Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Vayishlah 5772: Hutzpah!

In Genesis 32:17, the Torah says that Jacob's servants allowed space in between each flock and the next one. According to Rashi, they were not just following the rules of the road.  Rather, Jacob wanted Esau's peace offering to look bigger than it really was. By adding space in between the flocks, the gift would take up more room and would take longer to gather. Rashi explains that Jacob wanted "to satiate the greed of that wicked man and astound him with the generosity of his gift."

This is the same thing that modern marketeers and restauranteurs do to make their products look bigger.  Marketeers put a relatively small amount of chips in a big bag and fill the remainder with air so that we'll think we're buying a substantial amount of food.  Restaurant workers regularly add generous amounts of ice to drinks in order to make them look bigger.

So I wonder just how sincere Jacob's peace offering is.  He is ostensibly giving the gift because he deceived his brother twice, thereby stealing his birthright and blessing.  But now he is trying to deceive his brother a third time even as he supposedly makes amends for tricking him twice before.  This is called hutzpah in the first degree!

In Jacob's defense, however, one must note that defeating evildoers often requires a certain amount of guile and trickery.  Just ask the people at the CIA, CSIS, MI6, or the Mossad.

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