<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19475">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I think R' Eli Turkel's comment on the Rashbam sets
up something of a false dichotomy, i.e., *either* the perush of the Rashbam on
the selling of the bekhora is 'peshat', *or* the perush of the Rashbam is
influenced by Jewish/Christian polemics. This formulation seems to
assume that 'peshat' is not interpretation, but something more akin to
mathematics and that the true parshan is completely uninfluenced by what is
going on around him when he writes his perush. It also assumes that any
hint of such an influence somehow taints the perush. It is unclear to me why
this should be the case.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Even assuming that the Rashbam was writing from
a (consciously or unconsciously) defensive posture, (an assumption I
don't necessarily share, but could), it should be possible to evaluate his
reading in its own terms. Now, the ganenet's version of this story is that the
bowl of lentil soup was the price of the bekhora, and that is certainly a
possible interpretation. It is also the one with which we are
probably most familiar. A careful reading of the pesukim, though, opens up
another intriguing possibility: Yaakov asks Esav to sell the bekhora (Genesis
25:31). [If the story stopped here, by the way, or we had never heard the
story before, we would naturally assume that he was asking Esav to sell the
bekhora for money. This is, after all, what 'mekhira' typically
means.] Esav says something like, "What do I need it for anyway?" (25:32),
Yaakov makes Esav swear and then the text says 'vayimkor et bekhorato
le'Yaakov' (25:33). Only then does it say, 'Ve'Yaakov natan le'Esav lehem
u'nezid adashim' (25:34). Again, all other things being equal, 'mekhira'
means sale for money. If, in this particular case, the price of the bekhora
is the soup, why does Yaakov, not feed Esav first (i.e., pay for the
bekhora) before receiving it? As the Rashbam points out, the feeding of
Esav after the sale is consistent with other biblical stories--and indeed
widespread custom--where transactions are sealed with a meal (see the Rashbam on
25:31 and 33). The Rashbam's reading is supported by another small
detail in the text--the violation of biblical style in 25:34. It should
say, 'Va'yiten Yaakov...' rather than 'Ve'Yaakov natan...' (as it does); this
violation may indicate the meal is not actually part of the
transaction.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Setting aside polemical considerations enabled me
to take the Rashbam's reading seriously, and I found that the Rashbam's reading
forced me to read the pesukim very carefully. That made me notice things
in the pesukim that I had not noticed before. I am not saying that the
Rashbam was uninfluenced by prevailing issues--he may well have been--but it
might be that his sensitivity to those prevailing issues made him notice things
in the text he would not otherwise have noticed. That is what parshanut is
about.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Kol tuv,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Simi Peters</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>