Crooked Eisav

Shavua Tov and Chodesh Tov. Eisav was outstanding in כיבוד אב, respecting his father. Many explain that this is how he deceived his father, Yitzchak.

The Mitzva of כיבוד אב is explained in מסכת קידושין as one who gives food and drink, clothes and covers, and מכניס ומוציא, brings in and takes out. Eisav excelled in these areas.

However, we are also commanded to fear our parents, as the Torah says, איש אמו ואביו תיראו. Fearing parents means not to sit in his parent’s place and not to contradict them. Rav Soloveitchik says that Eisav was terrible in the יראה department as he married Canaanite women against his father’s will and threatened to kill his brother after his father’s death. This certainly is not יראה.

It is interesting how the Torah teaches the laws of proper care for parents by way of a biblical story. And we see just how crooked and conniving Eisav was.