Toldot (תולדות – Generations)
Genesis 25:19–28:9; Malachi 1:1–2:7
Rivka gives birth to Esav and Yaakov. Esav sells his birthright to Yaakov. Yitzhak, advanced in years, wishes to bless Esav, but Rivka sees to it that the blessing goes to Yaakov. In the haftarah, the prophet Malachi recalls G-d’s love for Yaakov over Esav. He rebukes the Kohanim for despising the divine service and recalls the covenant made with Levi, who had “the Torah of truth in his mouth” (2:6).
Genesis 25:19 [1]
וְאֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת יִצְחָק בֶּן־אַבְרָהָם אַבְרָהָם הוֹלִיד אֶת־יִצְחָק
“These are the generations of Yitzhak, son of Avraham. Avraham begot Yitzhak.”
Rav Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog [2] begot Chaim Herzog [3]:
Opened in the early 20th century in the heart of “Little Jerusalem,” the neighborhood of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania [4], the small Walworth Road synagogue closed around 1970, after families left for the suburbs [5]. Restored thanks to Raphael Siev [6], it became the Irish Jewish Museum, inaugurated on June 20, 1985, by Chaim Herzog, President of Israel, during his state visit to Ireland.
Chaim Herzog begot Yitzhak Herzog [7]:
Yitzhak Herzog in turn became President of Israel. Tension between Israel and Ireland has grown, to the point that the Jewish state closed its embassy in Dublin [8]. The city then sought to rename Herzog Park [9], without success. The community, now only 2,200 strong, reported 143 antisemitic incidents in six months [10]. The boycott has spread to the economy, academia, sport and culture, and even to legislation: Ireland is the first country in the European Union to ban goods from Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem [11].
Even so, the museum is set to expand. Some residents opposed it, fearing it would become “a new and serious terrorist risk.” Dublin City Council nevertheless granted planning permission [12]. Run by a handful of volunteers and open only one day a week, the museum will extend into the house next door and open five and a half days a week.
[1] Rashi explains why the verse repeats “Avraham begot Yitzhak.” The scoffers claimed that Sarah had conceived by Avimelech. G-d then gave Yitzhak the facial features of Avraham, and all recognized that he was his son.
[2] Rav Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog (1888–1959), rabbi in Belfast and then in Dublin, Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1921 to 1936, then Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine and of the State of Israel until his death. His name, HaLevi, recalls the covenant with Levi mentioned in the haftarah (Malachi 2:4–6).
[3] Chaim Herzog (1918–1997), born in Belfast and raised in Dublin, sixth President of the State of Israel, from 1983 to 1993.
[4] Most of them arrived between 1880 and 1910 and settled between the South Circular Road and Portobello. The island’s Jewish community reached just over 5,000 people in the 1940s.
[5] Notably to Terenure, where the large Rathfarnham Road synagogue (HebdoSyna No. 78), having become too big, is to be demolished, and to Rathgar, home of Herzog Park.
[6] Raphael Siev (1935–2009), whose mother came from Limerick, studied at the Gateshead yeshiva before becoming a diplomat. The idea for the museum came from his father, Albert, and Raphael was its volunteer curator from the day it opened. A Kohen, he gave the priestly blessing, like those whom Malachi addresses in the haftarah. Two days before his death, at the Mansion House, for Holocaust Memorial Day, he read a text on the visa requests of Europe’s Jews, so few of whom Ireland took in.
[7] Yitzhak Herzog, born in 1960 in Tel Aviv, eleventh President of the State of Israel, in office since 2021.
[8] The embassy closed in December 2024. Israel objected to Ireland’s recognition of the State of Palestine and its support for the genocide case brought by South Africa in The Hague.
[9] The proposal, put forward in November 2025, was withdrawn in December on procedural grounds.
[10] The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland published this first report, covering July 2025 to January 2026. The incidents reported include verbal abuse, graffiti, among them swastikas, threats and exclusion.
[11] As early as 1904, in Limerick, a priest called for a boycott of Jewish traders. In 2024, the sovereign wealth fund divested from Israeli companies. In 2025, Trinity College cut ties with Israeli universities, the Football Association of Ireland called for Israel’s suspension, and the public broadcaster boycotted Eurovision. In 2026, the ban was passed without opposition, although some consider it too timid.
[12] Permission granted in January 2026. A two-storey building will replace the derelict house next door, and the museum plans five staff members and some twenty events a year. The planning report does not address the residents’ fears. The council requires a management plan and the removal of a basement intended for the archives, which risked weakening an adjoining older building. Ivana Bacik, leader of the Labour Party and a local resident, supports the project. A first expansion, costing €10 million, was approved in 2013 but never materialized.