“Now the earth was chaotic and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water” (Genesis 1:2). Onkolos, in his classic Aramaic translation still used today, translates “chaotic,” the English translation of the Hebrew word tohu, as tzadi. In this week’s Torah portion Esau is described as one who knows how to hunt, whereas Jacob is described as being a sincere man, dwelling in tents (Genesis 25:27). The word for “hunt” is tzayid, consists of the very same letters as Onkolos’ translation of the word tohu but in another order.
Kabbalah and Chassidut explain that before the present state of reality a previous “world” or state of reality existed and is referred to as Olam Hatohu, the World of Chaos. It is referred to as chaotic because the intense lights of that world overwhelmed the initially immature vessels, causing a breaking of those vessels. Our present state of reality which is referred to in Kabbalah as Olam Hatikkun, the World of Rectification, consists of the broken vessels of the previous world.
The soul of Esau is considered to originate in the World of Tohu, meaning in potential he was a very high soul but lacked the proper vessels necessary to fulfill his potential, whereas the soul of Jacob originates in the World of Tikkun. Isaac recognized Esau’s great potential and the Torah describes him as loving Esau “because he had hunt in his mouth” (Genesis 25:26). It is explained in Chassidut that Isaac was hunting for the holy sparks entrapped in the soul of Esau, in order to help him rectify his chaotic energy.
When Jacob was born he was holding onto the heel of Esau. There are many ways to understand the significance of his holding onto his brother’s heel. One way to interpret this is based on the Arizal calling the letter tzadi, tzaddik, a righteous person, by adding the letter kuf at the end of the word. It is important to note that the name of this letter is the very same as the Aramaic translation of the word “chaotic,” and the very same letters as the word “hunt,” as discussed above. The letter kuf ( ק ) is the only letter (other than final letters) that descends below all the other letters and thus symbolizes in Kabbalah and Chassidut the ability to reach deep into reality in order to rectify it. When not rectified the descent is fraught with negativity. The word for “holiness,” kedusha begins with the letter kuf but so does the word klipah, the impure shells which block or prevent holiness. The name Jacob in Hebrew, Yaakov, has the letter kuf. In fact, the name Yaakov is derived from the root of the word for “heel.” Jacob holding onto the heel of Esau, the lowest part of the body, in a certain sense represents his impulse to carry on the work of Abraham and Isaac in their mission to rectify the world, fixing all the sparks of holiness that are trapped in the broken vessels of the World of Tohu.
Esau and Jacob are twins and ultimately, they will come together in brotherly love. Although it may appear that Jacob deceived Esau when buying the birthright from him and then taking the blessing that goes along with the birthright, this is far from the truth. Esau sold his birthright with barely a second thought without realizing the consequences of his actions. Although Esau and Jacob went separate ways they are still twins and destined to find a way to work together. Isaac envisioned Esau mastering the material world while Jacob would master the spiritual world. Together they would form a perfect union of physical and spiritual, the secret of rectifying this world. Rebecca saw it differently and felt that each person needed to unify physical and spiritual in order to accomplish what was needed to fix the world. Therefore, she urged and pushed Jacob into claiming Isaac’s blessing for himself. Although she was and remains correct in her assessment, still the world awaits the coming together of Esau and Jacob which will only be manifest in the Messianic era. May come quickly and in our days.
