Toldos: Self-Despoiling and the Danger of Destroying Your Spiritual Self

Rabbi Zweig analyzes Parshas Toldos, focusing on the narrative of Esav selling his birthright to Yaakov. The Gemara (גמרא) teaches that on that day, Esav committed five sins: murder, adultery, denying God, denying resurrection, and selling the birthright. Yet the Torah (תורה) explicitly mentions only the last—that "Esav despised (vayivez) the birthright." This raises a fundamental question: why does the Torah focus exclusively on what seems the least severe transgression while ignoring the heinous crimes of murder, adultery, and heresy? The answer lies in understanding Rashi (רש"י)'s cryptic comment that Esav was "tired from murder." Rashi brings a proof-text where "tired" means exhausted from running away from murderers, not from committing murder. This seems to contradict the very point Rashi is making. Rabbi Zweig explains that to commit murder, a person must escape from part of himself—the part that recognizes human beings are created in God's image. You cannot maintain self-respect as a being created b'tzelem Elokim while killing another person similarly created. Therefore, the murderer must flee from his own spiritual identity, creating an exhausting internal pursuit where part of the self is constantly running from another part.