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I find RSRH's comments on Bereshis 33:4 -7 most interesting.<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4><b>4
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Esav ran to meet him,
embraced him, fell upon his neck and kissed him, and they [both]
wept.<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4>5
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>[Esav] looked up and saw
the women and the children, and asked: Who are these to you? [Ya’akov]
said: They are the children<br>
whom God has graciously given your servant.<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4>6
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>The maidservants drew near
— they and their children — and they bowed.<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4>7
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Leah also drew near with
her children and they bowed, and afterwards Yosef and Rachel drew near,
and they bowed.<br><br>
</i></b></font>He says the following about Esav:<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>The word "<i>vayevkoo</i>”
(“and they wept”) attests that Esav was overcome by<br>
genuine human emotion. A kiss can be an affected gesture; not so
tears<br>
that flow at such moments.
(<i>bacha</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> means: to<br>
break out in tears. Tears spring from the depths of the human soul.)<br>
This kiss and these tears show Esav, too, as a grandson of
Avraham.<br><br>
Esav must have been more than just a wild hunter. Otherwise, how<br>
could he have succeeded in dominating the whole development of
mankind?<br>
The sword alone, brute force alone, cannot accomplish this.<br><br>
Esav, too, will gradually lay down his sword; more and more, he<br>
will make room for humaneness. Ya’akov will be the one to provide<br>
him with the opportunity of showing to what extent the principle of<br>
humaneness has prevailed in his heart. When the strong respects the<br>
rights of the strong, this is merely discretion. But when the strong,
as<br>
Esav here, throws himself on the shoulders of the weak and casts
away<br>
the sword of aggression — only then does it become clear that
justice<br>
and humaneness have prevailed in his heart.<br><br>
</font>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 <br><br>
<a href="http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/bereshis_33_4_7.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/bereshis_33_4_7.pdf</a><br>
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Yitzchok Levine</body>
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