Genesis Rabbah on Jacob and Esau
Genesis Rabbah 63:7; 65:21
63:7. 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). [ . . . ]
65:21. R. Judah bar Ilai used to interpret [the verse] as follows: The voice [refers to] the voice of Jacob crying out over what the hands, those being the hands of Esau, had done to him. Rabbi Yoḥanan said, “The voice is that of Hadrian Caesar, who in Beitar1 slaughtered eighty thousand myriads of people.”
Genesis Rabbah 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.1 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).
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.
