Chevre, this week’s parsha is Toldot (תולדות). This week we have the birth of Esav and Yaakov. All of their family troubles including the sale of Esav’s birthright and Yaakov stealing Esav’s blessing from Yitchak. And it ends with, an apparently disillusioned Esav, marrying Yishmael’s daughter.

I want to double-click on the story of the selling of Esav’s birthright. He comes home from the field and is famished. Yaakov has some food (lentil stew) and agrees to sell some of it to Esav for the birthright. Now, Esav was out hunting and probably hadn’t eaten anything or nearly anything all day. And Yaakov takes this opportunity to take advantage of Esav. I can imagine, when I’m at a cusotmer all day, running around the city and traveling back and forth. When I get home, I’m tired, I’ve been dealing with traffic. I’m not at my best and I almost always need 10-20 min to take off my shoes, put my stuff away and calm down before any major interactions with the family.

But if it was a fast day, I know in my house, we daven Maariv at the earliest time and move directly to eating and drinking something. Whenever I think of Esav, I think of him as the evil twin brother. But looking at the story from his perspective, I’m thinking he was more of a tragic figure. He came home after fasting all day and traded his birthright for dinner. He couldn’t have been thinking clearly. And then, he missed out on the blessing from Yitchak because Yaakov, with the help of Rivka, tricked Yitchak.

Based on this perspective, I feel bad for Esav. He ends up OK in the end, but he didn’t have an easy life living with Yaakov.

May we learn from this how to be good to each other. Shabbat Shalom.