Jewish teaching sees the life of the individual as expressing an inner
struggle. One part of the person relates to Nature--untamed, uncontrolled, like
natural forests and unclaimed fields. The other part has a Divine quality,
expressing G-d Who created nature in order to make it His dwelling.
The untamed aspect is called the Natural Soul, or the Animal Soul. Sometimes
the Sages describe it as the "Evil Desire." The problem is that much of the time
it does not appear as evil, just as free and unrestrained: natural. The Divine
quality is known as the Divine Soul, the spark of G-d within the person. It is
sometimes called simply the "Good Desire."
These two forces within person, the Natural Soul and the Divine Soul,
struggle together. Each soul tries to dominate the day-to-day life of the
individual: what one thinks about, what one says and above all what one actually
does. But the Divine Soul is seeking not just to win the immediate battle. Its
goal is to transform the Natural Soul, to tame it, to reveal its tremendous
potential for good.
The relationship of these two dimensions in a person's life is described in
our parshah, in the account of Jacob and Esau. For everything related in the
Torah is not only telling us our history, but also our spiritual psychology.
Every event described in the Torah took place thousands of years ago, and is
also repeated in some form within the life of each person.
Esau was born first. The Natural Soul has, as it were, the first claim on our
consciousness. Our earliest needs relate to the needs of the Natural Soul and
the body: food, physical comfort. Esau grew up to be a man of the field, a
hunter.
The Torah tells us that when Jacob was born his hand was holding the heel of
Esau. Jacob, the Divine Soul, is trying to transform Esau. Jacob grew up to be a
man "who dwelt in tents." The Sages tell us this expresses not just the concept
of civilization, but of study. G-d reveals His Will and Wisdom through
teachings, which today are expressed in thousands of volumes of explanations of
the Torah. Our ancestor Jacob was a scholar, and knowledge leads to action.
Isaac, the father of the two men, told his son Esau to go out to the field
and hunt in order to prepare some tasty food. Their mother Rebecca told Jacob
that this command concerns him: Jacob, rather than Esau, should bring the tasty
food to Isaac. It was not enough for Jacob the scholar simply to dwell in the
tent of Torah, studying. He has to get up and seek to change the world.
The effect of this attempt is that Jacob receives the blessing from Isaac: a
beautiful blessing about the dew of heaven and the fullness of the earth. The
Sages tell us that this blessing has a metaphorical meaning, expressing wisdom,
and also a literal meaning: physical abundance. For the Jew does not have to
renounce the world: his or her goal is to make the abundant and wholesome world
into a dwelling for G-d.
The fulfillment of this goal will be with the coming of the Messiah, when
both aspects of Isaac's blessing will be realized: the physical abundance and
comfort, and the knowledge of G-d which will fill the world.1
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