran" (Gen. 21:21). And it is written, "He stood and measured the earth; He looked and made nations leap" (Hab. 3:6), for He saw that they did not wish to accept the Torah, and He made them leap into Gehinnom, just as it says, "to leap with them upon the earth" (Lev. 11:21). And in another place it says, "All the kings of the earth shall give You thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of Your mouth" (Ps. 138:4). Yet we still need to say: perhaps they wished to listen. Micah the Morashtite came and settled the matter, as it is stated, "And in anger and in wrath I will execute vengeance upon the nations that have not listened" (Mic. 5:14). Behold, you have learned that they did not wish to accept the Torah. David came and gave thanks to the Holy One, blessed be He, over this, as it is stated, "You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples" (Ps. 77:15). David said: Master of the Universe, the wonders You have done in Your world, that You made Your Torah known to the nations of the world! "Your strength" is nothing but Torah, as it is stated, "The Lord will give strength to His people" (Ps. 29:11). Rabbi Abbahu said: It was revealed and known before the One who spoke and the world came into being that the nations of the world would not accept the Torah. And why then did He approach them? Rather, such are the measures of the Holy One, blessed be He: He fulfills His obligation toward His creatures, and afterward drives them from the world, because the Holy One, blessed be He, does not come upon His creatures with tyranny. [A second measure, why did He approach them? Because of the appeasement of the patriarchs.]

Full source
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 41:2Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, trans. Rabbi Gerald Friedlander, London (1916) · CC-BY

Chapter 41 gives us a glimpse into a rather… unique sales pitch, shall we say.

Rabbi Tarphon recounts a scene where the Holy One, blessed be He, doesn't just give the Torah, but actively offers it around. Imagine God, Himself, going door-to-door!

First stop: the descendants of Esau. As (Deuteronomy 33:2) tells us, "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose from Seir unto them." Here, "Seir" refers to Esau, as (Genesis 36:8) states, "And Esau dwelt in Mount Seir." So, God asks them, "Will you accept the Torah?" They want to know what's in it, of course. God replies, "Thou shalt do no murder" (Exodus 20:13).

Their response? A polite, but firm, "No, thank you." They explain that they can't abandon the blessing Isaac gave Esau: "By thy sword shalt thou live" (Genesis 27:40). Essentially, violence is in their DNA, or at least, they believe it is.

Next, God turns to the children of Ishmael. (Deuteronomy 33:2) says, "He shined forth from Mount Paran." "Paran," we learn, signifies the sons of Ishmael, as (Genesis 21:21) says, "And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran." Again, the offer: "Will ye accept for yourselves the Torah?" They ask the crucial question: "What's written therein?" The answer: "Thou shalt not steal" (Exodus 20:15).

And their response? Another polite rejection! They can't abandon the "usage which our fathers observed," referring to the story of Joseph being sold into Egypt, as Joseph himself laments in (Genesis 40:15): "For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews." So, stealing is… a family tradition? Yikes.

At this point, God sends messengers to all the nations of the world. He asks them the same question: "Will ye receive for yourselves the Torah?" They, too, want to know the contents. This time, God says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3).

Their answer is pretty blunt: "We have no delight in the Torah." They suggest He give it to His own people, quoting (Psalm 29:11): "The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace." Ouch!

Finally, God turns to the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 33:2) tells us, "And he came from the ten thousands of holy ones." The expression "ten thousands," we discover, refers to the children of Israel, supported by (Numbers 10:36): "Return, O Lord, unto the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel." The text goes on to paint a majestic picture: "With Him were thousands twice-told of chariots, even twenty thousand of holy angels, and His right hand was holding the Torah, as it is said, 'At his right hand was a fiery law unto them' (Deut. 33:2)."

So, what does this all mean? Is it a literal account? Probably not. But it’s a powerful way of illustrating that accepting the Torah requires a willingness to change, to let go of ingrained habits and beliefs. It highlights the unique relationship between God and the Jewish people. Perhaps it wasn't just that God chose us, but that we were the only ones willing to choose Him, and the challenging path of the Torah.

Full source