Jacob blessed Esau's son but knew the blessing came from somewhere deeper than himself. "And God shall give you the dew of heaven" (Genesis 27:28) — this is the dew of Mount Hermon, the rabbis said, the highest blessing Israel knows, the kind that falls without clouds, without weather, without human cause (Psalm 133:3). The dew of Hermon is pure gift.
The blessing required the right garments. Jacob wore Esau's clothes — the priestly garments that Adam had worn first, that had passed from firstborn to firstborn through all the generations. The rabbis traced the robes all the way back: God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21) — and these, transformed through the ages, became the vestments of the firstborn priesthood. Before the Tabernacle existed, the firstborn conducted the sacrifices. Esau had sold the birthright and despised the vocation. Jacob wore the garments because he understood what they were.
Rebekah's role in this story troubled some readers and confirmed others. She dressed Jacob in her older son's clothes and sent him to receive a blessing that was not originally meant for him. The rabbis did not excuse the deception — but they contextualized it: Rebekah had received a prophecy before her sons were born. She knew which one was destined to carry the covenant forward. She was not deceiving Isaac so much as aligning him with what God had already promised.