Chavarah- Jewish Community Learning

A blog of Jewish study and traditions. Notes from classes: Torah Study with Rabbi Marder, Toledot and Shabbaton as well as other details found of interest.

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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

About Esau & Jacob

Torah Study 12-10
Genesis 25:24-30
Esau red. Isaac hold heel.
Red - hair or skin.
Famous red heads and prejudice.
Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Margaret Sanger, Judas Iscariot, Ron Hubbard, Napoleon Bonapart, Lizzie Borden
Cleopatra, Emily Dickenson, Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Jefferson, Vincent Van Gogh, Mark Twain

Different interpretations:
Red all over and all over like a hairy mantle.
Rashi... Filled with hair like wool.

Name Esau...subtle pun because the area is sair..because of the terrain (Nachum Sarna)
Meaning if the name not clear..could be ‘the covered one’.
Another theory re spelling ayin sin - to do.. He was already made.
Rashi - completed like he was older.
Kuni - says from Adam and it was that he was manly.

Midrash Eli Munk- Esau not circumcised because his father thought he was not well. Then when he was 13 he refused.
Jacob was born circumcised. Perfectly formed. This doesn’t happen any more because we have to work to form a perfect world.

Midrash is what emphasizes the contrast between them.
Jacobs hand holding he'll of Esau. Most commentators say he was trying to supplant his brother to be first.

Book of Hosea before the Bible canonized. Hosea is attacking the people -says they are full of deceit and guile. Jacob tried to supplant his brother in the womb.

Rashi gives a political point of view ... Esau symbol of Romans. Sign that Esau will not complete his reign before Jacob takes power. On the heels of Roman dominion "we will have our day"

SRH - younger will supplant older

Inspired Bob Dylan song lyrics:
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Both of their futures
So full of dread
You don't show one.
Shedding off one more layer of skin
Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within.



Jacobs name. Root to protect. God protect this child. Forecast of his future life surrounded by danger.
Eli Munk. Heel. Like the holy land reaching for the boot of Italy.
Zohar. Jacob will be the master of the heel of Esau. Later the interpretation will be that Jacob outwitted him.
Projects to the future of the Jewish people.
Ayin kuf vet. What follows. Word is part of the root of the word yakov, Jacob.
Sarna. Says that the heel means the end of time and that we will prevail .

Rashi.. First one came out and the following not called second. Called his brother.
Midrash. Lawful that Jacob grabbed heel. Jacob formed with the first seeman... Goes in first comes out last. Therefore Esau formed second.
Jacob was trying to restrain Esau.
Try's to explain the later actions that Jacob was just taking what was rightfully his.

Question of whether the system should be creatively outsmarted to get ahead.

Torah shows us that you can suffer by the deception. Jacobs life is not necessarily celebrated.

Remember that Jacob really did not need to go through the trickery to get where he did... It was foretold by God.

V27. The boys grew up.
Rashi. When little similar. When 13 years old one went to study and one went to idol worship. This is at the age of responsibility when choices have consequences.

Noted that Abraham was their tutor until he died and then it was the the time when the brothers departed ways.
Rambam said that Esau had the drive to do wring but could work to do right and overcome then inclination to do wrong.

Esau hunter Midrash. He knew how to hunt trap and deceive his father. His game was in his mouth. Would cheat his father with his words. Midrash seems to make his character bad. He is demonized in Midrash.

Hunting, Edomites weeper hunters before they settled. Hunting as a way of life is not looked well upon in Torah. Only one other...Nimrod

18th century responsa... Asking about hunting... Not to hurt living creatures and not to destroy things of value. Response... If done for human need then it is not forbidden.
Not part of our tradition ... If not for livelihood then it is discouraged. Thus not for sport...

Next about dwelling in tents. Parental favoritism.

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