What does it mean to take advantage of someone. Are promises made or demanded, in moments of hardship, truly binding?

There was a famine in the land. Aside from the previous famine that occurred in the days of Abraham and Isaac went to Abimelech, King of the Philistines, and Gerar.

It's not just Esau's hunger that makes this passage particularly problematic. His declaration that he was on the verge of death could honestly just be hyperbolic to siblings engaged in some low key and perhaps even good natured sibling rivalry, except the text makes clear in the very next line juxtaposed with Esau selling his birthright, that there was a famine in the land. In the it was a new famine, separate from the one which had plagued Abraham and Sarah, a generation earlier. 

Seen in a vacuum, it can be easy to dismiss Jacobs cruelty, as just good business sense, is a kind of market savviness. But if you consider everything that happens between these brothers for the rest of their lives, and the even more dramatic scene of their funeral, it's harder to forgive Jacob if he'd been more compassionate to his brother, if he hadn't taken advantage of the famine and his brothers state, even creating a scenario where you can maximize his advantage. Well, maybe he and Esau would never refuted in the first place. 

The Rabbi's go out of their way to excuse Jacobs actions and demonize Esau. They portray him as unworthy of the rights and obligations due to a firstborn son as wild and wicked. Even Ezra even points to ethos declaration that he's near death as evidence that you saw his wild and dangerous ways might have led him to predeceases father Isaac, and put the Jewish people's lineage at risk. 

I'll be honest, Isaac annoys me. He never really seems to play much of a role at all, at least not on his own show. His character serves as a foil for Abraham on Mount Moriah, reflecting back Abraham's loyalty to God, even at the cost of his son. And later his deathbed serves as the scene of Jacob and Esau his major split, the beginning of a feud that leads Jacob away from his father's land, and towards his destiny of 12 sons, who will foster a nation named Israel. To me, this could be Isaac's moment, a missed opportunity for him to have set the Jewish people on a course of equity, compassion, and trust. He could have stepped in and altered the conversation between the sons explained to Jacob the Jewish values inherit in simple acts of loving kindness

Like giving your hungry brother a bowl of lentil stew when he comes home from hunting. How different would our world be today? If Isaac had risen to his moment? I don't honestly know. But I see in Jacob's actions and here and his words, the hints of morally unencumbered free market capitalism. You have something I want, even covet, and I have something you need. Let's make a trade. Sure, maybe I set up my cook pot in front of your tent, and made sure to time it so that the aroma of fresh to was irresistible to someone coming home tired and hungry, in an already famished land. 

None of that matters. You need to, I have to give me what you'd never give me in any other situation, like permission to track you across the internet for some free software. And I'll give you stew access to unlimited two day shipping, and the choice of no choice at all. 

We encounter these choices choices every day. And for the most part, we're unable to stand up against them. We have to go forward, we can't go backward. And sitting down in the mud isn't a long term solution. What we can control are the choices we offer ourselves and those around us. We can offer ourselves the choice to be kind or not to be empathetic to others or not. We can choose to remember that we're all trapped in a semi hellish capitalist landscape. I mean that we're all facing similar challenges navigating this digitally gilded age where we can choose to fight and yell at each other. to lash out with the same tactics, the trap all of us endlessly. The hold basic sustenance over people's heads and squeeze until we've juiced humanity down to the pulp. Let it not be so and let us all find the way to choose another road different than the one down which Jacob drags the Jewish people and this week's Torah portion, even if that means we have to leave the road and forge your own trail. 

Shabbat shalom. 

Modern Torah is a self supported podcast. It's written and produced by me Nathan J. Vaughn. You can learn more about me and any of my podcasts on my website. Nathan J. vaughan.com. Thanks for listening, and Shabbat shalom.