Rabbi Roodyn

After having experienced the enormous challenge of waiting to conceive and being answered as a result of extending themselves through heartfelt prayer, Rivka finds herself with the most difficult pregnancy imaginable. When she passes a place of tumah she feels one side pulling to get out and when she passes a place of kedusha she feels another side trying to reach it.

She cannot imagine that such conflicts are taking place within one person. In order to find out what was going on she needed to inquire of Hashem through His prophets. She is duly informed that global conflict is being waged right inside her not within one child but between two. Yaakov and Esav are not just two private individuals, this is not mere sibling rivalry. This is an eternal struggle for world domination. There are two ways that world destiny can be played out, either through Yaakov of through Esav, but she is told that they cannot exist together.

Yitzchak, on the other hand neither  share in her experiences nor in the clarity of the prophecy. In fact he has a totally different view of Yaakov and Esav’s relationship. Whilst it is clear that Yaakov was dwelling in the tent of Torah and Esav was hunting in the field. The Sfas Emes claims that Yitzchak thinks that they can work together like Yissachar and Zevulun do a generation down the line.

In fact if one looks closely at the pesukim, it is clear that Yitzchak is aware of Esav’s true nature despite his attempts to deceive him. The pesukim say that Esav’s wives were a source of pain to Rivka and Yitzchak, and Rashi explains that this is due to their constant idol worship.  Furthermore, Yitzchak only asks who Yaakov is once he has mentioned Hashem’s name, because he knows that Esav doesn’t speak that way. Moreover, a careful reading of the pesukim will reveal that the only bracha that is being contested is the one of physical bounty. The bracha of birkas avraham¸ to be the bearer of Avraham’s legacy is given to Yaakov at the end of the parsha before he leaves to Charan because he was always going to receive it.

So who was right? Yitzchak or Rivka? The answer is, in true Talmudic fashion אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים, both opinions are the word of the Living G-d. Rav Noach Weinberg Ztl points out that Yizchak was right in that Esav has the potential to work together with Yaakov and that together they could have transformed the world. His ‘mistake’ so to speak was in strategy.  He know who Esav was, but he thought that if Yaakov would just reach out to him he could set him on the right path. If they would just join together in a partnership it would all be ok. Rivka, however knew that this was mistaken because empowering Esav before he had done Teshuva would remove the greatest impetus to change. Once Esav would have this power from the brachos, he would never be motivated to face up to himself and improve.

To be a Jew is to realise that for us the physical world is something that is not an end in itself. That is the hedonistic worldview of Esav who gulps down the food, gets up and leaves. His is a world that is limited by what we can see and feel. If it looks good and feels good then I have to have it. Yaakov’s world is one of seichel, of wisdom, of the ability to delay gratification and raise up this world to use it for a higher purpose.

These are two fundamental world views that are in constant conflict. There are times during this galus where it looks like Esav has all but emerged victorious. However,  we the descendants of Yaakov must hold on tight to our values because we are the one who will emerge victorious at the end of days and Esav will finally do Teshuva and come round to our way of thinking.

Good Shabbos