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Toldot. How do you Educate Esau?


Our parsha this week narrates the story of two very different twins – Esau and Jacob. They look very different at birth and as adults, they adopt divergent lifestyles or professions:

וַיִּגְדְּלוּ֙ הַנְּעָרִ֔ים וַיְהִ֣י עֵשָׂ֗ו אִ֛ישׁ יֹדֵ֥עַ צַ֖יִד אִ֣ישׁ שָׂדֶ֑ה וְיַֽעֲקֹב֙ אִ֣ישׁ תָּ֔ם ישֵׁ֖ב אֹֽהָלִֽים:

And the youths grew up, and Esau was a man who understood hunting, a man of the field, whereas Jacob was an innocent man, dwelling in tents (Gen 25:27)

Rashi notes that their full nature emerged only AFTER they “grew up” beyond the years of their youth. He comments:

As long as they were small, they were indistinguishable in their actions, and no one scrutinized them to determine their characters. As soon as they became thirteen years old, this one parted to the houses of study, and that one parted to idol worship.</