As discussed in the introduction, our Sages teach that the Torah has seventy faces. The Arizal posits that there are 600,000 faces, each one corresponding to a letter in the Torah and a Jewish root soul spark. These faces represent the multi-faceted Torah perspectives revealed within the manifold levels of reality, especially as revealed through the system of PaRDeS.
One facet or theme that the oral tradition highlights is the prophetic allusions to future events in Jewish history. These allusions, which recur time and again throughout the Torah, often derive from the Torah’s archetypal nature, which is epitomized by the notion that “the actions of the fathers are a sign to the children” (Sotah 34a). Viewed from this perspective, biblical personalities, narratives, and events are not merely one-time occurrences, temporal incidents undergone by specific individuals long ago. Rather they reflect eternal spiritual energies that manifest repeatedly in nature, history, and the human psyche. Sometimes these prophetic allusions appear in the Prophets and the Writings as well, but, of course, the prophets went beyond mere allusion, explicitly prophesying upcoming events.
One of the Torah’s most significant prophecies occurs in this portion. Unlike most biblical prophesies it is neither cryptically alluded to by the text nor revealed symbolically in a dream. Furthermore, its fulfillment does not depend on human action – as do many of the prophecies in Deuteronomy and the Prophets – but rather it defines the very nature of reality as decreed by God. The prophecy is given when Rebecca turns to God to explain her turbulent pregnancy. Rashi explains that Rebecca asked Shem, a reputed prophet and Noah’s son, to inquire of God for her. God responded with the following: “Two nations are in your womb; two nations from your womb will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other and the elder will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23).
Not only did these words prophesy the tortuous relationship between Rebecca’s twins, Esau and Jacob, but they also prophesied the long and convoluted relationship between Jacob’s descendants, the Jewish people, and Esau’s descendants the Romans. The Rabbis refer to both the Roman Empire and Christianity – adopted by the Roman Empire and transformed into a religious force to be reckoned with – as Esau’s progeny. The love-hate relationship between Esau and Jacob contains within it the seeds of the history that will come to pass and is so much more than merely the story of two feuding brothers.
The Talmud is replete with stories recounting discussions between the Roman rulers and aristocracy and the Jewish Sages that illustrate both “the love” – a great measure of respect – and “the hate,” an attitude marked by disdain. Many important Romans converted to Judaism and at the height of the Roman Empire ten percent of Rome’s population was Jewish. Yet Rome destroyed the Second Temple and left the Land of Israel decimated and in ruins. Over much of the last two thousand years, this saga has been told through the ongoing and sometimes tortured relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
The Torah also uses the relationship between Jacob and Esau to symbolize the archetypal battle between good and evil by declaring a perpetual war between the nations of Israel and Amelek. The latter nation was fathered by Amalek, a direct descendant of Esau and a representative of his darkest side. This ongoing saga and archetypal confrontation is alluded to by every nuance in the Jacob and Esau story and manifests its spiritual energy throughout history.
