Evil...Really??

What do we really know about Esav? Not a lot thats for sure. We have come accustomed to calling him red, but that is about it. Yes it also says that he was a man of the fields, but really thats it. Us ourselves make him out to be someone evil. As Purim has just passed, there is a character in that story that we also don't know very much about, Vashti. We make her out to be this very evil, ugly, bad person. In reality though that is just how me made her up to be. In actuality the megilah does not say much about her at all. I guess we just assumed her to be a bad person because she rejected the king. Was that so evil of her? If we think about it, if she didn't refuse the king's invitation, Achashverosh would have never had to look for a new queen and Esther would have never come into the picture. Ok maybe she would have because Mordechi still would not have bowed down to Haman, but let's face it the whole story would have been completely different. I'm sure that Esther would not have had it so easy if she hadn't been made the queen.

In my opinion and if I'm not mistaken Rabbi Perl also thought so, that Vashti is really a hero. Maybe not a hero, but definitely not a bad or evil person. If it wasn't for her refusing to join the king at his party who knows what would have happend to the Jewish people. At the time, I'm sure Vashti seemed bad, but in the long run what she did was great for us!

I think its the same with Esav. He might not have been as evil as we thought him out to be. It's not like the Torah told us explicitly that he was an evil person. He hunted, so what? He could have been getting meat to eat. Without Esav giving over the bechorah our fate could have been completely different. Again who knows where we would be right now if he had kept it. I think in this sense Esav is a hero almost. He gave over the bechorah without a fight even. Yes, most people think he was crazy and just for giving it up he was a bad person. If he hadn't given it up, we might all be the complete opposite religion wise right now. Ok, so maybe I wouldn't call him a "hero", but I definitely would not call him evil. And let's be honest, we have all had those times where we thought we were going to die from hunger or exhaustion. Like the Sforno Racheli and I had to learn said, he said he was going to die because he was so tired, but honestly we have all most probably been there. We all over exaggerate sometimes, but that is not a crime.

So basically I do not think Esav is such a bad person. We might make him out to be and everyone thinks he is but in reality no where does it say that for sure. All we know about him is that he was red because he was covered in a red coat of hair and that he was a man of the field. There is nothing in that information to indicate that he was evil or even remotely bad. With Vashti also. She was just judged by how we perceived her, but really its all made up.

Thanks Rabbi Perl for giving me the perfect blog post at your house on Purim!!