Gen 27:11-15

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Questions

Peradventure: According to the Heketav Vehakabbala (composed by Jacob Zvi Mecklenberg), peradventure is used here instead of lest (cf. Gen 3:22, Gen 11:4, Gen 41:4 where lest is used when the speaker does not wish the matter to come to pass) to imply inner reluctance on Jacob's part to go along with this plan: "Had Jacob wished to express the hope that his father would not feel him he should have said 'I am afraid lest my father feel me.' From here it would seem therefore that Jacob did not favour this attempt to outwit his father and that he would rather let matters take their natural course and his father bless whomsoever he thought fit. Jacob hoped that his mother would call off the attempt as a result of his plea. . . . The word 'peradventure' is used when the speaker desires the matter to come to pass, cf. 'peradventure he will accept me' (Gen 32:21)." (See Leibowitz reference below for more discussion.)

Went and fetched, and brought: Some scholars have suggested there is a conspicuous lack of enthusiasm on Jacob's part in this verse. Since time was short and Esau was due back soon from the field, Jacob should've been in a hurry. In several of the just-previous narratives, haste is mentioned (cf. Gen 18:2, 6-7; Gen 24:17; Gen 24:18, 20), so it the lack of any haste being mentioned here may be significant. As the Haketav Vehakaballah says (see reference below), "This indicates that [Jacob] did not apply himself with any enthusiasm but reluctantly carried out his mother's behest." Also, Radal suggests in the Midrash that the Hebrew prefixes to these three verbs, vay-vay-vay, connote reluctance and mistery onomatopeically.

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