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Despite the fact that they are twins, it is easy to see Esau and Jacob as complete opposites. Esau is hairy and Jacob is smooth. Esau is a skillful hunter; a man of the outdoors and Jacob is a mild man who stays in camp. Isaac loves Esau because he likes to eat game and Rebecca loves Jacob. We can easily construct a
picture of two men who are so different it is hard to imagine them as brothers, let alone twins. In our mind's eye we see Esau and Jacob as twins who are as dissimilar as Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie, Twins. Once we characterize them in that way, then it becomes automatic to make Esau the villain of the story and Jacob the hero.

However, if we look closely at both men, the contrast becomes less stark. We can have the tendency to see Jacob as the less physical of the twins, someone who is bullied by Esau. But Jacob is as much of a fighter as Esau. When the twins are fighting so much in the womb that Rebecca must inquire of God [Genesis 25:22], both of them are fighting. Even at birth they are fighting and there is the sense the Jacob is only barely edged out to be the firstborn.

At the age of sixty years old, when Jacob’s name is changed to Israel, he will fight all night so fiercely that even with a severe injury to his hip, he wins [Genesis 32:25 – 29]. Jacob is the one who is known for staying in camp, yet he is the one who leaves home, and it is Esau who takes care of their elderly parents for the rest of their lives. [Keep in mind that Isaac will live for another 80 years after Jacob leaves.] Esau is a skillful hunter, but it is Jacob who is the more successful trapper and hunter in this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Toldot.

A successful trapper must have a great deal of patience, know the appropriate lure for the animal that he is stalking as well as its pattern of behavior, and be ready to make the most of an opportunity.

Esau comes home from hunting, famished, unaware that he is about to be the prey, and it just so happens that Jacob is cooking a red lentil stew. In a matter of a few sentences, Esau has exchanged his birthright for a bowl of soup with some bread and something to drink [Genesis 25:29 – 34]. Jacob knew what Esau’s patterns were and he knew Esau would want some food when he returned from hunting. He probably was cooking the lentil stew because a stew would be something that would hold for a long time since he could not know exactly when his brother would come home. Jacob uses the skills of a trapper to get exactly what he wants from his older brother, the birthright.

When it comes to wresting Esau’s blessing from their father, Isaac, Jacob again utilizes the skills of a hunter. His objection to Rebecca’s plan is an analysis of the weaknesses of her suggestion not a protest that he could never do such a thing. When it comes right down to it, Jacob is very willing to disguise himself in his brother’s clothes so that he smells like his brother, to wear patches of goat skin so that he feels like his brother to the touch, to answer Isaac’s questions as if he were Esau to obtain his brother’s blessing from their father [Genesis 27:1 – 29]. Again, he is using the skills of a hunter; he changes his appearance, changes his smell, provides the appropriate lure, goat stew; and takes advantage of the opportunity of his brother’s hunting trip.

When we look at any biblical personality as a caricature, instead of examining all the intricacies of who they are, we lose some of the richness of the narrative. Esau is not the villain. Jacob is not the villain. The twins share many traits, good and bad, and both are complex characters. We will never include Esau, or Ishmael for that matter, in the first prayer of the Amidah, when we speak of the unique relationship God had with our ancestors. But we can make sure that we know more about them and learn from their lives, just as we learn from the lives of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah and Rachel.

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Temple Talk is a recap of sermons given from the Bimah for those who missed a Sermon or who wanted to revisit the words spoken at a previous sermon.