And Eisav said, "Look, I am going to die, so of what use to me is the birthright?" ...And Eisav spurned the birthright. (Gen. 25:32)
Rashi says that Eisav looked at the birthright with disdain because he understood that with it came certain responsibilities (like working in the beit hamikdash) and if he did not perform adequately he would possibly be punished with death, which scared Eisav.
Could there be an alternate answer for why Eisav spurned the birthright?
Additionally, if Eisav had the knowledge to know that the birthright was so important should he not have treated it with more respect?
Rabbi Brant Rosen teaches an alternate reason for why Esav spurns, or gives up, the birthright. He says, Esav’s willingness to give up his birthright teaches us about how Esav lived. Esav says that “he is dying of hunger, so what use is the birthright to me”. Rabbi Rosen interprets this as Esav saying, “I am going to die someday so what worth does the birthright have for me”. We see in this statement Esav’s practice of life. He just follows the now, what his needs are at the moment, but not what his actions could mean to his future, and legacy to the world. Esav is living in the pleasures and actions of the moment; he does not care about the future, so he does not care for what his legacy will be. He feels that the birthright is no use to him, because it does not help him in the now and he only lives in the now. Esav spurns the birthright because he does not care to look at life on a greater spectrum, but rather on how he is living at the moment, and the birthright does not affect his now, therefore he does not want it.
ReplyDeleteRav Kook says that Esav saw the birthright as a death sentence, threatening the very foundations of his physical way of life. It was because of his birthright that Esav felt that he was going to die.
ReplyDeleteEsav's viewpoint is expressed a second time during his reunion with Jacob. When Esav saw Jacob's family, he was amazed. He says "Who are these to you?" (Gen. 33:5) You, Jacob, who chose our father's birthright and its otherworldly holiness — what connection can you have to a normal life? How can you have wives and children?
Esau was unable to reconcile his image of a holy life of Divine service with establishing a family and raising children.
Esau's guardian angel, in his fight with Yaakov, embodied this outlook. Where did the angel attack Jacob? He went for Jacob's thigh, dislocating it. His message was clear: if you wish to dedicate yourself to holiness and God, you must seperate yourself from family and all other aspects of a normal life. Your thigh, from where your children issue, must be detached from you.
And Eisav spurned the birthright” (25:34)
ReplyDeleteIn this week’s parsha, Eisav sells his birthright to his younger brother, Yaakov for a bowl of lentil soup. Seems normal, right?
Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair tells a story of family who lived near him in Jerusalem. This particularly family, despite their small Jerusalem-sized apartment, hosted upwards of one hundred guests every shabbat; for some it was their first shabbat experience. One shabbat, the host was having a difficult time sharing a d’var torah because of one particular guest. This guest was a student at the nearby Hebrew University. Whenever the host would attempt to speak, the student would call out discouraging words such as “Rubbish!”, “Fundamentalist Propaganda!”, “Chauvinistic xenophobia!”, and similar expressions of reprimand. On the student’s way out, he came across the host’s eleven year old son. When the son saw the ring in the student’s nose he asked him “Why do you wear that stupid thing in your nose?”. The student replied back, “Well why do you wear that stupid thing on your head?”. Without even a moment’s hesitation the son replied, “Because I always have to know that there is something above me and higher than me and greater than me. Now, why do you have that stupid thing in your nose?”. The student was baffled and immediately left. Later that night, when the student returned back to his dorm, he wrote in his journal “that little kid knows why he's wearing a kippa, but I have no idea why I am wearing a nose ring”.
Oftentimes, we become so consumed with physical appearance and mistake it for essence, we confuse a world of nouns for a world of adjectives. Eisav says to Yaakov “Pour into me now, some of that red red”. Eisav’s phraseology here is obscure. Why use two adjectives instead of an adjective following a noun? In hebrew, a noun is called a shem etzem (name of the essence) and an adjective is called a shem toar (name of the description). Eisav’s physical desire has lead him to lose track of what he actually wanted, which was his birthright. When we begin to mix up physical appearance and essence, that is when we lose our birthright
Tamar Dubin:
ReplyDeletechazal explains that the reason for esav receiving the reward for the mitzvah of kibud av va em is because "he felt one thing with his heart and spoke another with his lips." what does this mean? chazal further explains that although he had terrible feelings and thoughts (like when he wished for his father's death to come so he may inherit his money), he acted according to what was acceptable to be expressed and said.--"may the days of mourning for my father draw near" (Bereishis 27:41) - he "honored" them by keeping these thoughts to himself; his external self filtered those terrible thoughts and made him seem like he was honoring his parents, therefore he got the reward.
Ariella Rand
ReplyDeleteRabbi Avi Pollak tells a story a man's fortune teller told him to go to the market and spend his last $50, so he went to the first place he saw, a jewelry booth. He said he wanted to buy a jewel for the $50, but the jeweler would not sell him one for such a cheap price, but the jeweler said he would sell his share of olam haba to him for the $50, and the man agreed. the jeweler went home to tell his wife he got $50 for selling a piece of his olam haba (the man was not a real Jew and did not care about it), and his wife was furious at him to sell something of value such as that, and so the man went to try and buy it back. He went to the man and asked to buy his olam haba share back. The man said it would be $10,000. They get the Rav who sides with the man not the jeweler. The jeweler only realized its value when he gave it away, just like Eisav. He only realized the birthrights true value when it was too late.
Obviously Eisav had no want for the birthright, if he was so willing to give it up. He didn't understand it's true value. The following story represents why he may exchanged it for something so simple as a bowl of soup.
ReplyDeleteA poor man approached his Rebbe one day, asking for a blessing for money so he could marry off his daughter. The Rebbe answered that he should take the first business deal that comes his way. On his way home, the man stopped at an inn. There, he saw many business men discussing deals, and he went over to them. One of the business men offered the poor man a deal - he would buy his portion of Olam Ha'ba for one ruble. The man agreed, and happily took his one ruble. When he arrived home and told his wife, she said that she wouldn't not be married to someone so willing to sell his portion in the next world. He returned to the inn, but the business man refused to sell him back his portion. The poor man then proceeds to go to his Rebbe, who says that now that his marriage is at stake and it is no longer a joke, the worth of his Olam Ha'ba has soared to almost 1000 rubles!
The nimshal of this story is that at the beginning, Eisav was unaware of the true value of the bechora. Only after later in the parsha, when Yaakov receives a blessing, that he rightfully purchased, from Rivka, does Eisav truly realize what he missed out on.
~R' Yisroel Ciner