[Avodah] Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch on the parsha: Improper parenting

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Nov 19, 2023 at 1:48pm -0500, Akiva Miller asked:
> Can someone point to where Rav Hirsch wrote this? Can someone point to
> evidence that Yitzchak and Rivka raised Esav and Yaakov the same way?

Similarly, later that day at 9:42pm +0000, Joseph Kaplan wrote:
> Where does the Torah text tell us that Yitzchak and Rivkah did not
> treat them differently.

On Bereishis 25:27, the pasuq that contrasts the ish sadeh with the yosheiv
ohalim:

    The reader knows that Esau and Jacob will eventually become
    competitors and enemies. They will engage in a struggle which our
    rabbis describe in national and eternal terms. On the immediate level,
    however, Hirsch brings his love for education and philosophic acumen
    to bear when explaining how the two brothers ended up on the brink
    of war:

    Our sages, who never objected to draw attention to the small and great
    mistakes and weaknesses in the history of our great forefathers,
    and thereby make them just the more instructive for us here too on
    "They grew up" make a remark which is indeed a "signpost" for all of
    us. They point out that the striking contrast in the grandchildren
    of Abraham may have been due, not so much to a difference in their
    temperaments as to mistakes in the way they were brought up. As
    long as they were little, no attention was paid to the slumbering
    differences in their natures (see on V. 24) both had exactly the
    same teaching and educational treatment, and the great law of
    education "instruct the child according to his way" was forgotten:
    That each child must be treated differently, with an eye to the
    slumbering tendencies of his nature, and out of them, be educated
    to develop his special characteristics for the one pure human and
    Jewish life. The great Jewish task in life is basically simple,
    one and the same for all, but in realization is as complicated and
    varied as human natures and tendencies are ...

    But just because of that, must each one be brought up "according
    to his way" according to the presumed path of life to which his
    tendencies lead, each one differently towards the one great goal.
    To try to bring up a Jacob and an Esau in the same manner [literally:
    to sit on the same schoolbench" -mb], make them have the same
    habits and hobbies, want to teach and educate them in the same
    way for some studious sedate, meditative life is the surest way to
    court disaster. A Jacob will, with ever increasing zeal and zest,
    imbibe knowledge from the well of wisdom and truth while and Esau
    can hardly wait for the time when he can throw the old books...

    Had Isaac and Rebeca studied Esau's nature and character enough,
    and asked themselves how can even an Esau with all the strength and
    energy, agility and courage that lies slumbering in this child, be
    won over to be used in the service of God...then Jacob and Esau,
    with their totally different natures could still have remained
    twin-brothers in spirit and life.

If you know German, try
https://www.sefaria.org/Rav_Hirsch_on_Torah%2C_Genesis.25.27

RAM then questions this thesis:
> To my mind, the fact that Yaakov was accustomed to the meat that Esav would
> bring home and prepare, and that he requested more of it, demonstrates that
> he *was* aware of each son's talents, and that he encouraged (or at least,
> didn't mind) those disparate talents.

See his commentary on 27:1, the part where he discussed Rivqah's motives.

He notes that simply fooling Yitzchaq into blessing the other son wouln't
actually get Yaaqov an effective berakhah. (The Ran notes this, derashah
2, and says the point was to prevent Yitzchaq from making a nevu'ah
manifest in this world, as it means that nevu'ah would have to happen.)

Rather, Rivqah wanted to demonstrate to Yitzchaq that he was fooled. Just
as he can mistake his yosheiv ohalim for a hunter, he has been mistaken
about who Esav really was. And therefore RSRH assumes she wanted and
expected the subterfuge to get caught.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 You want to know how to paint a perfect
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   painting?  It's easy.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Make yourself perfect and then just paint
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    naturally.              -Robert Pirsig