When Jacob and Esau were children, they discovered their immense differences. Despite having the same parents and growing up in the same home, Jacob wanted one thing and Esau wanted another.

Jacob sought a life of meaning and fulfillment, a life he could look back on with a sense of achievement, knowing that he had done something to make the world better than he found it. What is the value of gems, comfort, leisure, and wealth if we have nothing meaningful to show for them at the end?

Esau was the opposite. He thrived on wealth, prestige, and power. He wanted as much of it as he could get and did not mind cutting corners to achieve his aims. If he had to steal from one, charm another, or even kill a third, Esau was prepared to do it. That was a price he was willing to pay for the glitter and glamour of wealth, power, and fame.

According to the Korban HeAni, the brothers understood that they were scions of the most important family on earth. G-d had chosen their grandfather and father before them, and the blessings of their ancestors would belong to them. They therefore divided their interests. Esau would take the physical wealth and material beauty of this world, while Jacob would take its spiritual gifts.

For a time, they followed their separate paths. Jacob left the land and stayed away for twenty-two years. During that time, Esau became increasingly wealthy and unruly, while Jacob lived modestly. He worked as a shepherd, married, raised a large family, and labored through heat and frost for his father-in-law.

Jacob’s New Perspective Then everything changed. Jacob’s flocks multiplied, and he became a man of enormous wealth. When he returned to Israel, Esau was astonished. He had expected to meet a poor scholar, steeped in spirituality and academia. Instead, Jacob arrived with fabulous........

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