Torah Study Blog

The Book of Obadiah is the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible with only 1 chapter containing 21 verses. The book is a prophecy that the people of Edom will be “the least among nations.” (Obadiah 1:1) Why? According to the prophecy, when Judea was destroyed by the Babylonians the people of Edom looked on with glee and gloated. Then the Edomites went in to Judea and looted the wealth of the Jews and slaughtered Jews trying to run away.

And, according to the Book of Malachi, the land of Edom, “shall be known as the region of wickedness, the people damned forever of the Lord.” (Malachi 1:4) Who are these hateful Edomites? According to the Torah they may be closer to us than we realize.

Today’s Torah portion is from the book of Genesis and it tells us the story of Isaac’s twin sons, Esau and Jacob. When Esau was born he appeared red and hairy, so he was given the name Esau which means hairy. When Jacob was born he came out of the womb holding onto the heel of Esau, and the name Jacob means heel.

As the first born twin, Esau should have inherited his birthright and blessings from his father, as due the first born. But Esau behaved impetuously and Jacob secured the birthright. Then Jacob used trickery to also get the blessing. Esau got neither the birthright nor the blessing.

The story goes that Esau came in from hunting one day and was very hungry. His brother, Jacob, had made some red stew and Esau asked for some to eat. Jacob agreed to give Esau some stew only if Esau would forsake his claim to his birthright. Esau just wanted to eat the red stew and easily gave up his birthright. Because the stew was red, and because Esau was born red, he was also known as Edom – the Hebrew word for red. (Genesis 25:30)

Esau was the patriarch of the people of Edom. The topography of the area where the Edomites lived contained a lot of red sandstone. The story in Genesis provides a legend of why the Israelites and the Edomites might have been warring neighbors.

Although the books of the Torah come first in our Hebrew Bible, it is important to remember that the material in those books were among the latest to come into their final form. And there was plenty of editing along the way.

Saul was the first king of Israel and, although his existence has not been proved, it is possible that in the 11^th century BCE there was a man who started a kingdom and, biblically, that man is named Saul. Then under the leadership of King David, and next King Solomon, that kingdom grew larger and larger – this being the Golden Age of Israel.

According to I Samuel 14, Saul waged war on his neighbors, including the Edomites, and Saul was successful. The Edomites were clearly a people who were close neighbors of the Israelites. The people that live closest together were the ones who would have had skirmishes over boundaries and land ownership. Rabbi Jaech pointed out that there were times when the tribes got along fine and other times when they did not.

The legend in the Torah does not paint Esau as a terrible person. He was definitely impetuous when he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, but the loss of the blessing of the first-born was done through the trickery of Jacob. The story goes that Jacob lied to his elderly father Isaac and claimed he was Esau and asked for the blessing. Jacob even went so far as to disguise himself to trick his father. Jacob got the blessing. When Esau came to his father Isaac, Isaac realized he had been tricked but could not give Esau the same blessing. Instead Isaac offered to Esau that Esau would “grow restive” and “you shall break his yoke from your neck.” (Genesis 27:40) It is very possible that breaking-the-yoke-from-the-neck might reflect a historical reality that the Edomites had a revolution where they threw off the rule of the Golden Age Israelites.

The Hebrew Bible is not all legend, nor is it all fact. But through careful study we might be able to glean some truths.

misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter