The Tora narrative describes the competition between the individuals of the story, especially within the family. Already in Bereshit, we stumbled upon the rivalry between Kayin and Hevel, whose essence is not outlined. According to the Midrash, both were owners of land and livestock. Each one wanted the future Beit HaMikdash to be built on his plot, and because of it, a fight to the death took place.
The competition takes on a different form in the case of Avraham and his nephew Lot. This time, the problem has an economical ingredient because the size of their herds – with the requirement of sufficient pasture – prevents them from staying together, and they decide to separate. Lot opts for fertile valleys, despite its inhabitants exhibiting immoral behavior. We refer to the cities of Sedom and Amora.
Avraham’s children have different personalities and cannot grow under the same roof. His wife Sara wants to make sure that her son Yitschak does not share the home with Yishmael, son of the concubine Hagar, and urges that they be exiled from the parental home.
In this same sense, we find that Yaacov and Esav cannot share the parental home either. They are two different individuals. Esav is a hunter, and Yaacov is an introverted and studious young man. In this case, the characters cease to have a linear and simple character, and complexity begins. Esav is a hunter, a man of the field; however, he is very respectful of the parents and remains in the paternal home, while Yaacov flees and takes refuge in the home of his uncle Lavan.
Why did he have to leave the land of Canaan? Because Yaacov has to resolve internal conflicts. He used deception to obtain his father’s blessing, a fact that produced the wrath of his firstborn brother Esav who, as revenge, expressed the intention to assassinate him. With didactic intent, the Tora relates that Yaacov was the target of deception as well, but at the hands of his uncle Lavan, a master of deception according to the Chachamim. Although in love with Rachel, through a ruse, he found himself married to the not loved Le’a, Rachel’s sister. For a greater didactic emphasis, Le’a gives birth to six children, a highly regarded and important fact in an agricultural society, while his beloved Rachel has difficulty conceiving.
After two decades of absence, Yaacov decides to return to the ancestral land but knows that he will have to face the wrath of his brother Esav first after a long absence. In the filial meeting, Esav shows his brotherhood, embraces Yaacov, and invites him to share the benefits of the Promised Land. But in a revival of the episode between Avraham and Lot, the abundance of their cattle and goods prevents them from sharing the same land. Yaacov gives Esav a sizable herd, and he now needs a significant expansion of his fields, where other herds will not compete for the same sustenance. In the outcome of the aforementioned episodes, an important difference in the values of these characters comes to light. For Esav, the material is all-important, and for Yaacov, the spirit is foremost.
Kayin is willing to solve the problem, even by murdering his brother, because he thinks that as the firstborn, he should have the first choice for the location of the future House of God in his territory. Yishmael feels rejected by Avraham and does not attempt reconciliation because his pride has been violated. He is a hunter and a man of the field who only returns to his father’s home after the death of the patriarch to participate in his burial.
Esav remains by his parents’ side, especially during the long absence of his twin brother Yaakov. But for purely material reasons, he leaves the Promised Land and settles in Seir, which is the land of Edom.
The continuity of Judaism could not depend on individuals who were willing to take a different course to respond to circumstantial situations at critical moments. The teachings of the patriarchs had to be deeply internalized so that their descendants would not deviate from the path traced, even under the most adverse circumstances. Perhaps that is the message the Chachamim wish to emphasize in their interpretation of the verse: Im Lavan Garti, “I resided with Lavan.” They point out that the word Garti is numerically equivalent to Taryag. They are the same Hebrew letters but in a different order. The moral is that even in Lavan’s home, Yaacov did not forget the Taryag Mitzvot, the 613 ordinances of the Tora. His behavior followed the teachings of Yitschak.
MITZVAH: TORA ORDINANCE IN THIS PARSHA
CONTAINS 1 PROHIBITION
- Genesis 32:33 Do not ingest the sciatic nerve (guid hanashe))
