Shabbat Shalom! I've told you all before about
my soft spots for some of the Biblical "villains", and Esau is no
different. Although the vast majority of rabbinic literature paints him as a
monster, I've always thought he had an unfair reputation, and in rabbinical school
I had the opportunity to hear some midrashim (especially modern) that explain
some of his behaviors and choices in this week's Torah portion, Parashat
Toledot.
The parasha is about the births of twins, Esau
and Jacob. Jacob is the favored son of their mother, Rebecca, and Esau is the
favored son of their father, Isaac. Esau is the first born, with Jacob
immediately following him out of the womb holding on his heel. Thus, Esau the
elder is supposed to get the birthright and the blessing, the physical and spiritual
inheritance of Isaac. Yet, as we see again and again throughout the stories of
Genesis, destiny subverts the norms of the day, and Jacob the younger manages
to weasel both away from his brother.
There is so much to say about all of this, but
this year Esau's cry toward the end of the parasha is really sticking in my
kishkes and filling me with empathetic sorrow for Esau. When Esau enters his
father's room/tent to approach his death bed and receive his blessing, Isaac
realizes he has been tricked into giving the blessing to Jacob and at first he
acts defeatist. Esau wails a loud and bitter cry, "Bless me, too, Father!
Have you no other blessing for me?" It's just so heartbreaking.
So Isaac reaches deep inside himself and finds
a second blessing. But it's clear that the blessing Isaac musters up for Esau
is such a second-place blessing. It's pretty objectively worse than Jacob's and
it's not the one that was meant for him in the first place. Jacob is blessed
with the blessing of HaShem, the promises God made to Abraham that continue to
be passed down through this line to the Israelites. With this blessing, comes a
particular relationship with Holiness, which now Esau seems to be completely
barred from.
I know different people have different relationships
with the Divine and different pathways into their Judaism, but no one should be
barred from it this way, told that because they were not in the right place at
the right time, now they have missed the chance to access their spirituality. It
is not infrequent that I hear from people who didn't finish their Hebrew school
studies and now they think it's too late for them to learn, or that they're
lesser Jews because they didn't have a B' Mitzvah ceremony, and from converts
who are made to feel like they don't truly have a Jewish neshama because of
some happenstance of their birth, and from other reasons of identity that have
caused so many to have been cast out of their religious communities.
I hope because you are here, you already know
how wrong that is, and know that you are still entitled to your own spiritual
journey. I hope because you are here, you feel welcomed and ready to learn and
pray and explore your relationship with Judaism and God.
But just in case, I have a blessing for you,
and it's not Isaac's second-rate, war-mongering blessing for Esau. You belong
in the Jewish community. You have a right to your own relationship with the
Higher Power of your understanding. There is no sexuality, gender identity,
race, class, education level, or any other reason that gives anyone else the
right to withhold from you the blessings of our ancestors and our peoples. May
you always feel safe and loved here, may you feel warmth of the Divine Presence
on the coldest days, and may you feel a sense of peace with your Judaism. Amen
and Shabbat Shalom.
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