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Parshas Toldos 5771: Good Intentions
By Rabbi Joshua (intentionally known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
When Yaakov, dressed in Eisav's clothing, comes in to see Yitzchak in
order to receive the blessing that Yitzchak intended to give to Eisav, Yitzchak
smells that clothing and says, " See, the sfragrance of my son is like the
fragrance of a field which the Lord had blessed" (Bereishis, 27:27). The
Talmud (Sanhedrin, 37a), through a play on words, says that the word for 'his
clothing'- begadav- can also be read as bogdav-his betrayers, or sinners- and
refers to the sinners of Israel who would arise in the future. Rav Moshe Tzvi
Neriah, in his Ner LaMaor, cites this Talmudic passage, as well as
a midrash (Aggadas Bereishis, 43) which says that the fragrance of the
field referred to in the verse is really a reference to the fragrance of the
fire of the akeidah, when Avraham bound Yitzchak to bring as an offering to
God. Ostensibly, says Rav Neriah, these two expositions seem to be
contradictory However, in truth, are complementary of each other. It is
only at times such as that of he akeidah, when self-sacrifice for the name
of God is called for, that the true inner essence of the Jew who seems to be
estranged from his religion comes out. We have, in fact, encountered this
phenomenon many times in Jewish history.
Eisav, too, was estranged form God only outwardly, but, in his essence, he had
a desire to be close to Him. When he was servicing his father, he tried to
follow the details of Jewish law. Rashi cites a midrash which says that
Eisav would ask Yitzchak how one tithes straw and salt. In point of fact,
only things which grow from the ground need to be tithed, and, so, Yitzchak was
impressed by Eisav's scrupulousness in trying to fulfill the mitzvos. Although
Rashi apparently understands the midrash to mean that Eisav deliberately
fooled Yitzchak, the Beis Yisroel, among others, says that Eisav had good
intentions in mind, wanting to bring a degree of holiness even to salt and
straw. While Eisav was in his father's proximity, says the Beis Yisroel, he was
influenced by him, and tried to act accordingly.
Following the approach of the Beis Yisroel, one may ask why Eisav was not, in
fact, a better person than he actually was, in a general sense. I believe the answer
lies in what Rav Nissan Alpert, in his Limudei Nissan, tells us about the
difference between Yaakov and Eisav. Yaakov, says Rav Alpert, is described as a
person who dwelled in tents, meaning, according to the midrash, that he
studied Torah in various venues, including the school of Shem, the school
of Eiver, the school of Avraham and the school of Yitzchak. Moreover, when the
Torah says that Yaakov 'dwelled' in tents, it uses the word “yosheiv,' written
defectively, without the letter 'vav,'' implying that each time
Yaakov sat down to learn Torah, it was a new experience. In other words,
Yaakov was continually growing in his study, developing himself as one who
seeks out knowledge of Torah and the proper way to serve God. Eisav, on the
other hand, did not spend time studying Torah, considering himself already
sufficiently developed, as his name 'Eisav,' which can be interpreted as
'asui'-already made-implies. The Mishnah in Avos tells us that an ignorant
person cannot be pious, and this, apparently, was the shortcoming of Eisav.
Why didn't Eisav, who sought holiness while in the presence of his father,
understand that it is necessary to spend time studying Torah in order to
properly develop that desire? According to Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, in his
Torah commentary, Yitzchak and Rivkah erred in trying to provide, from the
very beginning, the same kind of training and education for Eisav as they did
for Yaakov. Had they understood from the outset that their natures were
different and that they consequently required different methods of training,
Jewish history, and, indeed, world history, may have been radically different.
Interestingly, Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook, in a sicha referred to in the work
Peamim, mentions that Rav Akiva Yosef Schlesinger applied the Talmudic
exposition concerning the inner purity of the 'bogdim' of Israel to the
irreligious settlers of Eretz Yisroel in the late nineteenth century. Rav
Schlesinger said that Yitzchak foresaw that there would be, in Israel's future,
people who would contribute to the building up of the land but who would
not follow the laws of the Torah, and, yet, Yitzchak blessed them. Rav Kook,
shortly after he arrived in Eretz Yisroel in 1904, became acquainted with these
settlers, and befriended them, trying to influence them to be more observant.
In a groundbreaking essay, entitled HaDor - the generation - he wrote that
although in former times, when Jews sinned, it was largely attributable to
physical desires, the main failing of the new generation was in the mind. They
were charged with the idealism that was in the atmosphere at the time, and were
not observant of Torah because no one had ever presented Torah to them in a way
that touched their sense of idealism. Rav Kook tried to teach these settlers,
as well as a circle of non-observant Hebrew writers of the time, on their
level, and, in many instances, was able to influence them. Following Rav
Hirsch, had Yitzchak and Rivkah approached the education of Eisav in this way,
his inner essence, that strove for holiness, would have been brought out more
fully, and his relationship with Yaakov would have been quite different.