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Literary Devices – Bereshit 25

Sources

Bereshit 16:10-12בראשית ט״ז:י׳-י״ב

(10) The messenger of Hashem said to her, "I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count." (11) The messenger of Hashem said to her, "Behold, you are pregnant and will bear a son. You shall name him Yishmael, because Hashem has heard your affliction. (12) He will be a wild ass of a man; his hand will be against all, and the hand of all against him, and he will dwell before all his brothers."

(י) וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ מַלְאַךְ י״י הַרְבָּה אַרְבֶּה אֶת זַרְעֵךְ וְלֹא יִסָּפֵר מֵרֹב. (יא) וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ מַלְאַךְ י״י הִנָּךְ הָרָה וְיֹלַדְתְּ בֵּן וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ יִשְׁמָעֵאל כִּי שָׁמַע י״י אֶל עׇנְיֵךְ. (יב) וְהוּא יִהְיֶה פֶּרֶא אָדָם יָדוֹ בַכֹּל וְיַד כֹּל בּוֹ וְעַל פְּנֵי כׇל אֶחָיו יִשְׁכֹּן.

Rashi Bereshit 25:30רש״י בראשית כ״ה:ל׳

הלעיטני LET ME SWALLOW – I will open my mouth and you pour a lot in. The word is really used of feeding animals as we find the word in the Mishna, (Shabbat 155b) "One may not fatten up a camel on the Sabbath but one may put food (מלעיטין) into its mouth. " מן האדם האדם הזה FROM THIS RED, EVEN THIS RED THING – red lentils. On that day Abraham had died in order that he might not see his grandson Esau falling into degenerate ways. This would not have been the "good old age" (cf. 25:8) which God had promised him; therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, cut his life short by five years – for Isaac lived 180 years and he only one hundred and seventy five. Jacob was boiling lentils to provide the customary first meal for the immediate mourners. Why should lentils be the mourner's food? Because they are round like a wheel and mourning (sorrow) is a wheel that revolves in the world (it touches everyone sooner or later as a revolving wheel touches every spot in turn) (Bava Batra 16b). And a further reason is: just as lentils have no mouth – (the word mouth פה is used in Hebrew of a serrated edge) – so, too, mourners have no mouth (appear dumb), for speech (greeting others) is forbidden to them. For this reason, also, it is customary to give eggs to a mourner as his first meal, because they are round and have no mouth (serrated edge) and similarly a mourner has no mouth (may not greet others), just as we say in Moed Katan 21b. "A mourner during the first three days (of the week of mourning) may not respond to the greeting of any person – it follows, of course, that he may not be the first to greet anyone – and from the third to the seventh day he may respond to a greeting but may not be the first to offer a greeting etc." From "And a further reason" is to be found in an old Rashi text.

הלעיטני – אפתח פי ושפוך הרבה לתוכה, לשון מלעיטין הגמל (משנה שבת כ״ד:ג׳). מן האדום האדום – עדשים אדומות. שאותו היום מת אברהם, שלא יראה את עשו יוצא לתרבות רעה, ואין זו שיבה טובה שהבטיחו המקום, לפיכך קיצר חמש שנים משנותיו. שיצחק חי ק״פ, וזה מת בן קע״ה, ובישל יעקב עדשים להברות האבל. ולמה עדשים? שדומות לגלגל, שאבלות גלגל הוא שחוזר בעולם.

Rashbam Bereshit 25:30רשב״ם בראשית כ״ה:ל׳

Min FROM THAT RED RED STUFF: A person in a hurry to request something from someone else often repeats his words. Esau, tired and hungry as he was, was saying, implicitly, "Give me something to eat quickly!" 'Al WHICH IS WHY HE WAS NAMED EDOM: Because he was red ('admoni; vs. 25) and because he craved to eat the red food (ha-'adom ha-'adom ha-zeh) and was willing to soil his birthright due to gluttony. He was called Esau as a pejorative nickname, for he sold his birthright because of red food.

מן האדום האדום הזה – דרך אדם הממהר לשאול דבר מחבירו כופל את דבריו. וזה שהיה עיף ורעב, הרי הוא כאומר תן לי מהרה לאכול. על כן קרא שמו אדום – הוא אדמוני ונתאוה לאכול אדום, ובשביל רעבתנותו מכר בכורתו. ולשם בזיון קרא לו כן, שבשביל מאכל אדום מכר בכורתו.

R. Yosef Bekhor Shor Bereshit 25:30ר׳ יוסף בכור שור בראשית כ״ה:ל׳

Like he said: הלעיטיני נא וגו'‏ – PLEASE GIVE ME TO GULP etc. – Meaning to say: Pour into my mouth and I will eat, for I cannot even put it into my mouth, and cannot go to my father's house. But he found Yaakov behind the sheep, in a pasture far from the town; if the food was delayed to him, he would die immediately. Therefore Yaakov said to him: If you die your own death, everything that belongs to my father will be in my hands, and all the children of Keturah and Yishmael and Lot whom my grandfather rescued from captivity and from death, will all be enslaved to me. And if I feed you and you live, behold I lose great service and great dominion, for you are the firstborn and will take it all. But if you sell me your rights as firstborn, then I will feed you and you will live and not die, and I will not lose out by feeding you. But if you have no mercy on yourself, because you do not want dominion to come to me, I too will not have mercy on you. Because just as you want for yourself, I love myself; and I do not love you more than me.

כמו שהוא אומר: הלעיטיני נא וגו׳ – כלומר: שפוך לתוך פי ואני אוכל, שאיני יכול אפילו לתת לתוך פי, ולא ללכת אל בית אבי. אך מצא יעקב אחרי הצאן, במרעה רחוק מן העיר, אם היה האוכל מתמהמה לו, [היה] מיד מת. ולכך אמר לו יעקב: אם אתה מת מיתת עצמך, הרי כל אשר לאבי בידי, וכל בני קטורה וישמעאל, ולוט שמילט זקיני מן השבי ומן המות, יהו משועבדים לי. ואם אוכילך ותחיה, הריני מפסיד שרות גדול{ה} וממשלה גדולה, שאתה בכור ותקח הכל. אבל אם תמכור לי בכורתך, אז אוכילך ותחיה ולא תמות, ואני לא אפסיד במה שאוכילך. ואם לא תחמול על עצמך, בשביל שלא תרצה שלא תבא לי הממשלה, גם אני לא אחמול על עצמך. כי כמו שאתה רוצה לעצמך, אני אוהב לעצמי, ואיני אוהבך יותר ממני.