The Touch of Esav

In Parashat Toldot 27:1-22, we are told that Yitzchak Avinu grew old and could not see. He asked his son Esav to go hunting and to prepare him a dish since he wanted to bless him. Esav left, and Rivka Imenu overheard the conversation and told her other son Yaakov to get that blessing instead. She prepared the dish as her husband liked, and dressed Yaakov as Esav by placing a hairy goat skin on his hands. Yaakov went inside with a dish and approached his father. 

Yitzchak said to Yaakov, "Come closer that I may feel you, my son—whether you are really, my son Esav or not. So Yaakov drew close to his father Yitzchak, who felt him and wondered. The voice is the voice of Yaakov, yet the hands are the hands of Esav." 

And here is where I would like to go a bit deeper.

"The voice is the voice of Yaakov, yet the hands are the hands of Esav." The Sages explain, that if there's a voice of Yaakov that's saying the words of Torah, then the hands of Esav have no power over Yaakov. But with your permission, please allow me to present a somewhat different idea about the hands of Esav. 

In Parashat Yitro 19:10-13, the Nation of Israel is standing by Mount Sinai and is ready to receive Torah, Hashem tells Moshe to tell the nation: "And Hashem said to Moshe, Go to the people and warn them to stay pure today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes. Let them be ready for the third day; for on the third day Hashem will come down, in the sight of all the people, on Mount Sinai. You shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, 'Beware of going up the mountain or touching the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. Without being touched—by being either stoned or shot; beast or person, a trespasser shall not live.' When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain."

On that night the nation of Israel received the Torah and has achieved total unity - as one in body and heart. 

So a person was neither allowed to touch the mountain with his hand, nor climb it.

As you know, a man and a woman come out from under the chuppah to live together and to build a family. The wife goes through cycles - clean and unclean. Just like the nation of Israel prepared themselves before receiving the Torah, so is the woman when in a niddah state - the unclean state, she needs to count the unclean and clean days, and then go to the mikvah to purify herself, see the laws of family purity. Once immersed, only then she is allowed to be with her husband.

The wife is compared to Mount Sinai and the husband to Moshe Rabbenu.

That's why no man can touch other women except his wife, since those women - are the mountains that have their own Moshe Rabbenus, and the person is not allowed to go onto those mountains or touch them, see the laws of shomer neggiah and adultery.

When the woman is ritually pure and is together with her husband - ba basar echad, as one flesh - as says in Bereshit 2:24 - man clings to his wife so that they become one flesh, same as the nation was by the receiving of the Torah - one in body and heart, only then Hashem's presence came down unto the mountain. The same is true of the couple, who gets the presence of Hashem during their intimacy and merits their guarantor - their precious child. According to the Midrash, when the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, Hashem asked for a guarantee that they would keep it. "Our children shall be our guarantors." "They truly are worthy guarantors," G‑d replied. "Because of them I will give the Torah." (Midrash Rabbah, Song of Songs 1:3,1) 

Esav lost it all when his hands touched the foreign, and the impure, which eventually led to a marriage. He has married women his parents disapproved of, Parashat Toldot 26:34-35 says: "When Esav was forty years old, he took as wife Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite; and they were a source of bitterness to Yitzchak and Rivkah."

These ladies were part of another nation, which meant that his wives, would not keep the laws of purity, would not listen to Rivkah Imenu, and would not follow her teachings.  Those unions led to one thing—no Hashem's presence was by the marital act since no laws of family purity were followed, which eventually led to descendants like Amalek, and others like him, who have done evil to the Jewish Nation and the world throughout history. 

The Holy Book of Zohar tells us that when laws of family purity are followed before the marital act is performed, the holy souls of prophets and righteous individuals are drawn into this world and into future generations. This is, my friend, how you merit holy descendants and build an upright family. 

As it says in Parashat Yitro 19:19: וַיְהִי֙ ק֣וֹל הַשֹּׁפָ֔ר הוֹלֵ֖ךְ וְחָזֵ֣ק מְאֹ֑ד מֹשֶׁ֣ה יְדַבֵּ֔ר וְהָאֱלֹהִ֖ים יַעֲנֶ֥נּוּ בְקֽוֹל׃ - The blast of the shofar grew louder and louder. As Moshe Rabbenu spoke, and G-d answered him in thunder."

So, gentlemen... Who do you hear and follow—Moshe Rabbenu or Esav?

PS: But, who are those Guarantors that I talk about above? The Guarantors because of whom Hashem has given us the Torah. Who are they and what is their mission?

Only Yosef HaTzaddik was able to have 2 sons, with such high-quality souls, that Yaakov Avinu elevated to shevatim or tribes level. They had that inborn ability, and later, great descendants came from them. Gidon from Menashe had the qualities of a potential king, that fought the wars for the nation. From Ephraim came Yehoshua bin Nun—a prophet and a warrior. We are also told that Moshiach ben Yoseph will also come from Shevet Ephraim. The rest of the brothers also had children, but all of them had regular souls. 

And the same happens in our time.

There are only a few rabbis that have been acting as Guarantors in our history, they have been preserving the Torah, leading and teaching the nation. Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi the author of the Mishnah, Rav Ashi, and Ravina the main contributors to the Gemara. Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or Rambam, was a rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. Rav Moshe Feinstein, the Orthodox Jewish legal authority of the twentieth century. Rav Ovadia Yosef, Talmudic scholar, a posek, former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, and a founder and long-time spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party, to name a few... The above and many more rabbis over Jewish history have been the Guarantors who have been leading the Jewish communities and pulling others to the heights of holiness. These Guarantors have been preserving the Torah, teaching and inspiring the masses, bringing people close to the Torah observance, and ensuring that the Torah stays pure and is strengthened for years to come until another Guarantor with that inborn ability shows up on the horizon - takes over to lead and executes his mission. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Shmuel Katanov