The descendants of Esau will fall only into
the hands of the descendants of Rachel.
Breishit
Rabba 99:2
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Based upon Midrashic comments, Rabbi
Yehonatan Eybschutz notes that Esau had the merit of honoring his father. Yet Esau’s
professions of honor for Isaac were hypocritical, as our Sages tell us that Esau
sent his son Eliphaz to assassinate Jacob, thereby showing no concern for the
suffering his father would experience at the death of one of his sons.
Joseph’s brothers, after selling him into
slavery, allowed their father to believe that Joseph had been killed by a wild
animal. Thus, the brothers were as guilty of hypocrisy as was Esau, and they are
not qualified to overcome Esau.
Only Joseph himself and his full brother
Benjamin were not party to the pain inflicted by their brothers' deceit of
Jacob, and therefore only they, the sons of Rachel, have the merit to overcome Esau.
Amalek is a descendant of Esau, and indeed,
historically, it was the descendants of Rachel who battled Amalek: Joshua (of
the Tribe of Ephraim, one of the two tribes of Joseph) fought against Amalek in
its original attack on Israel in the desert; King Saul, of the Tribe of
Binyamin, was called upon to annihilate Amalek, as we read in the Haftara
of Parashat Zachor; Mordechai and Esther, of the Tribe of Binyamin lead
the fight against Haman, the descendant of the Amalekite Agag.
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