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<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
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<DIV>
<DIV>In Avodah Digest, Vol 30, Issue 161 dated 11/30/2012 </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: Marty Bluke <marty.bluke@gmail.com><BR><BR>R' Micha
Berger wrote:<BR><Take someone born with a craving for spirituality, but it's
overshadowed<BR>by an impatience and desire for instant gratification and a lust
for power,<BR>and <you have someone predisposed for AZ.<BR><BR>That is fine
but you didn't answer the question that I asked. Predisposed<BR>to AZ is one
thing, running to worship it from the womb is another and that<BR>was my
question. How did Eisav start worshipping AZ even before he was
born?</FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>>>>>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>
<DIV>It's a medrash, not a pasuk, that says he tried to leave the womb every
time his mother passed a temple of idolatry. You can't take every medrash
literally. There is a message behind the medrash, namely, that Esav was inclined
towards idolatry by nature, from the very beginning. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This does not mean that he lacked bechirah. As you know, every person is
judged by his own challenges and his own nisyonos. For one person the point of
bechirah may be whether to turn on a light on Shabbos, for another person that's
not even an issue at all but his issue is whether to allow himself to feel pride
over a brilliant shiur he gave. For Esav, not killing and not raping women
would have been a moral victory, for Yakov that just wasn't an issue.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>While you are taking a medrash so literally and asking, "How could Hashem
have [apparently] removed bechirah from this child before he was even born?" why
aren't you asking, "How could a baby who could not yet read or write or speak
and who lived in the total darkness of his mother's womb have known what a
temple was or could have known when his mother was passing one? How could a baby
try to leave his mother's womb when a fetus could not survive on the outside and
advanced medical care for preemies did not yet exist? How could a baby who
couldn't even crawl, let alone walk, imagine that he could run to the temple to
serve idols?"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>You might then ask, so what is the literal meaning of the struggling that
was going on inside Rivkah's womb, a struggle so intense and painful that she
went to ask Hashem what was going on? Maybe the different natures of the twins
were already apparent in the womb, with one being very active, kicking and
moving around a lot, while the other had to constantly fight for his space
and push the over-active twin out of his way or be squeezed and pummeled by his
over-active brother.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Look at this amazing video, which was posted online the same day this
question came up on Avodah!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"Twins Fighting In Womb Video: New MRI Technique Reveals Early Double
Trouble (VIDEO)"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/twins-fighting-in-womb-video_n_2219407.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl21%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D240400">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/twins-fighting-in-womb-video_n_2219407.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl21%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D240400</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>or </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://tinyurl.com/atwyxot">http://tinyurl.com/atwyxot</A></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"The high-tech monitor, also dubbed the 'cinematic MRI,' allows doctors to
see, in better detail, when twins vie for space in utero, Dr. Marisa
Taylor-Clarke of Imperial College's Robert Steiner MR Unit in London told
Reuters. "</DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><STRONG>--Toby Katz<BR>=============</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0
color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR></FONT><FONT
lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
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