Toldot: Chapter 9

"And the boys grew...for he relished his venison"

Synopsis

The discussion moves to a more profound understanding of the metaphor of Esau as a hunter. Even in the womb, Jacob was drawn to the Creator, while Esau was drawn to idolatry. As a cunning hunter, Esau stole the minds of men and led them astray so that they would rebel against the Creator. As the Rabbis probe the issue of why Isaac did not know these things about his son, we discover that the Shechinah wanted only Jacob to be blessed with the spirit of the Creator, which is precisely what transpired.

Relevance

The verses pertaining to Esau's coercing men into idolatry, function as a kind of spiritual homeopathy. Just as the cure for a deadly snake bite resides within the venom of the snake, the remedy for strengthening our consciousness against temptations of the material world resides within the verses that speak of these matters. We also draw the Light of the Shechinah into our lives through the merit of Jacob.