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Rashi (רש"י) says Esav went off the derech at thirteen, yet Avrohom died at 175 (when Esav was fifteen) to avoid seeing his grandson's wickedness. Why didn't Avrohom die at 173? The shiur distinguishes between a thirteen-year-old who lacks independent thinking and merely follows his peers, versus a fifteen-year-old capable of genuine ideological commitment—the age the Mishna designates for true Gemara (גמרא) learning, meaning independent reasoning and decision-making.
The shiur addresses an apparent contradiction regarding when Esav went off the derech and its relationship to Avrohom Avinu's death. Rashi (רש"י) states that at age thirteen, one could already see the difference between Yaakov and Esav—meaning Esav had already begun engaging in idolatry at that age. Yet the Gemara (גמרא) teaches that Avrohom died at 175 (five years short of his expected 180) specifically because Hashem (ה׳) wanted to spare him from witnessing Esav's departure from the proper path, which occurred when Esav was fifteen. This creates a glaring difficulty: if Esav went off the derech at thirteen, shouldn't Avrohom have died at 173, not 175? The Maharal offers one resolution: Avrohom simply didn't know about Esav's behavior at thirteen. Since Avrohom was unaware of it, there was no reason for Hashem to take him early at that point. Only at fifteen, when Esav's wrongdoing became apparent, did Avrohom's death become necessary to spare him the pain. But Rabbi Zweig questions this approach: if the Torah (תורה) is merely recording a historical fact that Esav started doing idolatry at thirteen (information that had no practical impact since Avrohom didn't know about it), what lesson is the Torah teaching us? The Torah doesn't waste words on mere historical trivia without a pedagogical purpose.
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Parshas Toldos, Bereishis 25:27 (Rashi)
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