Vayishlach | Yaacov and Esav (2)

 

INTRODUCTION

 

More than twenty years have elapsed since Ya'acov was forced to flee home and hearth in order to avoid the murderous wrath of his brother Esav.  At the behest of his selfless mother, Ya'acov journeyed eastward to the family of Lavan her brother, ostensibly to find a wife from among his daughters.  There Ya'acov remained for two decades, laboring for the wily uncle who soon became his father-in-law as well.  For seven years Ya'acov herded the flocks in order to win the hand of Rachel in marriage.  But to his great dismay, under cover of darkness and the veneer of social propriety, Lavan substituted Leah in her place.  Though Rachel also became his wife, Ya'acov had to first agree to Lavan's devious terms: a further seven years of dedicated labor.  Thus did fourteen futile years pass. 

 

In the meantime, Ya'acov's wives and their handmaidens give birth, his household grows, and the thought of returning home to Canaan begins to stir in his mind.  Six further years of labor for Lavan do nothing to dispel the latter's veiled opportunism and continuing exploitation, and so Ya'acov and his family flee.  Though Lavan pursues and eventually catches up with the fugitives, a Divine communication prevents him from doing them harm.  In the end, the two parties tensely conclude a pact of non-aggression, and go their separate ways.

 

 

PREPARING FOR CONFRONTATION

 

Ya'acov's approach to Canaan, though, is also his confrontation with the demons of the past.  His brother Esav has since established a household of his own, displacing the indigenous Chori tribes and seizing their stronghold of Se'ir, on the southeastern shores of the Dead Sea.  Does his brother still harbor lethal resentment towards him for having wrested the birthright and the patriarchal blessing from their aged and blind father Yitzchak?  Ya'acov prepares to meet his brother and nemesis by adopting a multi-pronged approach.  While he sends him gifts to appease his ancient anger, Ya'acov also steels himself and his people for battle and anxiously implores the God of his ancestors to save: "Rescue me now from the clutches of my brother, from the clutches of Esav, for I fear that he will smite me along with the mothers and the children…" (32:12).

 

A tense night passes as Ya'acov divides his camp and transports them over the ford of Yabok.  Alone in the ominous darkness, just as he had been that first night of exile more than twenty years earlier, Ya'acov is confronted by a mysterious and angelic apparition.  Striving with the furtive figure, Ya'acov is injured but unbowed.  The future confrontation with Esav is foreshadowed by this painful confrontation with his own dubious past.  The triumph presaged by the rising dawn brings with it a transformation of destiny: "Your name shall no longer be Ya'acov but rather Yisrael, for you have struggled with angles and with men and have prevailed!" (32:29). 

 

 

ESAV'S QUESTIONABLE TEARS

 

In the end, of course, Esav and Ya'acov are reconciled and poignantly embrace, but for the early Rabbis, lingering doubts remained concerning the sincerity of Esav's tears:

 

"Esav ran to meet him and embraced him, he fell upon his neck and kissed him, and they cried."  "He kissed him (vayiShaKehu)" – these words are marked by a series of points (in the original Hebrew) to indicate that he did not kiss him with all of his heart.  Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said: 'it is a well-known and accepted principle that Esav detests Ya'acov.  However, at that moment his mercies were aroused and he kissed him with all of his heart' (Sifre Beha'alotekha paragraph 69, quoted by Rashi, 11^th century, France on 33:4).

 

With slight but colorful variations, the Midrash is repeated in Bereishit Rabba 78:9: 

 

"Esav ran to meet him and embraced him, he fell upon his neck and kissed him, and they cried" – The words "and kissed him" (vayiShaKehu) are marked (in the original Hebrew) by a series of points.  Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: 'whenever the letters of the marked word are more numerous than the points, then one explicates the letters; if the points are more numerous, then one explicates the points.  Here though, the letters are not more numerous than the points nor are the points more numerous than the letters!  This indicates that Esav's compassion was aroused at that time, and that he kissed him with all of his heart.'  Rabbi Yanai said to him: 'If so, then why are there points at all?  Rather, the points indicate that Esav approached not to kiss (leNaShKo) but rather to bite (leNashCho), but Ya'acov's neck was transformed into stone so that Esav's teeth were blunted.  Why then does it state that they both cried?  Ya'acov cried over his neck and Esav cried over his broken teeth!'"

 

In both sources, it is the sincerity of Esav that is scrutinized.  Though he tearfully greeted his brother and enquired after his welfare, seemingly no longer upset by the events that led to their estrangement years earlier, Rabbi Yanai's suspicions were not allayed.  Could it not be the case that Esav still harbored sinister intentions towards his brother and would yet attempt to realize them?  Significantly, though Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar as well as Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai in the earlier source of the Sifre, detect earnestness in Esav's heartfelt sobs, they also note that the pathetic moment was to be regarded as a short-lived anomaly, eventually to be replaced anew with hostility and malevolence.

 

 

PUTTING THE MIDRASH IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT

 

Though Rashi in his citation of the Midrash offers no context, thus conveying the eternal relevance of its cautious message, it is instructive to note that all three Rabbinic personalities mentioned are known to us.  Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, of course, was one of Rabbi Akiva's most illustrious students.  As one of the Mishna's most oft-quoted sages, he taught in the second century CE.  Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar and Rabbi Yanai were contemporaries, with the textual evidence (see Tosefta Sanhedrin 2:5) placing them in the following generation.  In other words, all of these figures were alive and active during the difficult days of Roman persecution that reached their unbearable apogee in the aftermath of the failed Bar Kochva revolt, which was put down in 135 CE.  That revolt had been spurred by both Roman rapaciousness as well as religious insensitivity, and in its wake tens of thousands of Jews perished and the Judean countryside was laid waste.

 

Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai's opposition to Roman rule is well known to us from other Rabbinic sources (see for instance Tractate Shabbat 33b) and it is quite obvious that in his mind the Biblical Esav, Ya'acov's evil twin, was quite naturally identified with Rome and its oppressive rule.  But Rabbi Shimon was not alone in his identification, because the Midrashic sources are replete with similar references. 

 

 

RAMBAN'S COMMENTS

 

One of the most striking is quoted by the Ramban (13^th century, Spain), as Ya'acov rebuffs Esav's offers of providing an escort for his camp:

    

Esav said "let us journey and go, and I will accompany you.  Ya'acov said to him…"let my master go before me while I take my time in accordance with the flocks and children…"  Esav said: "let me then provide you with an escort from some of my men," but Ya'acov responded "why then?  Let me but find favor in the eyes of my master" – The point of the matter is that Ya'acov had no desire for them or for their company at all.  He certainly intended to head in a different direction.  Our Sages saw pertinent advice in this episode, for they said: "When Rabbi Yanai (!) had to appear before the (Roman) governor, he would study this passage and then avoid a Roman escort.  Once he neglected to study it and took an escort with him.  He had scarcely reached Acco when he was forced to give them his tunic as a bribe" (Bereishit Rabba 78:15). 

 

The Ramban concludes:

 

Our Sages had a tradition that this passage concerning Ya'acov referred to our situation of exile.  Therefore when Rabbi Yanai had to travel to Rome and appear before the Emperor for matters of public need, he would peer into this passage in order to follow the counsel of our wise ancestor Ya'acov, for later generations must look to these events for guidance.  He therefore avoided accepting a Roman escort, for those people only show deference for their own advantage and in the end seize a man's wealth! (commentary to 33:15).

 

 

LINKING ESAV AND ROME

 

Why did the early Rabbis so naturally identify Esav with Rome?  As we saw last time, the Torah pointedly contrasts Ya'acov with Esav.  The former is contemplative and withdrawn while the latter is dynamic and outgoing.  Ya'acov engages in the pastoral and peaceful pursuit of shepherding the sheep, while Esav takes brutal pleasure in the hunt and in the killing of game.  Ya'acov is animated by a deep spiritual drive that propels him to seek the birthright and blessing, the twin expressions of devotion to God's service, but to Esav these things are merely vehicles for the achievement of more carnal ends. 

 

But Ya'acov and Esav were not merely brothers living out their painful and strained relationship, but progenitors of NATIONS: "The children strove within her and she said: 'if it be so, then why am I?', so she went to enquire of God.  God said to her: 'two nations are within you and two peoples shall part from your womb.  One nation will overpower the other and the great the small shall serve'" (Bereishit 25:23).  For the Rabbis, then, Esav embodied everything that was distasteful about unbridled power, about hegemony over men bereft of moral moorings, about suffocating attention that was in reality self-serving. 

 

Pax Romana may have been responsible for expertly paving the roads of the far-flung provinces, building their impressive basilicas and public baths, introducing to them critical tools for stable governance and sound defense, but these advances were not provided gratis.  Taxation was high, local governors tended to be abusive and corrupt, and there was little tolerance for opposing viewpoints.  The same engineers, who wondrously raised the aqueducts, invariably using slave labor that was as expendable as the sand, also perfected the arena where daily spectacles of vicious bloodletting would be celebrated.  And, like their purported progenitor, how the Romans loved the "hunt"!  Capturing all manner of wild beasts, they would starve the poor creatures and then unleash them not only on each other but also against unfortunate human fodder, all in the name of entertainment.

 

The early Rabbis could scarcely suffer the contrast of good governance with wanton cruelty, a well-regulated marketplace with unbearable class divisions, civil organization with utter disregard for the inherent sanctity of human life.  Esav, proud and powerful, ambitious and accomplished, a hunter of beasts and a ruler over men, represented a worldview that could only clash with the gentle humanity, burning spirituality and stark morality of Ya'acov.

 

 

THE HUNTER AGAIN

 

But there was more.  Esav the hunter was also crafty, devious and deceptive.  How else to strike and overpower game, except through the calculated exercise of stealth and cunning?  Was his example not the perfect likeness of the hazards inherent in submission to Imperial rule, under which one could never be sure if supposed reforms and progressive edicts might only be providing clever cover for higher taxes and more oppressive control?

 

Rashi alludes us to this possibility, but again he curiously avoids making the definitive link.  Commenting on Esav's marriage at the age of forty to Canaanite wives, at the very same age that his father Yitzchak married his mother Rivka, Rashi remarks:

 

Esav can be compared to the proverbial pig, as the verse states: "a wild boar will trample it" (Tehillim/Psalms 80:14).  The pig, when it lies down, spreads its hooves to say: 'behold, I am a kosher animal!'  So too, these ones pillage and steal and pretend to be fair and upright… (commentary to 26:34).

 

The source of his words is again the Midrash of Bereishit Rabba 65:1, where the matter is spelled out without a doubt -

 

Esav was forty years old when he took wives – this accords with the verse "a wild boar will trample it" (Tehillim/Psalms 80:14).  Rabbi Pinchas said in the name of Rabbi Simon: only two prophets were able to expose its true nature, Moshe and Assaf.  Moshe said: [do not consume the pig] for though its hooves are cloven, it does not chew its cud" (VaYikra/Leviticus 11:7), and Assaf said "a wild boar will trample it" (Tehillim/Psalms 80:14).  Why did he compare it to a pig?  Just as this pig spreads its hooves when it lies down as if to say 'I am pure', so too THIS EVIL EMPIRE robs and perpetrates violent theft while it pretends to raise up the dais of justice!

 

Rashi's conscious avoidance of direct identification with Rome is striking.  As we saw above, it constitutes a consistent approach on his explication of the Parasha of Esav.  His purpose in so doing is clear.  Rome may have long since passed from the stage of world history by the time he flourished, but only to be replaced by other more sinister temporal kingdoms.  Just as Esav is an archetype, the legacy of Esav continues to live on.  Wherever empires cruelly prevail, wherever human beings and their sensibilities are trampled underfoot, wherever competent administration is coupled with self-serving injustice, Esav lives on.  The Torah's resounding rejection of Esav, notwithstanding his undeniable gifts and talents, is a clear message that Israel's approach must be different, founded on the bedrock of love of God and respect for man that only together can bring salvation.

 

Shabbat Shalom