It says of Jacob and Esau: "The boys grew up. Esau became a skilled trapper, a man of the field. Jacob was a scholarly man who remained within the tents." (Genesis 25:27) Rashi comments:
As long as they were little, they were indistinguishable by their deeds and no one could know their exact character. Once they turned thirteen, one [Yaakov] went his way to houses of study and the other went his way to worshipping idols. One became a "skilled trapper". In other words, he would deceive people, trapping them with his mouth.... He had no occupation. He used his bow to trap animals and birds. By contrast, Jacob was a scholarly man who remained within the tents. He was one in word and thought. He was not a deceiver. Rather, he sat in the tents of Torah.
It is true that Rebecca sensed the difference between the two already during her pregnancy, as it says, "The children clashed inside her." (verse 22) When she passed the study houses of Shem and Ever, Jacob would clamor to exit. When she passed houses of idolatry, Esau would clamor to exit. When they were born, they proved physically different, as well. Esau "had a reddish complexion, covered completely with what was like a hairy robe," (verse 25) a "sign that he would be a murderer" (Rashi). Jacob, by contrast, was "smooth" (27:11).



Yet, Isaac, before his death, ostensibly wished to bless Esau. He saw in him a man of action, busy with material affairs, the matters of this world; hence, Esau seemingly deserved both the birthright and the blessing. Only through Rebecca's guile and wisdom did the blessing pass to Jacob, the scholarly man who remained within the tents, who, in her opinion, deserved the birthright and the blessing. Ultimately, Isaac agreed, saying, "I blessed him. The blessing will remain his." (27:33) "Lest one say that if Jacob hadn't tricked his father, he would not have received the blessings, Isaac therefore affirmed his deed and now knowingly blessed him." (Rashi)



The clash between Esau and Jacob continues to this very day. Even in these times, on the eve of elections, there is a clash within Israeli society between two agendas. On the one side is the "Esau" agenda, which views the material and political aspect as all, and wants peace here and now. In exchange for promises from the Arabs and the nations, they have handed over parts of Eretz Yisrael, the land of our life's blood, and are ready to hand over more. In doing so, they have trampled values, ideals and ethics upon which the Jewish State was established, such as pioneering, settlement and humanism. They have further trampled the "birthright", i.e., our right to Eretz Yisrael, in exchange for "a mess of pottage" in the form of promises, exactly the way that Esau sold his birthright in exchange for stew.



In response, there is the "Jacob" agenda, that of the "scholar in the tents of Torah." It is the agenda of those who consistently devote themselves to Jacob's path. Such people view morality as a supreme value, they reject bribes and do not concede regarding truth and justice, even when they live with Laban the deceiver. Rather, such people are full of love and faith, values and ideals, national responsibility and self-sacrifice for the Torah and the Land.



In the struggle between the two perceptions, the material and the spiritual, it seems at first as though the materialist perception has the upper hand, just as Esau was originally the firstborn. In the end, however, Jacob merited both the blessing and the birthright. Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook wrote such things regarding our own age:
We have a tradition according to which there will be spiritual rebellion in Eretz Yisrael and amongst the Jewish People during the time of the nation's renaissance. The material tranquility that will obtain for part of the nation will cause their spirituality to decrease. A time will come when the longing for lofty, holy values will cease, and spirituality will hit a low. At last, a storm will arrive and foment a revolution. Then, it will be clearly seen that Israel's strength lies in the holy and eternal, G-d's light and His Torah, and the longing for that spiritual light. That is the ultimate valor that conducts all worlds and all their resources." (Orot 84)
We hope and pray that with the approach of the upcoming elections, all those forces advocating the path of Jacob will unite, and the beginning of that revolution foreseen by Rabbi Kook will be revealed. At that time, those forces will receive both the birthright and the blessing, that is, the leadership of the State of Israel, along the way towards the fulfillment of the vision of the prophets of Israel: "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of G-d out of Jerusalem." (Isaiah 2:3)