The court (academy) of Shem and Eber

Gen 22:18-19 [Targum Jonathan] – Isak studied at the Academy of Shem (after the akeida)

And the angels on high took Izhak and brought him into the school (medresha) of Shem the Great; and he was there three years. [from Targum Jonathan]

Genesis 25:22, [Aggadath Bereishith, ch. 73; Targum Jonathan and Yerushalmi; Rashi; Genesis Rabbah 63:6; Mid. Avkir] – Rebecca and the Academy of Shem and Ever

And the children struggled within her, and she said, «If [it be] so, why am I [like] this?» And she went to inquire of the Lord.

Artscroll Chumash, The children agitated. The Rabbis explain that ויתרצצו, agitated, is derived from the root רוצ, to run: When Rebecca passed the Torah academy of Shem and Eber, Jacob «ran» and struggled to come forth; and when she passed a temple of idol worship, Esau «ran» and struggled to come forth (Midrash).

Rashistruggled: Perforce, this verse calls for a Midrashic interpretation, for it does not explain what this struggling was all about, and [Scripture] wrote,“If it be so, why am I [like] this?” Our Rabbis (Gen. Rabbah 63:6) interpreted it [the word וַיִתְרוֹצִצוּ] as an expression of running (רוֹצָה) . When she passed by the entrances of [the] Torah [academies] of Shem and Eber, Jacob would run and struggle to come out; when she passed the entrance of [a temple of] idolatry, Esau would run and struggle to come out. Another explanation: They were struggling with each other and quarreling about the inheritance of the two worlds (Mid. Avkir).

RashiAnd she went to inquire: to the academy of Shem. — [Aggadath Bereishith, ch. 73, Targum Jonathan and Yerushalmi]

Gen 25:27 [Rashi; Genesis Rabbah 63:10] – Jacob studied at the Academy of Shem and Ever.

And the youths grew up, and Esau was a man who understood hunting, a man of the field, whereas Jacob was an innocent man, dwelling in tents.

Rashi, dwelling in tentsthe tent of Shem and the tent of Eber. — [From Gen. Rabbah 63:10]

Artscroll Chumash, Jacob, however, was morally wholesome, saying what he thought and never being duplicitous, and spending all his time in the study tents of Shem and Eber (Rashi).

Gen 28:11 [Rashi; Genesis Rabbah 68:11] – Jacob studied Torah for fourteen years at the academy of Shem and Ever.

He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.

Rashi, AND [HE] LAY DOWN IN THAT PLACE —The word ההוא, that, has a limitative force: in that place he lay down to sleep, but during the previous fourteen years when he sat under his teachers in the School of Eber he never slept at night for he was incessantly engaged in the study of the Torah [Genesis Rabbah 68:11].

Gen 28:10-22 [Artscroll Chumash; Sages; R’ Yaakov Kamenetsky] – Jacob spent fourteen years at the academy of Shem and Ever.

Artscroll Chumash, … Before going to Haran, Jacob spent fourteen years at the academy of Shem and Ever, a fact that the Sages deduce from the chronology of the period. Surely, as great a man as Jacob did not need more years of study to become a scholar. He went there for a different reason.

R’ Yaakov Kamenetsky explained that the first sixty-three years of his life he studied Torah with his father, in an atmosphere insulated from the corruption of Canaan. Now he would be living in Haran, among people who were Laban’s comrades in dishonesty. To survive spiritually in such an environment, he needed the Torah of Shem and Ever, for they too, had been forced to cope with corrosive surroundings. Shem had lived in the generation of the Flood and Eber had lived with those who built the Tower of Babel. Jacob’s fourteen years in their tutelage made it possible for him to emerge spiritually unscathed from his personal exile. That was his personal preparation for the coming ordeal. Then, G-d prepared him further with the vision of the angels and the Divine promise with which our Sidrah begins. G-d’s promise sustained him, but it was his own efforts that earned him the prophecy.

Gen 37:3, [Onkelos; R’ Yaakov Kamentsky] – Jacob taught Joseph what he learned in the Academy of Shem and Eber

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons since he was a child of his old age, and he made him a fine woolen tunic.

Artscroll Chumash, a child of his old age. … Whatever Jacob learned in the Academy of Shem and Eber during his fourteen years there he transmitted to Joseph (Rashi quoting Onkelos).

Before Jacob went to the home of Laben, he studied the Torah of exile at the Academy of Shem and Eber (see introductory commentary to 28:10-22). Jacob knew that Joseph was destined to be exiled [although he did not know exactly how and where this would happen], and this was why he singled out Joseph to be taught the lesson of Shem and Eber. It was because of this teaching that Joseph could emerge unscathed from his solitary exile of twenty-two years in Egypt, just as Jacob had been unscathed by his years with Laban (R’ Yaakov Kamentsky).

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