Parshas Toldos - Yaakov and Esav
מיכאל ריטש
The two brothers
כה(כה) ויצא הראשון אדמוני כלו כאדרת שער ויקראו שמו עשו.
Breishis 25(25) “The first one was born, red all over like a garment of hair; they called his name Esav.”
Hair - like a wild animal, which has natural fur. Because of the fur the animal is able to live out in the cold, in the wild. He is naturally “suited” to his situation in this world. (See what I’ve written elsewhere about אדם and אדמה.) So too, Esav was איש שדה, the man of the field. He wore the clothes of Adam Harishon, and it says in the Midrash that they had images of all wildlife. That is, from the outside he appeared to be a wild animal himself, attached to the outside world and suited to it. הידים ידי עשיו - his power was in his hands, reaching out and connecting to the world.
But Yaakov Avinu was איש חלק, smooth, without a natural garment. He was not naturally suited to this world. He was inner-focused, יושב אהלים - “sitting in tents”: He needed protection from the outside. His power was from within, in his voice (קול יעקב).
As the Midrash says (תדב“א זוטא יט(ב)), in the womb Yaakov and Esav divided the universe: this world for Esav, Olom Haba for Yaakov.
כז(יט) ויאמר יעקב אל־אביו אנכי עשו בכרך כו‘ (כב) ויגש יעקב אל־יצחק אביו וימשהו ויאמר הקל קול יעקב והידים ידי עשו: כו‘ (כד) ויאמר אתה זה בני עשו ויאמר אני: כו‘ (כז) ויגש וישק־לו וירח את־ריח בגדיו ויברכהו ויאמר ראה ריח בני כריח שדה אשר ברכו יהוה.
24(19-27) “Yaakov said to his father, I am Esav your firstborn... Yaakov drew near to Yitzchak his father, and he felt him, and said the voice is the voice of Yaakov, but the hands are the hands of Esav... He asked, ‘Are you my son Esav?’, and he answered, “I am.”... He drew near and kissed him, and he smelled his clothes, and he blessed him and said, ‘See - the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that G-d has blessed.”
See Rashi, who explains all the words of Yaakov with double meanings, so that he did not literally lie.
This is really very similar to what Rashi explained by the Akeidah
כב(ח) ויאמר אברהם אלהים יראה־לו השה לעלה בני כו‘, פירש“י כלומר יראה ויבחר לו השה, ואם אין שה, לעולה בני, ואף על פי שהבין יצחק כו‘ וע“ש דברי הראב“ע
Here too, Yitzchak understood - a little. He certainly didn’t know everything, as we see from his overwhelming shock afterwards when Esav came in. Nonetheless, it is evident that he saw the contradiction before him: the voice is Yaakov’s, the hands are Esav’s! What is going on?
Why did he go ahead, then? He knew that whoever was before him was the right person to bless, and Yitzchak accepted the decision of heaven. This was always his midah of גבורה, accepting G-d’s rulership - just as he did at the Akeidah.
It seems to me that also this fits well with the peirush of the Malbim. He doesn’t understand Yaakov’s words like Rashi, with two meanings and subtle deception. According to the Malbim, Yaakov told the exact truth - but on a deeper level. Yaakov told his father that he was Esav the firstborn: meaning, he is the one that fits the description that his father is really trying to bless, the one who is really worthy of the bechorah and the bracha. [See also Emunah Uvitachon Ch. 15, and the Rabbeinu Bachya and the Chizkuni, all saying similar ideas.]
In order to say that he was Esav, and to receive the bracha coming to Esav, Yaakov had to make himself into a man of the field, to accept on himself the powers and the purposes of Esav. That’s why he put on the clothes of Adam Harishon. He was going to live Esav’s life too. Soon he would leave his tent, go to work for Lavan. That’s why Yitzchak was able to smell the smell of the field, and to give him a corresponding blessing.
Using goat skins, Yaakov managed to fool his father’s external senses. But it seems to me that no one in the world could have ever fooled Yitzchak Avinu’s internal sensitivity. His father knew the absolute truth: these hands were the hands of Esav.
Chazal have said that originally Leah was supposed to go to Esav, and Rachel to Yaakov (Bava Basra 123a).
כה(כג) ורב יעבד צעיר - (כה) ויצא הראשון אדמוני כלו כאדרת שער
Leah was the outgoing one (יצאנית) as is evident from the incident of the דודאים, and like Dinah her daughter - so matched with Esav, the “man of the field”. Rachel, the quiet, subtle one, was the zivug of Yaakov, יושב אהלים.
Now that Esav was abandoning his purpose, Yaakov needed to take it over, to do both jobs - so he ended up marrying Leah as well.
[וכתבתי במקום אחר על הגוונים אדום ולבן בתורה, שפעמים רבות מצינו זה לעומת זה, והם שתי מדות של העולם. והכא יעקב מתחילה היה מתנגד לעשיו דהיינו אדום. ואח“כ הוצרך להחליף תפקידו, ונעשה מתנגד גם ללבן.]
2) Was Esav evil by nature?
Rambam, Hilchos Teshuva (5(2)): “Never imagine that which fools among the non-Jews, and even most ordinary Jews believe, that Hakodosh Boruch Hu decrees on a person from his creation to be righteous or evil. It is not so: Every man is capable of being a tzaddik like Moshe Rabbeinu, or wicked like Yeravam...”
Every man. The Rambam doesn’t leave much room for exceptions - not even Esav. He, like all of us, could have been a very great tzaddik.
The Ohr Gedalyahu and others (Beis Halevi) write that it was completely possible for Esav to be as great as Yaakov Avinu. Red (אדום) he always would be, but so was David Hamelech. He was supposed to be the Zevulun to his brother’s Yissachar, the dweller in the tents of Torah, etc. This all fits with the Malbim I brought earlier.
On the other hand, the קדמונים do not seem to have approached Esav that way, see the Ramban here and Drashos HaRan 2 and 5.
And the truth is that some verses in the Torah itself don’t lend themselves to this interpretation either. The direct nevuah to Rivka Imeinu: כה(כג) ולאם מלאם יאמץ ורב יעבד צעיר, “One nation shall struggle with the other, and the older shall serve the younger.” Their conflict seems preordained; there will be no covenant between them. (Also see the Aderes Eliyahu on the verse.) How should we understand this?
I have written elsewhere at length about the relationship of an עבד to his master, and how the servant can thereby reach שלימות. I noted a number of things in the creation that fit this pattern: connected to Man, but achieving their purpose only if Man rules over them. There are such verses in B’reishis concerning adamah (the land), and chayos, and Ishah - and the יצה"ר in the story of Kayin and Hevel. They need Man to rule them - but Man can only do that if he is zocheh. If he is worthy, these things are good and healthy, and help Man. But if Man is not worthy ח"ו, then each of these turn and rule over him, and then they are bad for him and the world, and even for themselves, ואכמ"ל.
That is what the prophecy to Rivka is saying here. If Yaakov is worthy to be able to dominate his brother, and the older serves the younger, then Esav will also be good and righteous, and both of them will achieve their full purposes. But if Yaakov תריד (descends), and Esav throws off his yoke (24(40)), that will be bad for both of them.
שני גיים בבטנך - פירש“י גיים כתיב כמו גאים, אלו אנטונינוס ורבי כו‘
“Two nations (גוים) in your womb.” Rashi: “It is written גיים, like גאים (elevated ones), these are Rebbi and Antoninus...” See the gemara in Avodah Zarah 11b for how Antoninus served Rebbi, actually subjugated himself to him of his own accord. Here we have proof positive that Esav had a good side and tremendous potential, and what he could achieve for good. Because of Antoninus, Rabbeinu Hakodesh was given tranquility under the Roman rule, and thus was able to gather all the sages of Israel and to compile the Mishnah. We have the Mishnah because of Antoninus.
Esav did have bechirah, like the words of the Rambam I brought earlier. But his bechirah was to subjugate himself to his brother, and thereby to achieve his purpose. A few did that, like Antoninus. But when Israel is worthy to dominate Esav, then it is easier for Esav to succeed.
[ויש להקשות מן הפסוק כז(לג) ויחרד יצחק. פירש“י בא“ד ומדרשו, ראה גיהנם פתוחה מתחתיו עכ“ל. משמע שאין עשיו שייך אלא לגיהנם. אבל ב“ה כבר הקשה אנטונינוס זה לרבי בגמרא ע“ז שם, ותירץ רבי, בעושה מעשה עשיו.]
(And see the Gur Aryeh.)
3) Beged (clothing)
כז(כז) ויגש וישק לו וירח את ריח בגדיו ויברכהו
27(24) “[Yitzchak] drew near and kissed [Yaakov], and smelled his clothing, and blessed him.”
In the Midrash (Breishis Rabbah 65(22)): “ריח בגדיו, ריח בוגדיו. (the smell of his clothing [can be read as] the smell of his traitors) - this is Yosef ben Meshisa, and Yakum Ish Tzroros the nephew of Yose ben Yoezer Ish Tzreidah.” See the rest of the Midrash for the horrifying stories of what they had done, and how they each turned back from their treachery with full teshuvah and mesiras nefesh.
You couldn’t really fool Yitzchak Avinu. He knew without question that the one standing before him was worthy of his bracha - even if he was doing an act of betrayal. The treason could only be on the outside; deep down Yisroel is attached to Hashem forever.
The clothes he wore were the clothes of Adam Harishon, who rebelled against Hashem. Afterwards they were held by Nimrod, then by Esav, all traitors against the Master who had done so much for them. Esav used these clothes to fool others, to trap animals who mistook him for their own. But Yaakov, his powers were given to serve Hashem - even when he had to fool his father.
Truth is, all clothing is our attempt to project to others what we want them to think we are inside.
[And see the Malbim in Sefer Hakarmel, who compares בגד to מעיל (overcoat). He says that מעיל is the outer garment, therefore the word מעילה means sacrilege, someone from the outside taking something to which he has no right. בגד is the inner garment, so בגידה means treachery, someone from the inside abusing his position.]
[(א)בגד - נראה כמו אלף-בית, אבל חסר העיקר.
ותרגום של מעילה בכל מקום הוא ”שקר“, דהיינו (ת)שרק, (א)בגד בא“ת ב“ש.
ולשון ”לבש“ שהוא כללי, או מעיל או בגד, היינו ב‘ - אות שני, ש‘ - אות שני בא“ת ב“ש, ל‘ - אות האמצעי. ודומיא למילת אמת, שאותיות ל‘ ומ‘ הם באמצע. ובאתי רק להעיר.]