On a literal reading of our Parasha, Esav DID sell his birthright to Yaakov, as we read:(25:29-33)
’Yaakov simmered a stew, and Esav came in from the field, and he was exhausted. Esav said to Yaakov:’Pour into my mouth now, some of that very red stew, for I am exhausted..; Yaakov said:’Sell, as this day, your birthright to me’; And Esav said:’Look, I am going to die, so what use to me is a birthright?’. Yaakov said:’Swear to me as this day’; he swore to him and sold his birthright to Yaakov. Yaakov gave Esav bread and lentil stew, and he ate and he drank, got up and left; thus, Esav spurned the birthright’.
The Midrash Hagadol says:’What did Esav do?’ after this, ‘he began to assemble crowds of the people, saying:’Do you know what I did to this one?’- to Yaakov-‘I ate his lentils, and drank his wine, and שחקתי: ‘played him’, and sold him my birthright’.
Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl comments on this Midrash:’Esav was ecstatic about the deal he had just made; in his eyes, it was plain that he had just pulled off the most successful transaction of his life!’.
The Malbim similarly comments:’From the fact that, even after Esav ate and satisfied his hunger, he ביזה: spurned his birthright, we learn that it was בזויה: despised by him, and that he was glad that Yaakov had ‘taken’ it from him’.
Haktav veHakabala, however, proffers a different answer, commenting:’It is not as it might appear at first glance, that Yaakov intentionally took advantage of Esav’s dire need for food, Esav having returned from the field tired and ravenous, and כמעט מוכרח: almost compelled to the sale that followed.
‘Rather, Yaakov behaved in the manner worthy of בחיר האבות: the ‘choicest’ of our holy Avot: when Esav pleaded with him to feed him and restore his soul, Yaakov did not hesitate even for one minute, but immediately fed him from the stew, and did not speak a word about the birthright.
‘It was Esav who, once his hunger had abated, brought the conversation round to the matter of the birthright, making it clear how little importance it had in his eyes.
‘Upon hearing his disparaging comments, Yaakov rebuked him, saying: From this day on, the birthright is removed from you; just as a person who might have been called ‘wise’, because of his wisdom, if he does not behave in accordance with wisdom, is not worthy to be called ‘wise’, so too, a person is not entitled to be called by the title of honor of the eldest, the בכור, if it is despicable in his eyes- more so, when he brazenly speaks disparagingly of it before others- especially where it concerns these twins(as Rashi 25:26 notes), Yaakov having been first in conception, despite Esav being the first-born.
‘Thus, the birthright מעצמה: ‘by itself’ left Esav, and passed to Yaakov- and his statement to Esav:’Sell, as this day, your birthright to me’, was to inform Esav, that, as he had by his own words and actions, made clear his disdain for it, it was now ‘sold’ to him, Yaakov, who so clearly merited and valued it.
‘We find this language in the words of reproach to Bnei Israel (Haazinu 32:30):’צורם מכרם: Their Rock has sold them out’- a statement of fact, after the event’.
Haktav veHakabala, a master of the Hebrew language, derives this from the מיקוד: the unusual punctuation, of the word מכרה, to read it, as מכורה: sold, and not as ‘to sell’.
‘Further, whilst the Torah relates that ‘Yaakov gave Esav bread and lentil stew’ AFTER their exchange of words, this, in fact, occurred at the outset- as soon as Esav came and asked to be fed, Yaakov fed him, without speaking, or making any demands, of him.
‘The Torah tells us this, because, in relating the events, it precedes Yaakov’s name to his ‘giving’, teaching that it was not an after-math of their exchange of words, but preceded them.
‘In brief, Yaakov did not demand that Esav sell him his birthright, before feeding him- nor subsequently’.
Lest we think that this is a חידוש: an original insight, not shared by other commentators, it is also the view of Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, who says:’By preceding Yaakov’s name, to the giving of the food to Esav, we learn that Yaakov first fed him, and did not take advantage of his desperate need to force him to sell his birthright.
‘Further, there is a מכר which does not mean a sale by one to another, but alludes to הפקר: ‘vacated’, as in the passuk צורם מכרם: Their Rock has left them’.
At the same time, there are commentators who understand that these events occurred in the exact sequence recorded in our Parasha- and that Yaakov DID demand that Esav ‘sell’ him his birthright, before acceding to his pleas, to be fed.
Rav David Hofstedter, on that understanding, wonders:’Why isn’t the sale of the birthright considered to be a forced sale? Esav was seemingly compelled by Yaakov to sell his birthright, to save his life, from the pangs of hunger.
‘Even if, halachically, such a sale might be valid, does it befit Yaakov Avinu, the pillar of Emet? Also, might it not be a transgression of the commandment: ‘Thou shalt not covet’?
‘The answer is provided by the comment of the Midrash Hagadol, on the double wording, in Esav’s request:’Give me some of this red red’: Esav asked not only for some of the red stew, but ALSO for some of the red wine, both of which had been prepared by Yaakov for the meal of the mourners, for, as our Sages relate, on that day Avraham Avinu died, and (Eruvin 65.):’Wine was not created, but to comfort mourners’.
‘Had Esav only asked for the stew, to save himself from the pangs of hunger, then we might have said that Yaakov Avinu took advantage of his dire predicament, and the sale was forced, and objectionable; but once Esav also asked for wine, which clearly was not connected with his perilous predicament, it became clear that his base desires, rather than his dire predicament, were at the forefront of his plea- and that these were, in his order of preference, far more important than his birthright.
‘Alarmed at the prospect that this wastrel was going to be the leader of the House of Avraham and of Yitzchak, Yaakov Avinu acted out of the noblest motives, to demand that he sell him the birthright, as he so clearly debased it’.
Might this not be alluded to in the order of the words:’And he ate, and he drank, and he despised the birthright’- the proximity of ‘drink’ to ‘despise’, alluding to the drinking being the proof that he despised the birthright.
Rav Zalman Sorotzkin, sweetens this ענין, by asking rhetorically:’Why did Yaakov Avinu give Esav bread first, and then lentil stew, when Esav had only asked for some of the stew? After all, he purchased the birthright in ‘payment’ for the stew, alone’.
He answers:’He did so, to preclude Esav later claiming that he was forced to sell, because of his pangs of hunget.
‘By first assuaging Esav’s hunger, by feeding him bread, this argument was no longer open to him, and his sale was a מכירה גמורה: a completely valid sale.
‘The fact that, after his hunger had been satiated by the bread, yet, after it, he sold his birthright for a portion of lentil stew, proved how little value it had in his eyes’.
A parting thought from Rav Matityahu Solomon: ‘Each of us determines the value, in our eyes, of spiritual matters; if in Esav’s eyes his birthright was not worth more than a bowl of lentils, then that is its true value.
‘Similarly, if one is learning Torah in a fixed seder, and decides to take time out from it, to attend to some other matter, such as buying an item on sale in a store, thereby ‘earning’ a few dollars, he is setting a value on his learning: it is worth these few dollars!
לרפואת נועם עליזה בת זהבה רבקה ונחום אלימלך רפאל בן זהבה רבקה, בתוך שאר חולי עמנו.
Danny Ginsbourg is a retired lawyer who made aliya from Australia a decade ago. He has written five volumes of Torah thoughts in Hebrew,and was awarded the Jerusalem Prize.for the two volume Davsha shel Torah to which there are already several sequels.