יעקב and the בכורה

Today in class we read a couple of pages written by Nachum Sama about whether or not what יעקב did when he tricked יצחק and עשו into giving him the בכורה was good, bad, or otherwise. Nachum Sama felt very strongly that what יעקב did was not at all the right thing to do. He feels that it was so bad that it was the cause of all of his later misfortunes. He brings the פסוקים about the lives of אברהם and יצחק where it says that they lived happy lives, and then he brings the פסוקים about יעקב. It says that "his years were few and hard." Nachum Sama thinks that's because of what he did all those years ago.

On the other hand, when you look at the actual פסוק that Nachum Sama cites, יעקב is actually talking to פרעה. In that case, would יעקב have been being serious and emotional with פרעה? I think that he wouldn't have been. Why would you just spill out your troubles in front of the king of the biggest empire in the area at the time? I think it would be more of a way of giving פרעה an answer to any of his questions without being totally open. We do know that יעקב had a hard life with many troubles, but would he have told פרעה this? I agree that he had troubles, but I don't agree with Nachum Sama that this is a good citation to use, or that all of יעקב's troubles came from what he did with יצחק and עשו. It might have been a bad choice, but I don't think that that is where all of his troubles came from.