Avimelech came to Be’er Sheva to make peace with Yitzchak, since they had sent him away earlier and were afraid they would be punished.

Yitzchak & Avimelech make peace: Yitzchak agreed with Avimelech, Pichol, and his friends that they should make peace. He made a meal, and they ate and drank together. In the morning, they made a promise not to hurt each other, and Yitzchak sent them home.

On that day, Yitzchak’s servants came and told him that they had finally found water in the well they dug! He called the well Shiva, from the word Shevuah, promise (because of the promise they just made with Avimelech and his friends). That made them decide again that Be’er Sheva (“the well of the promise”) was a very good name for the place, so that’s the name it stayed.

Eisav’s wicked wives: When Eisav turned 40, he remembered that his father Yitzchak got married at 40 years old, and he decided to act like his father and get married too. He married two women: Oholivama and Ada, but he called them Yehudis and Basmas, to make Yitzchak think he was a tzadik.

(Yehudis means someone who knows — knowing that Avodah Zara is wrong, and Basmas means “spice woman” — she got that nickname because she burned spices for Avodah Zara, but Eisav said it was because she did nice things that people liked as much as sweet spices.)

These wives made Yitzchak and Rivkah sad because they had the chutzpah to do Avodah Zara in front of them.

23 years after Eisav got married, Yitzchak had gotten old. The smoke from Eisav’s wives’ Avodah Zarah spices made him not able to see as well, plus he couldn’t see as well from the tears of the malochim that cried by the Akeida. Hashem did this so he would end up giving the bracha to Yaakov.

Yitzchak wants to give his children a bracha: Yitzchak knew that Hashem promised that he would live a long life. Still, when he was 123, he thought that this might be what Hashem calls a long life, and he decided to make sure now to give his children a bracha before he passed away.

Even though Yitzchak saw that Eisav did a lot of bad things, he hoped that if he got a bracha, he would use all of his koach to serve Hashem. So Yitzchak called for Eisav, and told him that he was getting old. To give a proper bracha, he needed to see Eisav show he deserves a bracha. So he asked Eisav to sharpen his knife and catch and shecht an animal for Yitzchak to eat.

Yaakov gets Eisav’s bracha: Rivkah heard Yitzchak telling this to Eisav. When Eisav left to trap an animal (or steal one, if he couldn’t trap one), Rivkah told Yaakov what Yitzchak had said. She told Yaakov to go take two goats from Yitzchak’s flocks, since that’s how much Yitzchak gave her to use every day. Today she would use one goat for the Korban Pesach (since it was Erev Pesach) and cook the second one to give to Yitzchak, so he would bless Yaakov and not Eisav.

Yaakov was worried, and told his mother — “I am not hairy like Eisav, and if my father touches me he will know I am not Eisav! He will then know I am tricking him and might curse me instead of giving me a bracha!”

Rivkah told him not to worry, and just to listen. So he did, and Rivkah cooked the meat, and made bread. Then she took Eisav’s special hunting outfit and put it on Yaakov. (It used to belong to Nimrod, but Eisav killed Nimrod and stole the clothes. Eisav didn’t trust his wives not to steal from him, so he kept the outfit in Rivkah’s house.) She put hairy goat skin on his arms, and smooth goat skin on his neck.

Yaakov took the food and went in to Yitzchak. He said, “Tatty!” and Yitzchak said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” Yaakov answered “It’s me! Eisav is your oldest.” (In Hebrew that sounds just like “It’s me, Eisav, your oldest.”) Yaakov said it like this because he didn’t want to lie.

“I did what you told me,” Yaakov said. Since he ALWAYS did what his father told him to do, that also wasn’t a lie. But Yitzchak still thought it was Eisav, who was telling him he went hunting like his father told him. “Please come eat, so you can give me the brachos!”

Yitzchak was surprised that Eisav came back so fast, but Yaakov said “Hashem helped me find the animal quickly!” That made Yitzchak very suspicious! That didn’t sound like how Eisav talks! He told Yaakov to come close so he could feel him and make sure he was Eisav. When Yitzchak touched Yaakov’s arm, it felt hairy from the goat skin! He said “Hakol Kol Yaakov — the way you talk is like Yaakov, Vehayadayim Yedei Eisav — but you feel like Eisav!”

Since it seemed like it was Eisav, Yitzchak got ready to give him a bracha. “You really are Eisav?” he asked. “Ani,” Yaakov answered, “me.” (Again he didn’t want to lie.)

“Please serve me the food, so I can give you the brachos.” Yaakov did what his father asked, and brought him the food and wine to drink.

Then Yitzchak asked his son to kiss him. Yaakov came close and kissed him, and a neis happened that the goat skins (which usually smell yucky) smelled like Gan Eden! He said, “since you smell like Gan Eden, which Hashem gave brachos to, it shows that YOU deserve to get brachos too.”