The Birth of Jacob and Esau
After twenty childless years Rebecca bears twins: Esau, and after him Jacob, holding his brother's heel.
Isaac married at forty, but the children came when he was sixty: for twenty years he and Rebecca prayed. The Torah uses a rare verb, vaye'tar, related to a pitchfork — as a fork turns over grain, so the prayer of the righteous overturns a decree. The pregnancy is agonizing; the children struggle within her until Rebecca says, "If so, why am I?" and goes to inquire of God. The answer is a forecast for millennia: "Two nations are in your womb… and the elder shall serve the younger." Esau emerges first, red and hairy; then Jacob, his hand grasping his brother's heel, from which he takes his name. The boys grow up side by side and diverge completely: Esau a man of the field and a hunter, Jacob "a wholesome man dwelling in tents" — the tents of study of Shem and Ever, say the sages. Isaac loves Esau, Rebecca loves Jacob, and that split will drive the next six decades.