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Why does the Torah (תורה) emphasize Esav selling the birthright over his more severe sins of murder and adultery? The shiur develops a fundamental yesod based on ben chamesh esrei l'Gemara (גמרא): at age fifteen, a person gains the cognitive maturity to make independent judgments that define character. Esav's reasoned decision to denigrate holiness—not his impulsive sins—sealed his fate and cost Avrohom five years of life.
The shiur opens with a striking question from Gemara (גמרא) Bava Basra (16b) which lists five sins Esav committed on the day he sold the birthright: adultery with an engaged woman, murder, denying God's existence, denying resurrection, and degrading the birthright. Yet the Torah (תורה) devotes extensive narrative only to the sale of the birthright, barely hinting at the other transgressions. Why does the Torah distort our perspective by emphasizing what seems the least severe sin while merely alluding to murder, adultery, and heresy? Rashi (רש"י) explains that Yaakov was cooking lentils as mourner's food because Avrohom Avinu died that day. Hashem (ה׳) had taken five years from Avrohom's life so he wouldn't witness Esav "going out to tarbut ra'ah" (evil ways). But this intensifies the question: Avrohom died at 175 when the twins were 15. Yet Rashi states that at age 13 (bar mitzvah (מצוה)), Esav already went to serve idols while Yaakov went to the beit midrash. Why didn't Avrohom die at 173 to be spared from witnessing Esav's idolatry? What was uniquely catastrophic about age 15 that required Avrohom's earlier death?
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Parshas Toldos (Bereishis 25:29-34)
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