History of Esau and Israel – Part 1

Introduction

The Torah relates that Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca (Genesis 25:24), went on separate paths (Genesis 25:27), Esau the hunter and Jacob the man of tents. Later the Torah relates that Jacob disguised himself as his brother Esau to secure blessings from his father Isaac (ibid. 27:14-27). As a result of this deception Esau felt that Jacob had cheated him (ibid. 27:36), hated Jacob, and planned to kill him (ibid. 27:41). On the surface the narrative of Jacob vs. Esau appears as a case of sibling rivalry. However when delving into the oral Torah, this narrative has far reaching implications. This article will examine the historical impact of this conflict from its inception, through the biblical and post-biblical periods, and conclude with the messianic era. This analysis will use the written and oral Torahs (viz. scripture, Talmud, and Midrash with associated commentaries).

Due to the length of this topic the author has divided this article into the following parts:

1. World History (according to the Talmud).
2. Characteristics of Esau.
3. History of Esau – Torah Era.
4. History of Esau – Messianic Era.

World History

Before proceeding to the history of Esau, the author would like to present an historical overview of Hashem’s plan for the world based upon the Talmud (Sanhedrin 97a) which identifies three phases each with duration of 2,000 years. The following table provides the names of these phases in English and Hebrew, their start and end dates using both years from creation and secular counting.

The difference between years of creation and secular counting is 3760. Therefore one obtains the current secular year from the creation year by subtracting 3760 for example 5785 – 3760 = 2025.

Emptiness

This era, before the births of Esau and Jacob, corresponds to the first 11 chapters of Genesis. This era of emptiness ended when Abraham, at the age of 52, started to publicly preach and teach about monotheism. Although there were righteous individuals during these 2000 years (e.g. Noah and his son Shem) they did not reach out to the idolaters of that time and therefore the Talmud considers this era as spiritual emptiness. The sages comment on this emptiness as follows (Avot 5:2 in printed Mishna and 5:2-3 in the prayer book), “There were 10 generations from Adam to Noah who angered Hashem (by their idolatry and immorality) … until Hashem brought the flood (to destroy them). There were 10 generations from Noah to Abraham who also angered Hashem … until our forefather Abraham came and received the reward of all of them.”

Torah

During most of the era of Torah, the roles of Jacob vs. Esau and their descendants follow the literal meaning of scripture, with Esau’s descendants a Semitic tribe in Jordan and Jacob’s descendants living in Israel. Later Esau transformed into a world power in Rome through the following stages:

• Biblical era.
• Second temple era.
• Rome’s ascendancy.

Messianic Era

The messianic era of 2,000 years follows the 2,000 of Torah. The reader may ask, “Since the Torah certainly applies during the messianic era, what is the difference between these 2 eras with respect to Torah and the Israelites?”  In the opinion of the author the difference between these eras lies in the literal meaning of scripture and its application to the history of the Israelites as shown in the following table:

In most of the Torah era, the life of the Israelites followed the literal meaning of the Torah implying that they lived in Israel with a functioning temple in Jerusalem (earlier in Shiloh), and political ascendance when following the laws of the Torah. By contrast in the messianic era the life of the Israelites did not follow the literal reading of the Torah. Rather the circumstances of their lives require significant interpretation of scripture through the oral Torah to correlate verses to their actual history. Since the Israelites were in exile without a Temple they were dependent upon the whims of gentile governments. However with the coming of the messiah the life of Israel will transform to the Torah era in splendour, meaning that the Israelites will live in Israel with a temple in Jerusalem and a king who will bring peace to the world and dominion for the Israelites.