B”H
This week, we recount the story of the birth of Esau and Jacob and
a bit of their childhood in Parshat Toldot. The main tale narrates how
Isaac, stricken with blindness and near his death, wishes to pass his blessing
onto Esau, his eldest and preferred son. Rebecca, who loves Jacob more than
Esau, dresses Jacob in wooly clothing to “feel” like his hairier older brother.
Consequently, Esau blesses the “wrong child.” Throughout my life, I’ve heard
amazing commentary about this story. Was it morally just to steal Esau’s
blessing? Should parents play favorites with their kids? How does a just and
merciful G-D choose a child who will prevail over another one?
For this week, my focus shifted to the somewhat minor story in the
portion: Esau is hungry after a long hunt, and Esau, in agonizing hunger, asks
Jacob for some of his red pottage (typically considered to be akin to a lentil
stew). Jacob agrees, but only if Esau, the first-born male, would surrender his
birthright to him. Esau, recognizing his hunger would probably be lethal,
agrees and trades his inheritance for stew.
The saying goes that “hindsight is always 20/20.” Esau got
swindled. Tricked. Bamboozled. By his own brother nonetheless! It’s a double-edged
sword in one’s interpretation of the actions of these brothers…it’s not so
clear cut good versus evil as seen with Cain and Abel. A twenty-first century
reading might applaud Jacob for his shrewdness in business negotiations and his
determination to achieve great success despite the deeply-rooted social
construct of the time: preference of the eldest male child. Others would
question Jacob’s morality in abusing his brother’s terrible situation for personal
gain. Others still turn away from the imperfection of man and turn directly to
a supposedly just G-D and ask how G-D “favored” the child with cunning (or trickery,
depending on your interpretation).
And I think all of these views have great merit. My curiosity is
the analysis of Esau’s weakness (here, it is his hunger) and his actions in a
time of weakness, and what our society can learn from Esau’s judgment call.
Firstly, I say this statement somewhat cheekily, but eating is important.
In order to function at our best, our human needs (eating, sleeping, basic
hygiene) must be met. So, Esau first and foremost reminds us that we have
corporeal demands, and ignoring them will result in failure. In my perfect
hindsight, I can see that I can and have learned from Esau in this regard. After
a mini panic-attack of sorts and reevaluation of my schedule with the student
services center, I realized that part of my abnormal performance in my studies
is my sacrifice of a good diet and sleep. This week, I have enjoyed the luxury
of BETTER food and sleep, and my studies have greatly improved (and I feel so
much happier).
More in line with a larger message of Esau’s judgment is the
recognition of succumbing to weakness. For Esau, his path to failure came in
the form of lentil stew (nazeed adashim). Perhaps lentils aren’t your
thing. But throughout our life’s journey, despite our best intentions, we
stumble across potential avenues to failure. A catalyst or event in our lives
allows us to continue down this path. It might be because it’s easier to follow
this road…or perhaps we don’t recognize our shortcomings. Perhaps some of these
situations are familiar?
Food: a moment of chocolate-chip induced weakness and that tray of
cookies magically disappears…after all, it’s always “just one cookie,” right?
Romance: keeping a former lover’s number praying
that he or she MIGHT call you back…after all, if s/he called me back, I’d say
yes, and I don’t want to pass up that opportunity, right?
Self-Confidence: promotion of
a façade to save face with your social circle…after all, will anyone appreciate
(or even understand) my weird and quirky traits, right?
Self-Preservation: agreeing with
the majority because you feel that your needs are not worth it…after all, if
the majority wants something, I must not understand something vital, right?
Family or Friend Relationships:
not communicating with someone dear because of an argument…after all, talking
with him/her isn’t going to solve anything, right?
Education/Work: neglecting
social interactions so to achieve high(er) success in school or a
promotion/raise at work…after all, if they’re my friends, they’d understand my
dedication, right?
Wrong.
If you identified with any of these examples (by the way, I include
myself in several of these), we have unwillingly USED our situation to
sacrifice what’s MORE important: realizing the necessity of good health, appreciation
of one’s independence, embracing the diversity of people, coming to terms with differing
opinions in understanding others, addressing conflict directly and openly, and maintenance
of one’s social circles. Fear consumed our judgment.
To further our success, we must contemplate what in life is our
lentil soup…those things that we abuse or misuse at the sacrifice of our
overall goals. Esau would probably not have surrendered his birthright if given
a second chance, and we should not allow our lentil stew, whatever and however
many stews we have, to take us away from success. It all starts with
recognition.
In the biomedical and healthcare circles, the act of seeking out
potential issues in medicine and designing ways to avoid their effects on our
health is termed prevention. Preventative medicine is becoming more and more recognized
as instrumental to the future of healthcare. I am a huge fan of continued
investment in the amazing research efforts to advance the frontiers of
medicine, don’t get me wrong, but if we can prevent disease from starting, we
have not just stabilized the health of an individual, but in the long term, we
have indeed won the battle against disease. Whether it’s encouraging an
individual with familial hypertension who presents with high blood pressure to
eat a low sodium diet, or fetal or neonatal testing for serious but curable / treatable
/ manageable genetic disorders, preventative medicine promotes better health
for the individual, and, in concert with public health efforts, entire populations
and countries! Had Esau properly eaten before his hunt, he would not have been
hungry and in a state of poor judgment, and as medical personnel, we must continue
to educate our patients about their risk factors, the impacts of their (good
and bad) lifestyle choices, and how to decrease their chances of succumbing to
disease. As Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure.”
