819. Borrowing Vessels
Why was Isaac afraid to say, “What iniquity is there in me that I blessed the little one before the older one and changed the order of relation?” Esau began to shout, “He delayed me twice!” His father told him: “What did he do to you?” He said, “He took my blessing.” He said, “This is what I regretted and dreaded that I might have broken the letter of the law. Now, my blessing to the elder, ‘he, too, shall be blessed’” (Midrash Tanchuma).
This means that this is why Isaac blessed Esau, because of the birthright. Therefore, we should understand why Jacob had to deceive his father that he was Esau. He could have told him that he deserves the blessings because of the birthright. Nachmanides interpreted the verse, “And Esau despised the birthright,” that this is why he said to Isaac, “I am your elder son,” telling him that he deserves to be blessed.
We should also understand the verse, “And Isaac loved Esau for there was game in his mouth.” What is the precision, “in his mouth”? Baal HaSulam interpreted why Isaac wanted to bless Esau, since it is impossible to give anything spiritual to one who has no desire for the matter. Otherwise, the spiritual matter yields no blessing to a person, but on the contrary, a curse.
“Blessing” means that his situation will improve, he will grow and expand, and will be able to go higher and higher to the sought-after wholeness. But if a person is given something spiritual while he lacks the Kelim [vessels] to receive, meaning that he has no need, this matter brings him nothing but losses, the opposite of a blessing.
Jacob was a smooth man, as it is written, “and I am a smooth man,” meaning without any deficiency. “And I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing. And his mother said to him … but obey my voice.” Conversely, Esau was hairy. Se’arot [hair] comes from the word Se’arah [storm], meaning deficiencies, for over deficiencies there can be a storm.
Hence, it is precisely Esau who had the Kelim to receive the blessings, unlike Jacob. Rebecca advised him, meaning he wore the best garments of Esau. As RASHI interpreted, he coveted them from Nimrod, meaning that those garments belonged to wicked Nimrod.
Esau took from him these Kelim, and she also dressed his smooth parts with leather from young goats. In other words, he wore Esau’s desires and thus had a lack in which to receive the blessings.
By this we can explain and say that for this reason, when Esau came and said, “He delayed me twice,” meaning that he also took from me the birthright, his mind was eased that he had blessed the little one. That is, before he knew that he was the elder, he thought that he had no place of deficiency, and therefore no connection to the blessings.
But once he learned through Esau, that he took the birthright from him, Isaac (saw) that Jacob himself tried to obtain Kelim so he would have a place in which to receive the blessings, since he tried to find by buying the birthright.
This is why Isaac said, “He, too, will be blessed,” for now Jacob is suitable for the blessings. Prior to the correction of borrowing Esau’s Kelim, buying the birthright in and of itself was not enough to receive the blessings. Hence, there was no point in telling him that he has the birthright from Esau, since this is only the beginning of the making of the Kelim.
By borrowing the Kelim of Esau, he had the suitable Kelim. This is similar to the borrowing of the Kelim of the Egyptians, as it is written, “And each woman shall borrow from her neighbor,” for the people of Israel, too, needed to borrow a place of lack so they could receive the Mochin of great possessions, similar to borrowing the garments of Esau here.
We can understand the matter of borrowing Kelim through a depiction. It is a rule that it is impossible to provide any answers if he does not have the questions. Jacob did not have any questions, so it was considered that he took the questions from Esau in a manner of borrowing, meaning in order to extend the answers. Yet, he promptly returned and gave him back all the questions.