"YA'AKOV DONS ESAV'S ARMS" | Rabbi Ari Shvat | Beit Midrash

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"YA'AKOV DONS ESAV'S ARMS"- Parshat Toldot
Q. How can we understand in this week's parsha that Yitzchak even considered giving the bracha of Eretz Yisrael to Esav? A. Rav Kook explains (Midbar Shur, pp. 266-272) that Yitzchak's disagreement with Rivka was whether it's easier for someone physical-oriented (Esav) to learn spirituality, or for someone spiritually-oriented (Ya'akov) to learn the ways of the physical world. Rivka opted for Ya'akov while Yitzchak preferred Esav (25, 28), for the blessing is for the Land of Israel, which is both PHYSICAL and SPIRITUAL. Yitzchak was scared that the studious Ya'akov, may neglect the Holy Land and leave it to weed. This is proven by the stressing 8 (!) times that Yitzchak thinks of giving the bracha to Esav davka because of his hunting, i.e. activism (25, 28; and 27, 4, 7, 10, 19, 25, 27, 31). Esav is also the only one in Tanach who shows his activism via 5 consecutive verbs (25, 34).
Moreover, the g'mara (Psachim 88a) teaches that even though all of the fore-fathers prayed in Jerusalem, Avraham called it a mountain, Yitzchak, a FIELD ("SADEH"), and Ya'akov, a home. Yitzchak sees life as a "field", as he was the only one who wasn't a nomad shepherd, but rather a very successful FARMER (26, 12), who establishes permanent roots in the fields of Eretz Yisrael. As opposed to his father and son, Yitzchak is the most Israeli, not even allowed to leave Israel during famine (26, 2-3). This is precisely why he was chosen for the Akeida, for just as a sacrifice which leaves the Mikdash is invalid, so too Yitzchak doesn't have the blemish of ever leaving Israel (Breishit Rabba 64, 3). Like Yitzchak, davka Esav is repeatedly associated as "ISH SADEH", a man of the FIELD (25, 27; 27, 3, 5), so to a certain extent Yitzchak, also Mr. Field, sees Esav as his continuation. Especially, as above, when he's worried that under Ya'akov, Eretz Yisrael may be neglected. Yitzchak had both Torah & Avoda, as seen when he goes to SICHA in the fields (24, 63) some say he went to pray there, while Rashbam & Chizkuni say he went to check his trees and orchards: SI'ACH, see Breishit 2, 5). Similarly, Yitzchak is told SH'CHON in the land (some say it's from the word Shechina- bring G-d into the world, while others explain it means build a Yishuv- sh'chuna (Breishit Rabba 64, 3). Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook (LeNtivot Yisrael I, p. 189) adds that AVODA means both serving G-d, and also WORKING. In the nature of Hebrew, as exhibited by Yitzchak, these 3 examples (si'ach, sh'chon & avoda) show that spirituality and working in Eretz Yisrael are a duality, and don't contradict. Similarly he founded the Mincha prayer (B'rachot 26b), where one brings G-dliness into the middle of his work-day, which is the essence of the duality of the HOLY+LAND. Yitzchak himself, the farmer and tzaddik, excelled at both, but these 2 qualities were "split" among his twins, each son taking one exclusive of the other!
Yitzchak clearly suspects that it is Ya'akov who has come with the meat for the blessing: thus his feeling & smelling him, and declaring suspiciously: "who are you, my son?… the voice is that of Ya'akov, but the hands are those of Esav".
When Rivka symbolically (!) and actually, dresses Esav's sleeves onto Ya'akov, she is proving her point to Yitzchak (which is also the fulfillment of the prophecy which she knew that the younger twin will rule (ch. 25, 22-23), but apparently Yitzchak didn't yet know. What clinches it, is when Yitzchak feels that Ya'akov can also be a man of the world, and do both, revealing the spirituality in the physical world, and even smells that Ya'akov has the "smell of the FIELD/LAND which God has BLESSED him with" (27, 27), and only then did Yitzchak bless him. In other words, he's no longer worried about giving Eretz Yisrael to Ya'akov, for Rivka proved that the voice of Ya'akov can also, like by Yitzchak himself, harmonize with the arms of Esav.
[Afterwards, when Esav enters Yitzchak either pretends (!) to be surprised and frightened (Radak), or simply after his ecstasy in Ya'akov's having both Torah and Avodah, Esav's entering brings him "back down to earth".]
It's worth adding that God is the One who really blesses, and Yitzchak, just as the Kohanim when they bless us, are simply the vehicle through which God blesses whom He sees fit (Bamidbar 6, 27). Accordingly, Ya'akov was clearly the true and worthy recipient of the Holy Land (which he even legally acquired from Esav!), and we saw, that eventually Yitzchak agreed. This was especially borne out when Ya'akov pins down Esav's angel, who has no choice but to change his name from Ya'akov (the lowly heel) to Yisrael "for you have wrestled (sarita) with angels and men and won" (32, 29), that he now officially has both the spiritual & the physical! Hamas, like Rivka, teach us that sometimes we must don Esav's arms, otherwise there can be no "Yisrael". Shabbat Shalom, Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

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