Esau

026

At the risk of shocking my reader, I feel compelled to reveal my sympathy for a character that the Bible seems to treat rather badly. I am talking about Esau, the elder brother of Jacob. I feel sorry for him. I imagine him alone, always alone, bitter and unhappy. Except for his old father, blind and powerless, no one loves him. And his mother less than the rest of the world. Her mistrust of him is mixed with dislike. We can imagine her plotting against him. It is not surprising that Esau is rarely at home; perhaps he feels like an intruder there. The fields and forests are his kingdom.

Why does Rebecca loathe her older son? Even before giving him life, she resents him. Citing the sages, Rashi^a gives us the answer: Pregnant with twins, Rebecca felt them stirring in different places inside her. When she passed before a house of study, Jacob wanted to come out. Before a place consecrated to idols, it was Esau who hastened to be born.

Even in their mother’s belly, they quarreled. Puzzled, Rebecca went to Shem in his yeshiva and asked him for an explanation. Shem predicted their future: One would be good, the other bad; each would found a nation, and the two would not be able to live together peacefully; when one nation ascended, the other would decline. So this is why Isaac’s wife, deeply religious, favored her younger son. As did God. Does the Bible not say that “the older shall be servant to the younger?” (Genesis 25:23).

Poor Esau. He is not even born, and already he is persecuted, already he has been consigned to a wretched fate. All that he does, even the good, is construed badly. While Jacob remains at home all the time, Esau loves to go out hunting. So what? Hunting isn’t forbidden in the Bible. But the traditional commentaries, playing word games, reproach him with trickery, pretense, posing as a strictly pious man only to please his father.

Actually, Jacob seems the more cunning of the two. Did not Jacob persuade his older brother to sell his birthright for a simple bowl of lentils? Esau was famished, he was dying of hunger, and Jacob took advantage of it to trap him. If Esau hadn’t been hungry, would he have accepted the trade?

Even worse: Jacob stole Esau’s identity by presenting himself before their ailing father to receive the blessing intended for his older brother!

And if this wrong is not grievous enough, it was Esau’s mother who was the instigator. It was her idea to play the trick of robbing Esau of what by right belonged to him. Jacob had only to follow her instructions. What to do, what to say, how to dress to fool Isaac: It was Rebecca who manipulated him. Did Esau know? And Isaac—did he suspect? He must have felt that something was wrong. Something must have bothered him, perhaps even distressed him, because the text says “Vaye harad Itzhak haradah gedolah,” “And Isaac, filled with dread, was seized by a great trembling” (Genesis 27:33). The Tosaphists, early rabbinic scholars, give us this comment: Isaac trembled with fear twice in his life. The first time was at the Akedah (the binding), when he saw his father, knife in hand, ready to sacrifice him (Genesis 22). But now his fear was even more terrifying. He 027began to wonder about his own guilt, asking himself, What sin could I have committed that led me to bless my younger son before his brother?

We understand Esau’s despair. He heaved a rending cry. Suddenly he must have understood the full measure of his tragedy: He was the victim of a family conspiracy. His brother’s deceit was stronger than his father’s ability to see through it. It was too late to set right what had been done, too late to repair the injustice.

What would Esau’s response be? Would he now begin to despise his brother Jacob? Rebecca thinks so. The Scriptures do not. The biblical passage speaks only of Jacob’s fear, but not of Esau’s designs. For the commentators, they are overwhelming.

Meeting after a long separation, Esau embraces Jacob (Genesis 33:4). Perhaps he was emotionally moved, which would be natural. But the midrash^b claims that Esau’s heart was not in it. Why not give him the benefit of the doubt? Where Esau is concerned, we always assume the worst.

Is Esau wholly innocent? If he is, Jacob would be wholly guilty. Neither is true. In claiming the blessing that belonged to the elder son, Jacob did not really lie. Had he not bought his brother’s birthright from him? On the other hand, why did Isaac prefer Esau?

The story is complex enough. It becomes even more so when one recalls the traditional teaching that portrays Esau as Jacob’s implacable enemy for all time. So Esau never overcame his anger.

The commentary of a great Hasidic master: The moment Esau discovered his betrayal by Jacob, he shed two tears. And it is because of those two tears that the Jewish people have shed so many tears during their exile.

But with all of that, we are the descendants and heirs of Jacob.

And not of Esau.

Translated from the French by Anne Renner.

At the risk of shocking my reader, I feel compelled to reveal my sympathy for a character that the Bible seems to treat rather badly. I am talking about Esau, the elder brother of Jacob. I feel sorry for him. I imagine him alone, always alone, bitter and unhappy. Except for his old father, blind and powerless, no one loves him. And his mother less than the rest of the world. Her mistrust of him is mixed with dislike. We can imagine her plotting against him. It is not surprising that Esau is rarely at home; perhaps he feels […]