Birthright and the Land

And Jacob said: ' first sell me your birth right (bechorah).'       Genesis 25:31

                Ḥizkuni (c. 1250-1310) explains Esau's willingness to give up his birthright by noting that inheriting Eretz Yisrael depends upon the bechorah, and the promise of the Land could be fulfilled only after the four hundred years of enslavement and oppression [Genesis 15:13]. As Esau recognized that he would not be alive to benefit from his bechorah personally, he felt "What good is a birthright to me?" [25:32]. Thus, the transfer of the bechorah was directly related to inheriting the Land, which was of great importance to Jacob, but of no significance to Esau.

                While Ḥizkuni dealt with Esau's readiness to give up the bechorah, Shmuel David Luzzatto [1800-65] focused on Jacob’s eagerness to obtain it. Luzzatto notes that Jacob apparently never informed Isaac that he had bought the bechorah (indeed, Rashi [27:36] writes that it was Esau who informed Isaac of the sale of the birthright, after Jacob was blessed by Isaac), and therefore could not expect to benefit from the double portion of inheritance which is the privilege of the bechor, nor could he expect additional blessings as a result of Esau's transfer of the bechorah to him (in fact, in order to receive the blessing Isaac intended for Esau, Jacob responded to his father's question by leading him to believe that he was Esau). Luzzatto explains that Jacob sought the bechorah to become master of his father's estate, thereby preventing Esau from chasing him out of the Land and insuring that his descendants, not Esau's, would inherit the Promised Land in fulfillment of God's promise to Avraham. As Yehuda Kiel notes in Da'at Mikra [Genesis 28:14], when Esau left the Land [36:6-8], he accepted Jacob’s legitimate rights to inherit the land of Canaan.

                Our father Jacob’s appreciation of the spiritual advantage of the Land motivated him to act on behalf of the fourth generation [Genesis 15:16] which would return from Egyptian exile to realize the nation's rights to the Land.