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Parshat Toldot: Appearances Can Fool Us, But Divine Purpose Never Does
A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.
Fans of Victorian England may be familiar with the unusual legal drama known as the “Tichborne Case.” It was part mystery, part tragedy, and part social spectacle. The story has all the elements of a potboiler novel: a ship lost at sea, a grieving mother, a missing heir, a large inheritance, and, in the end, an imposter chasing the money.
In 1854, Roger Charles Tichborne, the young heir to an English baronetcy and a vast fortune, boarded a ship in South America called The Bella. The ship vanished off the coast of Brazil on its way to Jamaica, and everybody on board was thought to have died at sea. Everyone believed Roger had drowned — everyone, that is, except his mother, Lady Henriette Tichborne.
Lady Henriette was French, the illegitimate daughter of a British Member of Parliament, Henry Seymour, who had arranged her marriage to his friend, Sir James Tichborne, Roger’s father.
Known for her emotional temperament, Lady Henriette could not accept her son’s death. She and Roger had lived together in Paris before he left to travel the world, and she kept his room untouched, still writing him letters as if he were just away for a while.
When rumors spread that some survivors of The Bella had been rescued and taken to Australia, Lady Henriette placed ads in Australian newspapers, offering a handsome reward for any information about her missing son.
In 1865, she received a letter from New South Wales about a man claiming to be Roger — a butcher from Wagga Wagga named Thomas Castro. Delighted, she arranged for him to come to France.
But when they met, it was immediately apparent that Castro looked nothing like the slim, tall, dark-haired youth who had disappeared eleven years earlier — a fluent French speaker who also spoke the Queen’s English. This man was obese, fair-haired, spoke no French at all — and his English had a pronounced Cockney accent.
Castro could not recall even basic details of Roger’s childhood or the names of close relatives. Still, Lady Henriette insisted he was her son, dismissing all the startling changes as the result of years of hardship and separation.
Intriguingly, her servants and advisers supported her, insisting that this corpulent stranger was Roger. But the rest of the Tichborne family, the press, and the public considered him a complete fraud.
Scotland Yard detective Jack Whicher soon discovered that “the Claimant” was in fact Arthur Orton, the son of a butcher from London’s East End who had emigrated to Australia.
Even so, Lady Henriette’s faith in him remained unshaken. She gave him a generous allowance and defended him fiercely, as only a mother could. Even after she died in 1868, her implausible opinion seemed to haunt the courtroom as “Sir Roger” sued the Tichborne family for his inheritance.
The sensational trials at Westminster became a national obsession. Crowds packed the galleries and newspapers breathlessly reported every detail. Nearly a hundred witnesses swore he was the true heir. The two trials — one civil, one criminal — lasted 291 days, and the closing statements of the second alone took 62 days.
The jury deliberated for just 35 minutes. Orton was found guilty of perjury and sentenced to fourteen years in prison. He was released a decade later, destitute, and died in poverty in 1898 — having finally confessed that he was indeed Arthur Orton.
But the real mystery lies not in his deception, but in Lady Henriette’s firm conviction that this obvious imposter was her son — a mother so certain of what her heart told her that she became a willing party to Orton’s fraud.
And it is that same strange mixture of blindness and conviction — love triumphing over reason — that we find at the heart of Parshat Toldot. Isaac, old and sightless, summons his older son Esau, whom he loves despite his unrighteous behavior, to receive the family blessing.
But while Esau is out hunting for food to feed Isaac, Rebecca urges her younger son Jacob to disguise himself as Esau, covering his smooth arms with goatskins to imitate Esau’s hairy skin, and to claim the blessing instead.
Jacob hesitates, but obeys his mother. When he enters Isaac’s tent, the scene could almost come from a Victorian melodrama: the blind father reaching out, the reluctant son trembling, the air thick with tension.
Isaac hears the voice of his son and frowns. “The voice is the voice of Jacob,” he says, “but the hands are the hands of Esau” (Gen. 27:22). Then, like Lady Henriette, Isaac allows his emotions to override his doubts. His love for Esau blinds him completely. He blesses Jacob, believing him to be Esau.
But this is where the similarity to the Victorian story ends. The Tichborne claimant was a fraud, but Jacob was not. His act may seem deceitful — pretending to be his brother to get something that isn’t his. But the Torah and its commentators make clear it was not deceit — it was destiny.
Earlier in Toldot, Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of lentil stew. That sale was not just symbolic — it was legally binding. Esau did not value the birthright, but Jacob did. The blessing Isaac intended to give was tied to that birthright. Jacob was not stealing — he was taking what he had rightfully acquired.
As for Rebecca, she wasn’t a meddling mother — she was following what God had told her. Before her twins were born, God said (Gen. 25:23): “Two nations are in your womb… and the elder shall serve the younger.” She knew Jacob, not Esau, was meant to continue the path of Abraham’s covenant. Her plan was not for unfair gain, but to fulfill prophecy.
Some commentators, like the Ramban, even suggest that Isaac may have suspected the truth. The Torah hints at this, quoting Isaac as saying: “See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field blessed by God” (Gen. 27:27). This is why Isaac’s blessing focused on spiritual destiny, not on hunting or power as it might have for Esau.
Arthur Orton’s fraudulent identity hid a lie and caused years of pain and suffering. Lady Henriette’s refusal to accept her son’s death blinded her to reality, and her embrace of Orton brought her family needless grief.
Isaac’s love blinded him too — but through that blindness, God’s plan came into focus: a wrong was righted, and a precious legacy was preserved. Jacob’s disguise did not conceal a lie — on the contrary, it revealed the truth. Esau’s disregard for the covenant made him unfit to inherit it. Jacob’s deception was not a betrayal of destiny but its fulfillment.
The Tichborne Case ended in shame and imprisonment. The Jacob Case ended in a nation of faith, and an enduring covenant with God. Jacob’s blessing shows us that sometimes destiny is hidden in confusion. What seems like a mistake may be God’s way of making sure a blessing goes where it truly belongs.
Maybe that is the real lesson: appearances can fool us, but divine purpose never does. The voice may sound like Jacob and the hands may feel like Esau, but Heaven knows the truth, and in time, so will we.
The author is a writer and rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
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Yeshiva University fans gear up for Sweet Sixteen run — and a Shabbat in Atlanta
(JTA) — Yeshiva University’s men’s basketball team is set to play in the Sweet Sixteen round of March Madness on Friday, for the first time in the program’s history.
If that sentence sounds familiar, that’s because the YU Maccabees have qualified for the Division III tournament’s Sweet Sixteen once before, in 2020. But that tournament was cut short due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and they never got a chance to play the game.
“It’s always like, ‘What could have been,’ and now here they are — they’re back and they have a shot,” said Simmy Cohen, a YU superfan.
The Maccabees, who are 22-8, advanced past the first two rounds with a 71-69 win over Bates College, followed by a 92-69 win against the University of Maine-Farmington.
To advance to the Elite Eight, the Maccabees will need to defeat Emory University, the second-ranked team in DIII. As the higher seed, Emory gets to host the game at their home gym in Atlanta. But while the Maccabees are entering the game as underdogs, they have one possible advantage on their side: fans flooding in from near and far.
“I don’t think any other Division III basketball team has any national fanbase,” said Rabbi Adam Starr, a YU alum who leads Congregation Ohr HaTorah, a modern Orthodox synagogue in Atlanta.
“Other places have alumni, that’s one thing, but here it’s much more than alumni,” he said. “Certainly within the Orthodox Jewish world, but even beyond it’s something they’re rallying behind, whether they went to Yeshiva University or not. It’s just a Jewish pride story.”
Starr said Atlanta’s Jewish community will be out in full force to support YU, the private Jewish university in New York City. Some Atlantans are taking the day off work to catch the 1 p.m. tip-off, Starr said. Students from the local Jewish day school between seventh and 12th grade will be bussed to Emory’s Woodruff PE Center.
The game is also expected to draw Jewish fans from around the country, including Cohen’s sister-in-law, who will be driving from the New York metropolitan area.
“The interesting thing here is that Emory is on spring break, so most of their students are not around,” Starr said. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually feels more like a YU home game than an Emory home game.”
There’s an added wrinkle for visiting fans: Because the game falls on a Friday afternoon, fans who observe Shabbat according to Jewish law will be doing so in Atlanta.
To help those observant supporters, a Google Form that pairs visitors with host families has circulated, titled “YU Mac Fans Shabbat Hospitality in Toco Hills Atlanta,” referring to the heavily Orthodox Jewish Toco Hills neighborhood.
“We’re known for our Southern Jewish hospitality,” Starr said.
The team itself, Starr added, is staying at a hotel, but will be “having meals in the community at one of the shuls.”
On Saturday afternoon, following kiddush, Starr will host a “Meet the Macs” panel discussion at Ohr HaTorah with head coach Elliot Steinmetz; assistant coach and Orthodox Union chief of staff Yoni Cohen; team captains Zevi Samet and Max Zakheim; and senior Tom Beza, who “previously served in a combat role” in the IDF, according to a flier for the event.
The team’s tournament run has taken place over the backdrop of war breaking out between the U.S. and Israel and Iran, which has hit close to home for YU, whose roster includes seven Israeli-born players.
“While we have your attention,” Steinmetz tweeted on Sunday, the day after their Round of 32 victory, “I’d like to point out that while we are here preparing for a stupid basketball game, our friends and family in Israel are going back and forth to bomb shelters multiple times a day as Iran and Hezbollah fire rockets indiscriminately at civilian populations. Take a minute out of your day and pray for their safety and victory.”
Starr said he views the Maccabees’ tournament run as “something good and positive” that Jewish people can “gather around.”
“And I’ve heard from people in Israel, this is a very welcome distraction for them,” Starr said. He remarked that his brother had to pull over on the way home from a wedding in Israel last week and lie flat on the ground due to a siren going off. “But he was listening to the game while this was going on,” Starr said.
Last week, Israeli guard Yoav Oselka led the way with 27 points in YU’s win against Maine-Farmington; Samet, the team’s leading scorer, put up 27 in their narrow 71-69 win over Bates in the Round of 64.
Emory, as one of the top DIII basketball programs, is the favorite to win Friday’s game. But Cohen said the energy from YU fans may help the Maccabees in their push for an upset.
“I think it’s going to be an electric atmosphere,” he said.
The post Yeshiva University fans gear up for Sweet Sixteen run — and a Shabbat in Atlanta appeared first on The Forward.
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California sues Oakland school district, saying district ignored order to address antisemitism
(JTA) — A large school district serving Oakland, California, is effectively defying state efforts to make it address antisemitism on its campuses, according to a lawsuit filed this week by the California Department of Education.
In January, the department ordered the Oakland Unified School District to send letters to families and staff condemning antisemitism and take several other steps. The lawsuit says the district failed to carry out any of them by the March 1 deadline.
The state filed suit on Monday in Alameda County Superior Court seeking a court order requiring the district to comply.
“OUSD has … unlawfully refused and failed to carry out the corrective actions,” the lawsuit says.
An OUSD spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle the district has a policy against commenting on pending litigation.
The dispute places Oakland schools in the middle of a broader national debate over how educators should address antisemitism amid the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Many advocates say Jewish students need greater protection amid rising antisemitic incidents. Critics, however, argue that efforts to combat antisemitism are increasingly blurring the line between antisemitism and criticism of Israel or Zionism, raising free speech concerns.
In addition to requiring school officials to send districtwide letters condemning antisemitism, the state ordered staff training on nondiscrimination and political activity in schools, as well as a public presentation on the issue at a school board meeting.
The state also required the district to hold student assemblies at four schools — American Indian Model Schools, Thornhill Elementary, Montera Middle School and Oakland Technical High School — addressing the Holocaust, the meaning of the swastika and the harm caused by antisemitic imagery.
The dispute traces back to a series of complaints filed by Oakland attorney Marleen Sacks on behalf of the Oakland Jewish Alliance, a community group formed after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, alleging antisemitic incidents across the district’s schools.
After investigating, Oakland Unified issued a report in December addressing 17 complaints. The district concluded that discrimination against Jewish or Israeli individuals had occurred and that some practices in the district had contributed to what it described as a discriminatory environment.
Among the issues cited were pro-Palestinian posters displayed on campuses, teachers using instructional materials that presented the Gaza war from only one perspective, and staff using school resources to promote political advocacy related to the war.
The district also found that antisemitic graffiti had appeared on school property and acknowledged that some complaints about antisemitism were not addressed promptly.
State education officials intervened after reviewing the district’s findings and concluded that the remedies the district proposed were insufficient.
In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Sacks said she hopes the state’s intervention will force the district to address what she described as persistent discrimination affecting Jewish students.
“The District has been deliberately discriminating against and violating the rights of Jewish and Israeli students for years,” she said.
The case arrives amid broader legal disputes over antisemitism in California schools since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the war in Gaza that followed.
Last month, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the advocacy group StandWithUs filed a separate lawsuit accusing the state of California, its Department of Education and several school districts of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment and discrimination.
That lawsuit argues that antisemitism has become widespread in California’s public schools and seeks federal intervention.
The post California sues Oakland school district, saying district ignored order to address antisemitism appeared first on The Forward.
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California Police Open Hate Crime Probe After Assailants Attack 2 Jews Overheard Speaking Hebrew
Screenshot from video circulated on social media showing three unknown attackers punch two Israeli-Americans in San Jose, California on March 8, 2026.
Police in San Jose, California have opened a hate crime investigation after two Israeli-American Jews were overheard speaking Hebrew and then assaulted in broad daylight on Sunday.
“After arriving at a restaurant, they [the two Jewish men] were approached by three unknown individuals and punched multiple times, leaving one victim briefly unconscious,” according to a statement posted by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) for the Bay Area. “Both victims were transported to the emergency room and later released.”
JCRC is aware of a disturbing incident at Santana Row in San Jose in which two Israeli Americans were brutally attacked while speaking Hebrew. After arriving at a restaurant, they were approached by three unknown individuals and punched multiple times, leaving one victim briefly… pic.twitter.com/GZ9IkMnxfU
— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) March 10, 2026
An additional video from @jewishsf shows a closer vantage point of the assault.
According to one of the victims, one of the suspects uttered “f***ing Jew” while repeatedly beating him to the ground. pic.twitter.com/GClqx6lkRi
— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) March 10, 2026
Lior Zeevi, 47, and Daniel Levy, 48, waited for a table outside the Augustine restaurant on Sunday afternoon when the violence began. They told police that the three attackers used antisemitic language as they punched them.
According to one of the victims and local reports, one of the suspects said “f**king Jew” or “f**k the Jews” during the beating.
“Every punch connected directly to where they wanted, to the head directly. It was on purpose to hit and make maximum damage,” one of the victims told ABC7.
Levy lost consciousness briefly after one punch to the head on Sunday. The beating left him with his lower lip split and bleeding. Both men reportedly had swelling on their heads and faces following the attack.
According to ABC7, a witness also heard one of the assailants say, “Don’t mess with Iran,” apparently a reference to the current war in the Middle East.
Keanu Kahrobaie, a retail employee on Santana Row whose parents were born in Iran, filmed one of the videos and said he heard one of the attackers speak in Farsi while fleeing.
“The only logical thing I could think, other than to stop it, because there was way too many people, was to record it, because it could be used as evidence,” Kahrobaie told J. The Jewish News of Northern California. “They actually kind of carried him, then threw him to the ground, and then just continuously hit.’
San Jose’s Mayor Matt Mahan issued a statement condemning the attack.
“I’ve been in touch with Jewish community leaders and our police department regarding this heinous attack, and I will continue to update you as we make progress in our investigation,” he said.
“The attacks on two people speaking Hebrew in San Jose yesterday are reprehensible,” the mayor continued. “Our Jewish community is shocked and angry, and they have every right to be. In recent years in America, violent acts against Jews have nearly tripled and nearly 70 percent of all hate crimes involving religion target Jews.”
Mahan, who is now running for California governor, added that “this is a time to stand with our Jewish neighbors, support their freedoms, their rights, their full inclusion in American society, and it’s time to root out the hate and the ideologies that drive these kinds of violent acts.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office also shared the video on Wednesday and wrote, “This is disgusting. Thank you, San Jose PD, for investigating.”
Marco Sermoneta, consul general of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, commented on the beating on X.
“Two American-Israelis brutally attacked in broad daylight in #SanJose just for speaking Hebrew,” he posted. “I call on California elected officials to condemn this vile, cowardly act and for law enforcement to address this grave incident swiftly and effectively.”
On Wednesday, San Jose police said that detectives at this time “have not located evidence indicating the assault would meet the elements of a hate crime.” However, the attack is currently being investigated as a hate crime as investigators continue to review evidence.
The local Jewish community “is very afraid for our safety following this brutal assault in broad daylight,” Tali Klima, a spokesperson for the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, told the San Francisco Gate. “Given the ongoing surge in antisemitism in recent years, we expect San Jose police and local officials to take this matter seriously and take proper action to address not only this specific incident but the overall climate of Jew hatred.”
The attack in San Jose follow an ongoing pattern of antisemitic acts targeting Jews and Israelis who are overheard speaking in Hebrew.
Last month, French tourists attacked three Israelis speaking Hebrew at a bar in Thailand, resulting in hospitalization for two to treat injuries that included broken ribs, damaged teeth, and back trauma. The bar’s employees reportedly joined in the assault, hitting the Israelis with batons.
In December, Israeli tourist Almog Armoza had to flee in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu when someone hit him from behind with an iron rod after hearing him recording a voice message in Hebrew. That same month, criminals targeted an Israeli tourist in Cyprus after hearing him speaking Hebrew on his cell phone outside a hotel. The victim’s father wrote on Facebook that “he was brutally beaten, injured in the head and face, and evacuated for medical treatment.”
The prior month, police arrested a 25-year-old Pakistani man who allegedly assaulted an Orthodox Jewish American tourist at Milan’s Central Station.
In July, Ran Ben Shimon, the coach of Israel’s national soccer team, spoke Hebrew with assistant coach Gal Cohen while walking in Athens. This prompted an assault from a man who yelled “Free Palestine.” That same day, a waiter in Vienna refused service to a group of well-known Israeli classical musicians after they confirmed to him that the language he overhead them speaking was Hebrew.
Jewish organizations have begun tracking the prevalence of Hebrew conversations triggering antisemitic incidents. Following the release of a report on antisemitism in Ireland earlier this month, Maurice Cohen, chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI), stated that “a recurring feature is hostility triggered solely by Jewish identity or perceived Jewish identity, including visible symbols, the Hebrew language, or accent.”
The researchers looking at Irish incidents found that in 30 percent of cases, the antisemitism only began after some reference to Jewish identity.
Surveys following the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks against southern Israel show that many Jews have begun concealing their Jewish identities when in public.
In February, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in partnership with Hillel International released a survey of Jewish college students revealing that 34 percent made an effort to hide their Judaism to avoid experiencing antisemitism and that 38 percent refrained from voicing support for Israel out of fear of target by anti-Zionist activists.
According to AJC research of the broader Jewish public in March 2025, 56 percent say they changed their behavior out of fear of antisemitism and 40 percent said they refrained from wearing or showing items that could identify them as a Jew. The previous year that number was 26 percent.
Much higher numbers of Jews in the United Kingdom report similar sentiments. When the UK’s Campaign Against Antisemitism activist organization polled on the question in November 2023, 69 percent of British Jews said they were less likely to show their Judaism in public. However, by 2025, the Jewish Landscape Report from the Voice of the People initiative reported that number had now risen to 81 percent.