Gift-giving is an art. It doesn’t end with selecting the item. There’s the wrapping, the presentation, the card. And, of course, the bestowal itself: striking just the right chord of generosity and benevolence, without shaming the recipient.
Gift-giving may be an art, but at least it has closure. Then it’s the receiver’s turn. He’s the one who completes the transfer of ownership by accepting, acknowledging, and expressing appreciation gracefully. But that’s not all. A proper recipient uses his gift well, in the spirit in which it was intended. This is his most demanding role, for it can continue for a long time. Sometimes, depending on the magnitude of the item, in perpetuity.
Occasionally, the receiver spurns the gift. Is it the giver, or the item itself, that he’s rejecting? The most famous, and certainly the most crucial, rebuff took place over three millennia ago when the Creator offered His Torah to the nations of the world. Every schoolchild knows the story of their pointed queries about the Torah, their subsequent refusals, and, in contrast, Klal Yisrael’s eager acceptance without much foreknowledge of what lay inside the gift wrap.
Rav Zev Leff pins down the glaring contrast between the attitudes of the descendants of Yishmael and Eisav, and the children of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. The former asked, “What is written in Your Torah?” It was not only their ultimate refusal, but also their need to know the contents of the gift in advance, that made all the difference. Why?
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