[Avodah] Was Esav a Rasha in the womb?

Marty Bluke marty.bluke at gmail.com
Sun Nov 22 08:27:20 PST 2009


The Maharal says the following about Esav (Gur Aryeh on the pasuk
Vayisrotztzu habanim):
"shein yetzer hara ba ela achar leida ... aval kan mah she asa Esav lo
bishvil yitzro ela mipnei shehaya Esav rotzeh latzeis lashuv el mino
v'tivo"

My translation:
"The yetzer hara does not come into a person until after birth ...
therefore here what Esav did [to try to get out and go to the house of
Avoda Zara] is not because of his yetzer hara rather because Esav
wanted to go back to his essence"

Where is the free will here? Esav did not yet have a Yetzer Hara yet
he wants to go to Avoda Zara?

How do you understand this Maharal?



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