We are taught that Esav (Esau) is one of the penultimate personifications of evil in the Torah, to the point where most Jews see him almost as a caricature. Certainly, when reading the words of the Sages, Esav is not a person to admire. And yet, the Torah’s portrayal of Esav is not nearly as negative as our image of him. No doubt he has contemptible moments, but he does not qualify as a competitor to the evil of Haman or Lavan. Reconciling the outlook of the Sages with the way Esav is described in the Torah is critical to an understanding both of Esav himself and of the nature of evil in the eyes of the Torah.
Yitzchak (Isaac) instructs Yaakov (Jacob) to flee to his relatives and search for a wife there. The Torah records Esav’s “perspective” on the final stages of this dramatic episode (Bereshit 28:6-19):
“And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan aram, to take himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him, he commanded him, saying, "You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.And Jacob listened to his father and his mother, and he went to Padan aram. And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were displeasing to his father Isaac. So Esau went to Ishmael, and he took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, the sister of Nebaioth, in addition to his other wives as a wife."”
The next verses (the beginning of next week’s Torah portion) detail Yaakov’s subsequent journey to Haran.
The description of Esav is strange, to say the least. First off, we see Esav “seeing” two times, noted in verse 6 and verse 8. Why the repetition? Additionally, what is the difference between Esav’s first assessment of Yitzchak’s command to Yaakov not to take a wife from the Canaanite women, versus his reflection that these same women were “displeasing” to his father? What did he truly hope to achieve in marrying the daughter of Ishmael? Finally, why is the Torah recording Esav’s thinking, especially since the focus should shift to Yaakov and the building of the Jewish nation?
The Rashbam offers a fascinating explanation. He explains that when Esav first evaluated the sequence of events, he realized the true nature of the crime against him. He understood that Yaakov had received the blessing of Abraham from Yitzchak, that he had been promised the Land of Israel, and that he had been instructed not to marry a Canaanite woman. To Esav, all of this demonstrated that the blessing had been stolen from him, and he needed to figure out a way to get it back. He then concludes that the only way to retrieve the blessing would be to marry someone from Avraham’s family, thereby entitling him to the Land of Israel. This final deduction comes from the second “seeing”, where Esav understands the problem is rooted in marrying a Canaanite woman.
This explanation paints Esav as being slightly delusional; given the way the previous events unfolded, did he really believe that this maneuver would lead to a reversal of his current fortunes and his inheritance of the Land of Israel?
The Sforno offers an equally compelling explanation. Esav first “saw” how Yaakov had received the blessing, the promise of the future Land of Israel, and the warning not to marry the Canaanite woman. Esav’s reaction to this was a non-reaction – he did not care. However, when he understood that marrying a Canaanite woman was “bad” in the eyes of his father, he reacted accordingly. Esav deduced that Yitchak’s disapproval of his previous marriage (as noted in 26:34-35) was the reason why all these troubles had emerged. Therefore, marrying the “right” woman should rectify the breach in their relationship and win back his father’s affection.
Again, we are witnessing a presentation of Esav as being absurdly out of touch with the reality of what took place. Was Esav really this removed from reality?
Above all, why is this episode in the Torah?
It is always important to avoid caricaturization of someone like Esav, who we know our Sages paint as a rasha, an evil person. No doubt, Esav was inclined towards the path of idolatry and other behaviors that reflected a chasm between him and God. Yet he was more complex than simply being a “bad guy”, and the Torah at times seeks to contrast the ideological outlook of the evil man to the righteous one (in this case, Yaakov). The moment that Esav began “seeing”, the Torah is actually indicating to us a rare moment in his, or any individual’s, life. Esav had the chance to change his life, to recognize the truth of what had happened, and to accept that he would need to be subservient to Yaakov (as noted in the blessing). At that very moment, Esav could have re-adjusted his entire life-view. Instead, he was unable to escape the pull that is so central to his ideological outlook, expressed in his distortion of the importance of the blessing.
The Rashbam centers on Esav’s formulation that marrying the “right” woman will earn him the blessing of the Land of Israel. Esav failed to appreciate the true importance of the blessing being given to Yaakov. Israel was not a piece of land; it was the place where the Jewish nation would be built and would thrive. The Land of Israel was not to be viewed as an acquisition of land or a conquest of territory. Its function was (and is) to serve as a vehicle to perfection and to bring us to higher level of worship of God. It is rooted in a metaphysical framework, a world that Esav had no interest in.
Esav always saw the blessing as a reward of the physical world, allowing him to increase his supremacy and strength. Naturally, then, he could not see how his distorted ideological viewpoint could ever work with God’s intentions. To Esav, reclaiming his rightful inheritance could be accomplished through simple steps; after all, it was just a piece of land, and Esav could re-establish his credentials and thereby deserve the reward.
The Sforno, however, focuses on a different element of Esav’s distortion of the blessing. When Esav realized what had taken place, he cared little for the rewards contained within the blessing. Instead, Esav focused on how he could repair the rift with his father. It is possible that Esav refused to concede that Yaakov could possibly merit any approbation from their father. Esav was the warrior, the scion of might and power, the man whose path led him to world domination. How could Yitzchak possibly see something greater than that in Yaakov?
It was this sad perspective that was truly so destructive to Esav. He was unable to investigate his own flaws, to recognize that it was the type of person he was that ensured there could never be a relationship of true value between him and his father. To Esav, where success was derived through the physical world, a Yaakov outlook made no sense. Thus, he searches for some mistaken action he might have done to cause Yitzchak’s misguided perception. It was that first marriage that he therefore focuses onand attempts to repair through his next marriage, believing that all could be squared away with his father.
We can now understand the objective in presenting this final episode of Esav’s grasping for absolution. The blessings given to Yaakov reflect his future role as the spiritual builder of the Jewish people. Yaakov represented the ideology of Judaism, where the focus turns from self-gratification to the worship of God, as well as the willingness to investigate one’s own flaws.
The Torah seeks not just to show us the positive, but to understand how destructive the other ideology can be. Esav only saw power and strength, the physical world at his beckoning. The allure of such an outlook is something very difficult to deny, as is clearly demonstrated in so many societies throughout history. We must always be aware of the Esav outlook, while embracing the viewpoint of Yaakov to the best of our abilities.