Playing Favorites

Something I found very interesting in the whole Yaakov-Eisav story can be found in Pasuk 28. It says very clearly that Yitzchak loves Eisav and Rivkah loves Yaakov. Basically, it means they're playing favorites. Maybe Rivka loves Yaakov more because she knows that Eisav is going to be serving Yaakov one day anyway and maybe Yitzchak loves Eisav because Eisav brings him meat (and is known to do the mitzvah of Kibud Av very well). It doesn't say that they don't love the other son, it just says that they specifically love one. I can't imagine that this is all ok. Maybe they were punished sometime later for it.

This actually reminds me of Yaakov's story. He also played favorites in his family (maybe he learned that from his parents). He had a favorite wife (Rachel) and a favorite son (Yosef). Clearly, that didn't work out too well because Rachel died (pretty young) and Yosef was sold by his own brothers to Egypt. Maybe, those are punishments for playing favorites. I just don't understand how these great people are able to do something that even we today aren't allowed/supposed to do.