“But it’s not a great achievement, either,” said Rebekah. “You and Isaac revel in it as if it were something to be proud of.”

“When I was Esau’s age,” said Abraham, “I already had a mind of my own.”

“So does Jacob,” said Rebekah. “But it’s not wrong that he’s able to listen and change his mind when he learns what is expected of him.”

“No, it’s not wrong,” said Abraham.

Isaac sighed. “At long last,” he said, “the two of you are actually trying to understand each other.”

“So when will the two of you try it?” asked Abraham. He sounded as if he meant them to take the remark as a joke.

“It takes a lifetime,” said Isaac. “Or so Mother told me.”

What Rebekah did not say was, When will you two begin to understand each other? They were on the verge of making peace. She was not going to spoil it by provoking a new argument in which she would definitely be the outsider with no right to speak.

They ended the conversation with a new resolve to treat the boys even-handedly, and from that day forward, Abraham included Jacob with Esau in his lessons, and Isaac included Jacob with Esau when he taught them how to care for animals, and how to hunt, and how to fight in battle. Teaching them side by side was not always pleasant, because the two competed relentlessly, and each took it hard when he came out second best. But that competition made it so Esau worked hard at his reading in order to catch up with Jacob, who was so far ahead, and it made Jacob work hard at the games of hunting and war at which Esau excelled and in which Jacob had shown so little interest before.

And now that they were all trying to work together to raise the boys well, Rebekah found that Abraham was not at all autocratic and arbitrary. He had reasons for everything he decided, and when she spoke to him respectfully instead of picking a quarrel, he listened to her and explained things to her so that most of the time they ended up in agreement. Isaac seemed much happier, too, to have peace between his father and his wife, and as she eventually became pregnant with each of the three girls, he could not have been more attentive.

But the tensions were all still there. Working in harmony did not mean that they were truly of one mind, only that they were determined to find a way to keep the peace and willing to compromise with or tolerate each other in order to do it.