When the church taught me the Second Commandment was only about statues and idols, I learned something unexpected. I never imagined it was first spoken by a Jewish mother fleeing her own son’s violence.
Yet in Parashat Toldot, centuries before the thunder at Sinai, Rivkah utters the Second Commandment in Toldot almost word-for-word:
“Your brother Esau is comforting himself (מִתְנַחֵם) with the thought of killing you.” (Genesis 27:42)
Rabbi David Fohrman demonstrates that this single sentence is the exact precursor. It leads to “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Esau’s rage is not just anger. It has become his god.
How Esau Became the First Worshipper of “Another God”
In Hebrew, the verb מִתְנַחֵם (mitnachem) means “to comfort oneself.” After losing the blessing, Esau does not turn to Hashem for comfort. He turns to murder.
Murderous hatred becomes his new deity—the very first “other god” in human history after Cain.
Rivkah’s urgent warning to Jacob is therefore the Second Commandment in Toldot in its embryonic form:
Do not serve the god of revenge. Do not let violence sit on the throne where only Hashem belongs.
This is why the Rebecca Jacob Sinai mirror is so devastating to replacement theology. The Second Commandment did not begin with golden calves or Baal statues. It began when a Jewish mother identified the first false god humanity ever worshipped: the god of blood-revenge.
The Chiastic Proof – Side by Side
| Sinai (Exodus 20:3) | Toldot (Genesis 27:41–42) |
|---|---|
| לֹא יִהְיֶה־לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל־פָּנָיָ “You shall have no other gods before Me” | וַיִּתְנַחֵם הוּא לְהָרְגְּךָ “He is comforting himself by killing you” – serving the god of murderous rage |
Watch Rabbi Fohrman lay this out:
- Aleph Beta / YouTube Part 1
- Aleph Beta / YouTube Part 2
Why This Matters for Jewish Chosenness
Every time Christianity or Islam claims the Torah’s commandments while rejecting the Jewish people, they repeat Esau’s original mistake.
They replace the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with the god of supersessionist revenge: “The Jews killed our savior” or “The Jews lost their chosenness.” That is modern avodah zarah—serving another god on the very face of the God who spoke to three million Jews at Sinai.
As Chazzan I teach in Esnoga Beit HaShoavah: “We are not hated because we are worse. We are hated because we are the living witness that the Second Commandment in Toldot still applies. There is only one God. He never annulled His covenant with Jacob.”
Internal Links – Continue the Journey
- Essay 1: The Ten Commandments in Toldot – They Began with Rivkah, Not Sinai
- Why Does God Play Favorites? The Silence Cain Heard Wrong
- From Crypto-Jewish Mexico to the Torah of My Fathers – My Personal Return
- The Passover Lamb Was Never Jesus – It Was the Egyptian God
Next in this 10-part series: Essay 3 – The Third Commandment in Toldot: “Why Should I Lose Both of You in One Day?”
Shabbat Shalom from the Chazzan carrying the same warning Rivkah gave, [Gavriel ben David ] Beit HaShoavah – Return, Repent, Rejoice https://beithashoavah.org