Toledoth: Cheating

Toledoth: Cheating

This parsha describes the image of the Jew in a Gentile land. The drama of Yaakov and Eisov continues to play out into the present . It is the foundation story of antisemitism. 

What happens here?  Eisov is the biological first born, the natural favorite of his parents. He is also favored by nature with physical prowess and  the courage of  a hunter.  Jacob is weak and hangs out.  Then opportunity knocks, Eisav is famished and Jacob has lentils.Jacob trades food for a contract.  He buys Eisav's  birthright through some combination of opportunity, cleverness, confusion, youthful misunderstanding...

Presumably, this purchase confers upon Yaakov the right to claim he is Eisav before his father Yitzchok when he comes to get the (first) blessing.  It is in this scene that Eisav shows his regret for selling the birthright. We hear Eisav characterizing Yaakov as a cheater.  I hear Eisav calling Yaakov  a Jew , with all of its derogatory implications. a pale, physically weak, opportunist, clever, cheater!  And the text lets us understand why the Gentile believes that.

This triumph of cleverness over the brute is our story - from both sides, ours and theirs. 

It is Abbot and Costello, the Smothers brothers, Laurel and Hardy.

 Sometimes it is funny.