Esau as Rome
63:6. But the children struggled [within her. And she said, “If this is so, why do I exist?” And she went to seek the Lord] (Genesis 25:22). R. Yoḥanan and Resh Lakish [interpreted scripture as follows]: R. Yoḥanan said: This one was in a hurry to kill this one, and this one was in a hurry to kill the this one [i.e., the children were struggling to kill each other]. R. Simeon ben Lakish said: This one allowed what the other disallowed. R. Berekhiah, in the name of R. Levi, [said]: [The verse teaches] that you should not say that from the time he [Esau] came out of his mother’s womb he began struggling with him [Jacob]. Rather, even as he [Esau] was in his mother’s womb, his fist was aiming at him [Jacob]. As it is written: The wicked are inimical from the womb (Psalm 58:4).
But the children struggled [va-yitrotsetsu] within her (Genesis 25:22). And they ran [va-yitratsu] within her [as if trying to get to the exit]. Whenever she [Rebekah] would pass by houses of idol worship, Esau would struggle to come out [of her womb]. As it is written: The wicked are inimical from the womb [ . . . ] (Psalm 58:3). When she would pass by synagogues and houses of study, Jacob would struggle to come out [of her womb]. As it is written: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you (Jeremiah 1:5). [ . . . ]
7. Two nations [goyim] are in your womb (Genesis 25:23). [This verse indicates that] there are two proud [ge’e] nations in your womb. This one exalts himself in his world, while this one exalts himself in his world. This one exalts himself in his kingdom, while this one exalts himself in his kingdom. Two exalted [ge’e] nations are in your womb [also refers to] Hadrian [being exalted] among the nations, and Solomon [is exalted] amidst Israel. An alternative interpretation [states that] there are two who are despised by the nations in your womb. All the idolators despise Esau, and [likewise] all the idolators despise Israel. [Finally, the verse indicates that] the one hated by your Creator is in your womb, as it is written: But Esau I have hated (Malachi 1:3). [ . . . ]
65:1. When Esau was forty years of age, he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite (Genesis 26:34). Thus it is written: The wild boar ravages it, and beasts graze on it (Psalm 80:14). R. Pinḥas and R. Hilkiah [taught] in the name of R. Simon: Of all the prophets, only two make it known, Moses and Asaph. Moses said: And as for the swine, because it has a divided hoof [but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you] (Deuteronomy 14:8). Asaph said: The wild boar ravages it (Psalm 80:14). Now why does [scripture] liken [Rome] to a pig? Because whenever this pig lies down, it stretches out its hooves, as if to say, “I am clean.” In the same way, this wicked kingdom [of Rome] robs and performs violence, yet she appears to be establishing a dais [in a just court]. So, too Esau: For forty years Esau would hunt down married women and violate them. But when he turned forty years old, he compared himself to his father and said, “Just as my father married a woman at forty [years of age], so too I will marry a woman at forty years [of age].” Thus it is written: Esau was forty years of age (Genesis 26:34). [ . . . ]
21. The voice is the voice of Jacob (Genesis 27:22, NJPS): [ . . . ] R. Judah bar Illai used to interpret [the verse]: The voice is the voice of Jacob crying out from what the hands, those being the hands of Esau, did to him. R. Yoḥanan [offers this interpretation: It is] the voice of [Jacob crying out from what was done to him by the hands of] Hadrian Caesar, who killed eighty thousand myriads of people at Beitar.1
67:7. By your sword you shall live (Genesis 27:40). R. Levi said: Return your sword [to its sheath] and you shall live.
And your brother you shall serve [ta‘avod] (Genesis 27:40). R. Huna said: If [Jacob] is deserving of it, you shall serve [him]; but if not [i.e., if he is undeserving], you shall destroy [him; te’abed].
But when you grow restless, [then you will throw off his yoke from your neck] (Genesis 27:40). [ . . . ] R. Yosi the son of R. Ḥalafta said: If you see Jacob, your brother, casting off the yoke of Torah from his neck, decree destruction for him [Jacob], and you shall rule over him. As it is written: For You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not recognize us [ . . . ] (Isaiah 63:16). And where is Isaac [in this verse]? One who says, “Decree destruction for him [Jacob],” you would include among the patriarchs?
8. Esau bore a grudge against Jacob [because of the blessing that his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, Let the days of mourning my father come, and I will kill my brother Jacob] (Genesis 27:41). R. Eleazar bar Yosi said: And he [Esau] became one who hates him [Jacob], a guard [against him], and an avenger. Until this day, he is called “The grudge-bearer of Rome.”
78:9 Esau ran to greet him . . . and he kissed him (Genesis 33:4). [The Hebrew word for and he kissed him] has dots above it.2 R. Simeon ben Eleazar has said: Anywhere that you find that the [undotted] letters outnumber the dotted ones, you are to interpret the undotted letters. [When] the dotted letters outnumber the undotted ones, you are to interpret according to the dotted letters. In this case, the undotted letters do not outnumber the dotted ones; and the dotted letters do not outnumber the undotted ones. Rather, [the number of dots] teaches us that he [Esau] kissed him [Jacob] with all his heart. R. Jannai said: If this is so, why is [the word] dotted [in this way]? Rather, it teaches us that he [Esau] had come with the intention [not of kissing Jacob but instead] of biting him. [But the neck of Jacob our ancestor became like marble, such that the teeth of that wicked Esau became blunt. And what does the Torah then say?] And they wept (Genesis 33:4). This one [Jacob] wept on account of his neck, and this one [Esau] wept on account of his teeth. R. Abahu in the name of R. Yoḥanan supports this interpretation from the following: Your neck is like an ivory tower (Song of Songs 7:5).
Translated by Aaron Samuels.
Notes
[The rabbis refer here to the battle at Beitar, a hill near Jerusalem that was the last stronghold of Jews during the Bar Kokhba revolt. The rabbis report that in the last battle on the site in 133 CE, thousands of Jews were killed by the Romans. Rabbinic accounts describe the battle in highly emotional language, and it continues to be commemorated today, along with other Jewish historical tragedies, on the fast day of Tisha b’Av.—Ed.]
[A number of words in the Bible are written with dots, called “extraordinary points,” over one or more letters. These dots, which are also found in Greek and Latin manuscripts and the Dead Sea Scrolls, originally functioned as a kind of erasure, signifying that the letters should be omitted from the next copy. Tradition, however, preserved these dots, and the rabbis interpreted them as signifying uncertainty or as calling for the word to be interpreted in an unusual way. The word for “kissed” in Genesis 33:4 has dots above each of the letters.—Ed.]
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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y. Bava Kamma 4:3, 4b
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Known as “the wicked kingdom,” Rome appeared in the rabbinic imagination as the brutal imperial power responsible for the destruction of the Second Temple, the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Jews, and the repression of Jewish religious practice. Although it might have surprised the Romans, rabbinic tradition identified Esau/Edom—the rejected twin brother of Jacob, the ancestor of Israel—as the ancient forebear of Rome. Thus, the rivalry between the descendants of Jacob (Israel) and the descendants of Esau (Rome) was not the ordinary rivalry between nations. Echoing biblical language, it was a bitter sibling rivalry, with all the poignant and potent hatreds, jealousies, and fears that such a rivalry entails.
The rabbis’ interpretations of the biblical character Esau, whose wickedness is amplified in these later accounts to include murder, patricide, rape, robbery, and more, express their attitudes toward contemporaneous Romans, who are said to be guilty of the same barbarity. Genesis Rabbah 63:6 emphasizes the differences between “pious Israel” and its brother, “idolatrous Rome,” and in Genesis Rabbah 67:8, the biblical Esau’s hatred for Jacob endures through a false etymology based on contemporary Roman hatred of the Jews. This hatred is mutual, as evidenced by the denigration of Rome in Genesis Rabbah 65:1. Similar to their swinelike ancestor Esau, the Romans are a hypocritical and lawless barbarian people who rob and oppress, all the while claiming the mantle of humanity. According to Genesis Rabbah 67:7, the two nations are locked in a zero-sum struggle.
Like Jubilees, Genesis Rabbah 78:9 casts doubt on the apparently conciliatory nature of Jacob and Esaus’ reunion. Where the Bible says, “Esau ran to greet [Jacob]; he embraced him and, falling on his neck, he kissed him; and they wept” (Genesis 33:4, NJPS), R. Yannai in Genesis Rabbah suggests that Esau fell on Jacob’s neck to bite him, at which point Jacob’s neck turned to marble and Esau’s teeth were broken. Jacob cried on account of his neck, and Esau cried on account of his teeth.
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