Question

Hi Michi,
before I get to the main point—are you familiar with the website “Against Religion” edited by Adi Avir?
About two years ago I read an interpretation by Rabbi Reuven HaKohen Oriah in Makor Rishon, in which he argued that at Jacob’s meeting with Esau, when he returned to his land from Haran, Esau behaved properly as the older and responsible brother: after the meeting, in which, according to the words of Scripture, Esau fell on Jacob’s neck and kissed him, afterward he took his family and his flocks and went to Seir. But in our myth Esau is the wicked one. And the Sages were not satisfied until they claimed that Esau tried to bite Jacob’s neck…
My cousin Moshe [Hardal—nationalist ultra-Orthodox] answered me: if so, then why did Esau come with 400 men? And it occurred to me that Esau came to display his power, and after that display of power he gave in to Jacob because he remembered the deal in which he sold his birthright.
Question: after all, Esau was Isaac’s beloved son, and presumably Esau received not only love but also a good education. True, Isaac became blind in his old age, but before that could he not see that Esau had not absorbed his values? Or perhaps this is nothing more than a late and very forced interpretation by the Sages.
But later it seems that perhaps Esau passed on a lesson to his descendants—it is forbidden to rely on the honesty of Jacob’s descendants. And therefore, when Moses asks the king of Edom to pass through his land, he refuses firmly. And when the people of Israel turn to him a second time, the king of Edom threatens them with his army.
I was led to this issue because of the discomfort I felt [and that is putting it mildly] because the Sages allowed themselves to falsify and distort a certain event that was described in detail in the Torah, a distortion created in order to serve some agenda of theirs, and they were rewarded with their colleagues’ approval. And ever since, Esau has been the ultimate villain.
Now I will sharpen my words even more: in the Book of Deuteronomy the idea of the hiding of the divine face is raised. True, the hiding of the divine face is mentioned there as a result of the people of Israel abandoning their God and worshipping the gods of the peoples of Canaan. Since the various gods of Canaan have not been relevant since the conquest of the land by the Babylonians, and since Christianity and Islam took over most of the world, paganism does not challenge the Torah of Moses. By contrast, ignoring the divine command—”You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother”—is a violation of an explicit prohibition. Moreover, this abhorrence causes the Edomites to be humiliated, and there is no need to elaborate in order to explain how an individual or a public behaves when it feels humiliated!
In my humble opinion, if observant Jews continue to focus on Torah study and keeping Jewish law, and continue to ignore acts of horror being committed around the world—that is, causing unnecessary and irreversible harm to what the Holy One, blessed be He, created—then to my sorrow the Holy One, blessed be He, will continue to hide His face from us.
And now something on a personal note: what motivates me is the hope that it is in our hands to improve the world. And of course improving the world, in my view, is by way of purposeful, practical action. I have no expectations of God—I only hope that through purposeful action He will help us preserve the whole of creation.
All the best, and have a pleasant day.