Summary: Perhaps our traditional distorted view of Esau was created to challenge us and choose to never look down on anybody unless we are helping him up…

[For articles on the “Sabbath of Va-Ishlach" in Hebrew, click here]

Rabbi Dr. Yossi Feintuch was born in Afula and holds a Ph.D. in American history from Emory University in Atlanta. He taught American history at Ben-Gurion University.

Author of the book US Policy on Jerusalem.

He is the rabbi of Congregation Shalom Bayit in Bend, Oregon.

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In this weekly Torah portion of Va-Ishlach we again encounter Esau, Jacob’s elder twin brother, who came to greet Jacob and his large family upon their arrival in the land of Canaan following their fording the Jordan river. Jacob, who has been absent for two decades from his parents, and the land, is in a real consternation of that reunion with his estranged brother. At the behest of his mother Rebecca he had fled Canaan in fear for  his life over ‘’stealing’’ through an act of deception father Isaac’s birthright blessing that was intended for Esau.

Now, twenty years later Esau shows no sign of carrying a grudge, let alone a quest for revenge, but the very opposite; he demonstrated love for his brother, running towards him, hugging, ‘’falling’’ on Jacob’s neck, kissing him and crying. He also shows sincere curiosity in getting to know Jacob’s family and invites them all to his new land of Seir (southern Jordan today), having conceded Canaan to Jacob in honoring father Isaac's subsequent unique blessing to Jacob. When Isaac died both sons join in burying him in Hevron, even as Esau has to arrive from Seir; the Torah even mentions Esau before Jacob in the order of performing this ultimate Mitzvah of true kindness to their deceased father.  

But Jewish tradition has been rather antagonistic to Esau sparing no effort to demonize him as one who hated his brother. The Prophet Malachi, believing that he was speaking for God, though many centuries after Esau actually lived, said: ‘’But Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation’’ referring to the Kingdom of Edom which was ascribed to Esau’s descendants. Jewish folklore has Hushim, Dan’s son (or Jacob’s grandson) chop off Esau’s head.  

It is hard to see why – unlike the relevant texts in the Torah – later generation recoiled odiously from Esau and saw him as symbol of evil and enmity to the house of Israel, even as there is no hint for that in this weekly Torah portion or in the earlier portion of Toldot that narrates the bulk of the Esau story.

Indeed, Esau honored his father by providing him venison, the meat that he liked. And when Esau learns that Isaac already blessed Jacob with the blessing that he intended to give him, Esau does not rebuke his father for doing that, nor does he show anger at his mother who finagled the ‘’stealing’’ of Esau’s blessing. 

Moreover, Esau never asks his father to rescind his blessing to Jacob and he merely asks his father for another blessing finally sufficing with an inferior one to that of Jacob.  And upon learning that his choice of wives was frowned on by his parents he went on to marry another wife in an endogamous marriage if only to sweeten the bitter pill for his parents when it came to his choice of wives.   

Esau was framed by his own mother as though he was plotting to slay Jacob even though there is really no hard proof that it is what he wanted to do; how could anyone make such a claim when Esau, at worst, entertained such a thought only in his heart – “And Esau said in his heart, ‘Let the days of mourning for my father be at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob’ ‘’? And even that he would not carry out as long as Isaac was alive to spare his aged father from sorrow.

What to do then with the sheer discrepancy between the biblical story and the folkloric negative image given to Esau, most likely in order to magnify Jacob who remains a flawed man and a failed father in the Torah narrative? After all Jacob in the Rabbis’ eyes is a Torah learner while the Torah describes Esau as a loutish hunter, a profession that the much later Jewish view would not condemn unless hunting is practiced as ‘’sports’’ or pastime as in modern times.

Perchance, the Rabbis' adversarial perspective of Esau compels us to counter it with other ethical teachings from the Jewish library such as the reminder that before we rush to condemn another, we ought to remember that such judgment does not define as much who he is, even as it first defines who we are! For if one wishes to judge another favorably (as it should have been done with Esau), he will always be able to find a way to justify questionable behavior.   Indeed, our big challenge is to train our mind to see the good before seeing the bad in another fellow. Perhaps our traditional distorted view of Esau was created to challenge us and choose to never look down on anybody unless we are helping him up…

[For articles on the “Sabbath of Va-Ishlach" in Hebrew, click here]

מצאת טעות בכתבה? הבחנת בהפרה של זכויות יוצרים? נתקלת בדבר מה שאיננו ראוי? אנא, דווח לנו!