Shaarei Teshuva(482:2): It says in Bava Metzia (62a) that your needs come before that of other people even in a matters of life and death. This is learned by R’ Akiva in the case of two people in the desert with a single container of water from the verse of “Your brother shall live with you” - which means that his life is secondary to yours. So if this principle is true in physical issues then surely it is true in spiritual issues. (This is written in Igros Shmuel to Megila Ruth. He says that Boaz knew by ruach hakodesh that Ruth would be the ancestress of the Davidic kings and therefore he described her as a Moabite in order that she would be rejected for marriage and he could marry her and he would merit having the royal descendants. Even though it is prohibited for someone to deceive others even to take that which is rightfully his. But that prohibition is in monetary matters but not concerning mitzvos. Even though it is impossible to take a mitzva away from someone who already has obtained the rights to it such as mila, nevertheless if no one has actually claimed the mitzva yet then it is viewed as a wilderness and available to all and everyone has the obligation to perfect his soul and merit having mitzvos. We see this principle also with Yaakov and how he took the rights of the first-born and the berachos since he knew that Esav was headed to do evil and Yaakov needed them to reach spiritual perfection as is explained by the Akeidas Yitzchok…).
All warfare is based on deception
ReplyDeleteThis is what sun Tzu said around 400bce
So he had presumably met some rabbonim who taught him
This is primarily about physical needs.
ReplyDeleteYaakov was primed to embezzle esav out of his material inheritance not spiritual
Your examples are either extreme or inconsistent.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Akiva was talking about a life threateaning situation. Can one learn from there that selfishness is always allowed? What about if, by prioritizing your needs, I cause you a large gain while causing myself only a small loss that I can live with? Do I refuse and invoke Rabbi Akiva?
Boaz was tricky because if he scared off Ploni Almoni by calling her a Moabite, it would look quite sleavy to turn around and say "Yeah, but the kind of Moabite I can marry!"
And Yaakov and Eisav was a dispute over the entire destiny of Avraham Avinu's descendants, not a petty family squabble.
Yaakov and Eisav was an example of Darwin awards even before they were invented. Yitzhak wanted Eisav to be part of the family, so he could bring the physical strength to protect Israel. Note that the Torah does not mention Rebecca being correct (whereas Sarah was correct in getting rid of Ishmael).
DeleteAnd Did yaakov objectively gain from it? No. He was on the run for the rest of his life, was conned by his employers, and he was deceived by his 10 sons about his 11th. Lived a life of misery and trepidation, and even says the same to Paroh, where he eventually ends up in slavery. After that a perpetual war with esav and Amaleik, all supposedly justifiable to get the elusive "treasure" which he didn't even need.
First, Yaakov Avinu was never a slave in Egypt. In fact, he was the last Jew to live in complete freedom and was even granted a posthumous exit visa.
DeleteBut as for his life, it was clearly a model of our third and final exile (counting Bavel and Greece as one).
Well, Israel his progeny were slaves.
DeleteThe point being that stealing esav's bracha was a mere illusion.