Sale of a birthright

There’s a background to the story of the “sale of the birthright” that is not well known outside of Jewish circles where the sages are read. The sages offer critical background information, and this information helps the reader to see how the story is a lot more understandable.

Most people remember this Bible story (Genesis 25:27-34) of the twin brothers, Esau and Jacob – the first was a hunter of the field and the second was a plain man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau, and Rebecca loved Jacob. Then, all of a sudden, the story switches to talk about Jacob cooking a stew, while Esau was coming in from the field … faint from hunger. So in exchange for a bowl of that “red stuff,” Jacob demands the birthright of the firstborn? How unjust of him to have done so! Here his own brother is starving and Jacob demands a much higher price than the food is worth. Or so it would seem!

So let’s look at what is really going on here, behind the scenes as it were, to get a much better understanding of the dynamics of this interaction between the two brothers.

It’s clear that God’s blessing to (and selection of) Abraham will pass on to only one of Isaac’s children, meaning that the later-delivered Torah (i.e., teachings) and the blessings to the world through Abraham’s seed would go to either Esau or to Jacob. But not to both! Now, normally the family responsibilities would go to the literal first-born … unless that individual was for some reason incapable of carrying them out (through incompetence or malfeasance, etc.). So let’s see what might have caused Jacob to decide that Esau was incompetent.

The sages claim that the day of this event was the day that Abraham had died. So, Jacob is cooking the pot of lentils as the traditional mourner’s meal for his family. While the locals of the region would be standing in the mourner’s row and lamenting Abraham’s passing (which would make Esau’s sin a public one). Since Esau’s father Jacob would be burying the dead, that would disqualify Jacob from offering the daily sacrifice, which divine service would then fall to his firstborn son, Esau. And where is Esau while all of this is going on? He is out hunting … seemingly oblivious to the suffering of his family at Abraham’s passing, and perhaps he’s even unconcerned about the duties of the first-born and the public embarrassment about his conduct.

This background data does better explain Jacob’s intense desire to purchase the “birthright” … so as to prevent shame and humiliation at Esau’s conduct, if Esau were to offer the sacrifices. Esau truly had already shown how much he despised this birthright (and the responsibilities that went with it) by going out hunting on the day of his grandfather Abraham’s death.

Another important factor was Esau’s concern that he might die! In verse 32, Esau says “Look, I am going to die anyway, so what use to me is a birthright?” The great commentator Rashi says that Esau feared the birthright because he knew that shortcomings in the performance of the divine service (in offering the daily sacrifice for the family) could be punishable by his death. This is a real twist in people’s reading of the story, since most of us have long believed that Esau was worried he was going to die from starvation – but this version makes a lot more sense. How can one be worried about dying from starvation just from being out hunting for one day?

In the end, it becomes very clear that Esau was not deceived nor was he defrauded. Esau was not obligated to sell his birthright, and I’m sure he could have found something else to eat if Jacob was unwilling to give him any of that lentil stew. No, Esau sold his birthright because he held it in contempt. He was most likely unwilling to perform the divine service and also must have been relieved when Jacob bought the birthright. Jacob was now going to be the one to perform the divine service and not Esau. The only other time the birthright becomes an issue is at the end of this reading, when Isaac is near death and decides he wants to give Esau the blessing of the firstborn. After Jacob acquires the firstborn blessing, which Jacob does own through purchase, then Esau complains that Jacob took the birthright (which is a lie, Esau despised it and sold it to Jacob) and that Jacob has now taken the firstborn blessing as well.

But the Torah doesn’t mince words. And everything happens so that the prophecy about the lads given only to their mother Rebecca (in Genesis 25:23) will come to be fulfilled someday: “Two nations are in your womb; two regimes from your inside shall be separated, the might shall pass from one regime to the other; and the elder shall serve the younger.”