Key Takeaways
- The article explores the connection between Rivkah and the Ten Commandments, emphasizing their roots in the Jewish family.
- Rabbi David Fohrman highlights a chiastic structure that mirrors the Revelation at Sinai within Genesis 27-28.
- The Ten Commandments in Toldot illustrate key principles that challenge replacement theology, underscoring the importance of Jewish heritage.
- Cain’s story serves as a lesson on perceived favoritism from God, focusing on self-giving rather than comparison.
- Understanding the deeper meanings in these narratives enriches the faith and identity of the Jewish people.
When I discovered I am a descendant of Aaron through the Diaz Ramirez crypto-Jewish family of Nuevo León, one question has never left me:
How can any religion claim to replace the Jewish people? As my Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz says ” you first must enjoy the question before you can enjoy the answer. It’s a bit like understanding Rivkah and the Ten Commandments, where the deeper you delve, the more you discover.
The Ten Commandments in Toldot – the words quoted by the entire world – were first whispered in a tent. A Jewish mother whispered them in Beersheba. The story of Rivkah and the Ten Commandments illustrates the profound connection between the Jewish mothers and their faith.
The Shocking Discovery Rabbi Fohrman Makes About the Ten Commandments in Toldot
In his groundbreaking Aleph Beta series on Parashat Toldot, Rabbi David Fohrman demonstrates something remarkable. He reveals that Genesis 27–28 is structured as a perfect chiastic mirror of the Revelation at Sinai. The Ten Commandments in Toldot are in the exact same order. They contain the exact same themes and key phrases that will later thunder in Exodus 20.
Watch the teaching that changed everything:
- Part 1 on YouTube (Aleph Beta)
- Part 2 on YouTube (Aleph Beta)
The Ten Commandments in Toldot – Side-by-Side Proof
| # | Sinai (Exodus 20) | Rivkah’s Words in Toldot (Genesis 27–28) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | “I am Hashem your God” | “My son, listen to my voice… do exactly what I command you” (27:8,13) – establishing divine authority |
| 2 | No other gods | Warning against Esau’s murderous hatred – serving the god of violence (27:41-42) |
| 3 | Do not take God’s name in vain | “Why should I lose both of you in one day?” – terror of false oaths (27:45) |
| 4 | Remember the Sabbath | “Stay with Laban a few days until your brother’s anger turns” – Shabbat rest in exile (27:44) |
| 5 | Honor father and mother | Jacob obeys his mother above Isaac’s mistaken blessing – the entire plot! |
| 6 | You shall not murder | Direct warning against Esau’s plan to kill Jacob |
| 7 | You shall not commit adultery | “Do not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan” (28:1) |
| 8 | You shall not steal | The blessing was “stolen” only in appearance – Rivkah insists it belongs to Jacob |
| 9 | You shall not bear false witness | The goatskin deception protects deeper truth |
| 10 | You shall not covet | Esau covets the blessing that was never his – root of the conflict |
Why the Ten Commandments in Toldot Destroy Replacement Theology
This Rebecca Jacob Sinai mirror is the Torah’s way of shouting to Christianity and Islam. The Ten Commandments in Toldot were born inside the Jewish family. This occurred centuries before Sinai. You cannot inherit the commandments while rejecting the family that birthed them.
As Rabbi David Fohrman teaches, “The Jewish people are not chosen because we are better. We are chosen because we are the only nation that carries the historical event of Revelation in our national DNA.”
Internal Links to Related Articles on Beit HaShoavah
- Essay 1: Why Does God Play Favorites? The Silence Cain Heard Wrong
- My Return Story: From Crypto-Jewish Mexico Back to the Torah of My Fathers
- The Tree That Christianity Got Wrong – Eden and Jewish Resurrection
- Passover Lamb Was Never Jesus – It Was the Egyptian God
Next in this 10-part series: The Second Commandment in Toldot – Esau’s Rage and “No Other Gods”
Shabbat Shalom from a Chazzann who came home, [Gavriel ben David ] Beit HaShoavah – Return, Repent, Rejoice https://beithashoavah.org
Why Does God Play Favorites?
The Shocking Answer Hidden in the Story of Cain and Abel
We all know the children’s version of the story: Cain brings an offering. Abel brings an offering. God likes Abel’s better. Cain gets jealous and kills his brother. Moral of the story: Don’t be jealous.
But that version leaves the most troubling question completely unanswered:
Why did God reject Cain’s offering in the first place? Why would the Creator of the universe—who loves all His children—seem to play favorites with the very first two brothers in history?
For two thousand years Jewish and Christian readers have struggled with this. Many simply say, “Well, Abel brought the best (firstlings and fat), Cain just brought whatever.” But the Torah never actually says God told them to bring the best. In fact, the Torah never even commanded offerings at all! So on what basis did God “have regard” for Abel’s offering and not for Cain’s (Genesis 4:4-5)?
Rabbi David Fohrman points out something almost no one notices in the text:
The Hebrew phrase describing God’s response is deeply asymmetrical.
- About Abel: וַיִּשַׁע אֶל־הֶבֶל וְאֶל־מִנְחָתוֹ “And He turned to Abel and to his offering.”
- About Cain: וְאֶל־קַיִן וְאֶל־מִנְחָתוֹ לֹא שָׁעָה “But to Cain and to his offering He did not turn.”
The grammar itself is screaming at us: God is not evaluating the gifts in isolation. He is looking at the person and the gift together. The offering is an expression of the offerer.
Abel brings the firstlings and their fat portions because that is who Abel is—he gives of his essence, his very best, holding nothing back. Cain brings “an offering of the fruit of the ground”—perfectly adequate, but nothing in the text suggests it cost him anything deeply personal. It’s not that his offering is bad; it’s that it doesn’t reveal Cain.
God’s “rejection,” then, is not favoritism. It’s a mirror.
God is saying to Cain (without words, because sometimes love speaks through silence): “Cain, I want you. Show me you.”
Cain hears the silence as rejection instead of invitation. And instead of looking inward (“What could I have brought that would have been more me?”), he looks outward in rage: “Why him and not me?” Jealousy is born—the first human emotion after shame in the Garden—and with it, murder.
Fohrman’s staggering conclusion:
God introduces the appearance of favoritism on purpose. He creates the very first instance of “chosen vs. not chosen” not to alienate Cain, but to teach humanity the single most dangerous spiritual truth we will ever face:
When God seems to love someone else more than you, the problem is almost never that God loves you less. The problem is that you have stopped giving Him you.
This is the seed that will flower thousands of years later at Mount Sinai—the same question in national form: “Why this nation and not the others?” The midrash famously says God offered the Torah to every nation first and they all refused. But beneath that midrash lies the exact same principle we meet in Cain and Abel: God chooses those who choose to give Him their deepest selves.
Cain and Abel is not a story about why Abel was better. It is a story about why God sometimes withholds His face—to invite us to chase it.
And the tragedy is that Cain never learns the question behind the silence.
That question will echo through Ishmael, through Esau, through every instance of apparent divine favoritism in the Torah. And every time, Rabbi Fohrman teaches, God is doing the same thing He did with Cain:
Silently pleading, “Show me you.”
Shabbat Shalom,
