[Avodah] RSRH's Comments on Bereshis 33:4-7

[Yitzchok Levine]

I find RSRH's comments on Bereshis 33:4 -7 most interesting.

4 Esav ran to meet him, embraced him, fell upon 
his neck and kissed him, and they [both] wept.

5 [Esav] looked up and saw the women and the 
children, and asked: Who are these to you? 
[Ya’akov] said: They are the children
whom God has graciously given your servant.

6 The maidservants drew near — they and their children — and they bowed.

7 Leah also drew near with her children and they 
bowed, and afterwards Yosef and Rachel drew near, and they bowed.

He says the following about Esav:

The word "vayevkoo” (“and they wept”) attests that Esav was overcome by
genuine human emotion. A kiss can be an affected gesture; not so tears
that flow at such moments. (bacha  means: to
break out in tears. Tears spring from the depths of the human soul.)
This kiss and these tears show Esav, too, as a grandson of Avraham.

Esav must have been more than just a wild hunter. Otherwise, how
could he have succeeded in dominating the whole development of mankind?
The sword alone, brute force alone, cannot accomplish this.

Esav, too, will gradually lay down his sword; more and more, he
will make room for humaneness. Ya’akov will be the one to provide
him with the opportunity of showing to what extent the principle of
humaneness has prevailed in his heart. When the strong respects the
rights of the strong, this is merely discretion. But when the strong, as
Esav here, throws himself on the shoulders of the weak and casts away
the sword of aggression — only then does it become clear that justice
and humaneness have prevailed in his heart.

Rav Hirsch then goes on to analyze the Dikduk in 
33: 6 - 7. From it he derives what happened when 
Yaakov's wives encountered Esav. I have posted this at

http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/bereshis_33_4_7.pdf

Yitzchok Levine 
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