“Yaakov left Beersheva and went toward Charan.”
Bereshis 28:10
Yaakov left. Since it was due to the fact that the
daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of his father, Yitzchok, that Eisav
went to Yismael [to take Yishmael’s daughter, as a wife], the text interrupted
the narrative of Yaakov and wrote: “Eisav saw that Yitzchok blessed, etc.” and
when the text finished, it went back to the previous subject.”
Rashi on Bereshis 28:10
Towards the end of last week’s parsha we learned that, on
Rivkah’s urging, Yitzchok told Yaakov explicitly not to marry a Canaanite
woman, sent him to Padan Aram to seek a wife, and blessed him. The text then
detoured to tell us, in four verses, that Eisav observed all this and realized
that his parents disapproved of his Canaanite wives. So Eisav went and took
another, non-Canaanite wife. In this
week’s parsha Yaakov’s story resumes and Rashi appears to be stating that the
episode about Eisav, though worth noting, was not the essential story so now
the text returns to the primary subject.
I understand Rashi to be making an assertion about the
Torah’s view of proper story telling, especially in regards to our spiritual
role models. The Torah is stating that Yaakov, our forefather, is the main
story of the narrative and not Eisav - his brother, sometime nemesis, and the
generally less wholesome character.
In my experience, in our own storytelling we often dwell on
the more colorful and less savory characters. As an example – I went online to
determine which Star Wars character is considered the most popular. On the
highest-ranking fan-based lists I found, Darth Vadar (the bad guy) easily
outscored Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, the unvarnished heroes of the first
trilogy. In this vein we might also consider the continued public interest in
the more tasteless and/or amoral entertainment figures such as Lady Gaga, Chris
Brown, Snooki, the Kardashians, Tiger Woods, Sarah Silverman, and others.
The Torah does not devote any attention to tales of Eisav’s
courtships, married life, family dynamics, livelihood, relations with his
neighbors, and any scandals he created. The Torah only comments on Eisav as he
relates directly to Yitzchok and Rivkah or to Yaakov. In sharp contrast, the Torah
tells us a great deal about Yaakov’s personal life. The message in the story is
clear – for our purposes, it’s best to focus on the good guys.
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