Esav’s Hooves

A central focus in our parsha is on the lives of Yaakov and Esav. As the Torah relates, the divergence between these two doesn’t even wait for “Day One” to express itself. Already in the womb, Esav clamors to get out when Rivka walks by a place of idol-worship. He comes out of the womb blood red and grows up to pursue a path of violence and vice, ultimately becoming a dedicated and implacable foe to his brother, Yaakov.

It is very easy to survey all this and never ask if things could have been any different for Esav; to consider whether he was effectively doomed from the start to become the wicked person that he did. Yet a moment’s reflection will remind us that if everyone has free will, then so did Esav. Indeed, had he no choice but to follow a path of wickedness, he could not then be faulted, indicted, or punished for doing so. Apart from this, we consider the fact that not only was he the son of both Yitzchak and Rivka, he was at least part of the answer to years of heartfelt prayer on their part.

What all this means is that although Esav undoubtedly had deeply embedded tendencies towards violence and wrongdoing, he also had the capacity to overcome and control them, channeling them toward productive purposes. In other words, while there is no question that Esav’s character was vastly different from that of Yaakov, this only means that his challenges and possibilities were, likewise, very different, but no less noble or praiseworthy.

Indeed, it was with this in mind that Yitzchak desired to give the blessings to Esav. Yitzchak’s plan was to provide Esav with the material basis for channeling his physical tendencies towards moral and spiritual living. Unfortunately, what Esav had been concealing from Yitzchak over the course of all those years was the fact that he had long since abdicated any notion of doing so, instead embracing a life of temporal enjoyment. This is something that Rivka sees much more clearly than Yitzchak, leading her to conclude that if Esav receives the blessings, he will only squander and abuse them, and, therefore, it is Yaakov who should be the one who receives them.

More specifically, Rivka sees not only the lifestyle that Esav has chosen, but that he has adopted an attitude which effectively guarantees that he will never develop any good that is inside of him…

Groomed to Perfection

As a prelude to the chapter which deals with the blessings, the Torah relates the following:

And Esav was forty years old, he took a wife Yehudis the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bosmas the daughter of Elon the Hittite.[1]

Rashi comments:

Esav was compared to a pig… when the pig crouches down it stretches out its hooves to say, “See, I am pure!”… For forty years Esav had been snatching women from their husbands and violating them. Now, when he became forty, he said, “My father married at forty, I will do likewise.”

We see that the only area of kosherness in which Esav invests is that of appearing kosher, something that we witness in his ongoing charade before his father. Not only does this emphasis divert all of his spiritual energy away from actually being or becoming kosher, it effectively seals the path which would allow him to do so. There is only so long Esav can grant exclusive focus to convincing people that he is a moral person before he himself comes to believe it. In this regard, Esav is both the perpetrator and the victim of his deceit. Once he fully believes that he is as kosher as he looks, any introspection with a view to self-improvement is practically impossible – for why spend time developing a product that is already perfect?

Rivka notes this fatal flaw because she has seen it before. It was a trademark of the master of appearances with whom she grew up – her brother, Lavan. Time and again, we see that Lavan can perpetrate any crime and then not only defend it, but assume the moral high ground when doing so. After agreeing to give Rachel to Yaakov for seven years’ work and then substituting Leah at the last moment, when confronted by Yaakov the next day, Lavan simply answers, “We do not act that way in this place, to give the younger [sister] before the older one.”[2] Just like that! Lavan is saying to Yaakov, “I know you specified Rachel in your terms, but that is immoral and insensitive. We don’t do that kind of thing around here. Please try and be a better person, and a better husband, and I hope we never have to talk about this again”

Likewise, when Lavan chases after Yaakov to kill him at the end of Parshas Vayetzei, which he is prevented from doing, he explains the background to his pursuit as the fact that Yaakov ran away and did not give him a chance to kiss his daughters and grandchildren goodbye![3]

For people like Lavan and his spiritual heir, Esav, introspection and self-improvement are simply unfathomable. Recognizing this quality in Esav only too well, Rivka realizes that for him to receive the blessings cannot have a good outcome and will only lead to more wickedness on his part.

Wedded to Failure

After Yaakov succeeded in receiving the blessings from Yitzchak, the Torah recounts:

And Esav saw that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Yitzchak, his father. So Esav went to Yishmael and took Machlas, the daughter of Yishmael… as a wife for himself.^[4]

Mazel Tov!

This is a very interesting way to conclude this section of the Torah. After all the events of that day, whose repercussions would echo and reverberate throughout history, the final event we are told about is Esav marrying again.

Why does Esav keep getting married?

The Shem MiShmuel^[5] explains that Yaakov receiving the blessings from Yitzchak was a bitter disappointment for Esav. In spite of his best efforts over the course of many years to win his father over, Yaakov had still outdone him. What followed was a moment of reflection for Esav. What is wrong with him that Yaakov keeps on getting the better of him? He thought and thought, and finally he found the answer: NOTHING was wrong with him! The answer, therefore, must be that he is being held back by someone else, i.e., that he is married to the wrong women. If only he had the right wife, everything would work out for him. It is a very sad moment indeed, and one which encapsulates the path Esav had chosen for himself. Upon being presented with a rare opportunity to finally consider what was wrong with his life, he could only use it to focus instead on what was wrong with his wife.

Once again, the Torah presents us with an individual who possessed a critical flaw – and to a chronic degree. The purpose is not for us to bathe ourselves in self-congratulation, but to take notice, and to be sure to eradicate this tendency from our own make-up as far as we can. Instead, we are enjoined to take our cue from Yaakov who, as his name suggests, sees himself only ever at the heel of spiritual attainment, striving constantly upwards toward perfection.

[1] Bereishis 26:34.

[2] Ibid. 29:26.

[3] Ibid. 31:28.

^[4] Ibid. 28:8–9.

^[5] Parshas Toldos 5672, s.v. “vayar Esav.”