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To: Alouette; Drammach
"Esau hates Jacob."

Forgive me, but where is that in the text? Without my reaching into it, rather wasn't it Esau who met the trepidatious Jacob with all brotherly love?

That aside however, I agree with this move, and wonder with Drammach, "...if they would just pay as much attention to Joseph's tomb..."

7 posted on 02/12/2005 6:32:36 PM PST by onedoug
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To: onedoug

http://www.chabad.org/library/article.asp?AID=2665

In Genesis 33:4, the Torah tells us about a kiss: after thirty-four years in which Jacob had fled his brother's wrath, and in which Esau had never ceased plotting to kill him, Esau has a change of heart. Seeing Jacob approach, Esau runs to him, embraces him, and kisses him.

But the word vayishakeihu, "and he kissed him", has a line of dots above it, which is the Torah's way of telling us that this was not a normal kiss. What was abnormal about this kiss? The Midrash cites two interpretations. One is that the Torah is telling us that it was not a true kiss -- Esau was really trying to kill Jacob by biting his throat. The other interpretation is that Esau kissed Jacob with all his heart -- that's what was abnormal about the kiss, since "we know that it is a cardinal law of reality that Esau hates Jacob."


9 posted on 02/12/2005 6:41:26 PM PST by Drammach (Freedom; not just a job, it's an adventure..)
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To: onedoug
...but where is that in the text?

"and kissed him": [the] Heb. [word 'kiss'] There are dots over the word [in the actual Torah Scroll]. There is controversy concerning this matter in a Baraitha of Sifrei (Beha’alothecha 69). Some interpret the dots to mean that he did not kiss him wholeheartedly. Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai said: It is a well known tradition that Esau hated Jacob, but his compassion was moved at that time, and he kissed him wholeheartedly. [from the explanation of Rashi]

16 posted on 02/12/2005 7:27:26 PM PST by hlmencken3 ("...politics is a religion substitute for liberals and they can't stand the competition")
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