Just do the right thing.
That's what G-d demands of us. But no man is an island and few of us possess the iron will necessary to pursue righteousness in defiance of our surroundings. The Rambam famously writes:
"It is the nature of man to be drawn after the ideas and actions of one's fellows and friends and to act like the people of one's city. Therefore, a person must always attach himself to the righteous and sit beside the wise so that he learns from their deeds" (Hilchos De'os 6:1).
Today, we associate Esav with pure evil, but Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch emphasizes that Esav was a grandchild of Avraham and thus must have possessed G-dly stirrings within him too. (Otherwise, his legacy -- the Roman Empire -- would never have been able to "domineer the whole development of mankind" since the "sword alone, simply raw force, is not able to do that.")
So Esav had it within him to return to the proper path, but he didn't heed the wisdom inherent in the Rambam's words. Rather than attach himself to the righteous, he did the very opposite. "And Esav took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all the people of his house...and went into a land away from his brother Yaakov" (Bereishis 36:6, Rav Hirsch's translation).
Esav didn't leave the Land of Canaan because he hated Yaakov. He viewed him as his "brother," the Torah testifies. He left because he knew he would "feel freer and less restrained" to act as he wished "at a distance from Yaakov," writes Rav Hirsch. Thus, the Torah doesn't state in this verse that he went to "the land of Edom." It states merely that he went to "a land" (eretz), without specifying which land. For Esav didn't really care where he went as long as it was "far away from Yaakov."
May we not copy Esav's example. If the presence of a righteous neighbor or community will gnaw at our conscience and make us feel uncomfortable to act improperly, we should seek such a neighbor and community, not run away from them.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) – head of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, Germany for over 35 years – was a prolific writer whose ideas, passion, and brilliance helped save German Jewry from the onslaught of modernity.
Elliot Resnick, PhD, is the host of “The Elliot Resnick Show” and the editor of an upcoming work on etymological explanations in Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch’s commentary on Chumash