Jacob meets his brother Esau. Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us by Charles Foster, 1897.
“Esau Hates Jacob” - But Is Antisemitism a Halakha?
Esau’s plan to kill Jacob and his “dotted” kiss upon their reunion has been cited by rabbinic authorities, such as Rav Moshe Feinstein, as evidence that antisemitism is inherent. This idea is not found in the Torah or the Talmud.
Published: November 11, 2016
|
Last Updated: September 7, 2026
Rashi’s commentary on 32:9.
Rashbam’s commentary on 32:7, 32:8, 32:21, 32:23 and 32:29.; see the explanatory notes in my Rabbi Samuel ben Meir’s Commentary on Genesis (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 1989) or my Peirush ha-Rashbam al ha-Torah (Jerusalem: Chorev, 2009). See also the discussion of this comment of Rashbam by Shmuel Klitsner, Wrestling Jacob: Deception, Identity, and Freudian Slips in Genesis (Jerusalem: Urim, 2006), p. 162f.
On the significance of kisses in the story of Jacob, see Klitsner, pp. 103-104.
See Halivni, Peshat and Derash: Plain and Applied Meaning in Rabbinic Exegesis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 138-146, and idem, Revelation Restored: Divine Writ and Critical Responses (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997), pp. 16-36. Halivni’s theory is based on an opinion in Bemidbar Rabba 3:13. See also Menahem Kahana, Sifre on Numbers: An Annotated Edition, volume 4 (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2011), p. 474, note 95.
See Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 2nd revised edition (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001), pp. 55-57, and in much more detail in his Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah; Leiden: Brill, 2004).
A manuscript of b Ketubbot 14b, which should read תנא קמא סבר. Picture taken from http://hasoferet.com/cbh/2011/11/21/more-about-dots/.
Saul Lieberman, Greek in Jewish Palestine : Studies in the Life and Manners of Jewish Palestine in the II-IV centuries C. E (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1942), p. 46. See also Menahem Kahana, Sifre on Numbers: An Annotated Edition, Commentary on Passages 59-106 (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2011), p. 474, n. 98.
For another poseq who sees this subject the same way, see the former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Amar,“הלכה בידוע עשו שונא ליעקב”.
See Emanuel Feldman, “The Halachah that Esav Observes,” Mishpacha. See also Avigdor Bonchek’s discussion on the Aish Hatorah website, Vayishlach, 2004.
See, for example, Eugene Korn, “Does Esau always Hate Jacob?” CJCUC, 2015; Jonathan Sacks, “A People that Dwells Alone,” RabbiSacks.org, 2015; Ronnie Serr, “Does Esau Still Hate Jacob?,” AJRCA.edu, 2009.
See e.g. M. D. Herr, “Edom,” Encyclopedia Judaica, and Gerson Cohen, “Esau as Symbol in Early Medieval Thought,” in Alexander Altman, ed., Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), 19-48.
These words are missing from MS Vatican 32, likely by mistake.
See discussion in Kahana, p. 474, n. 96.
Ibid.
E.g. Bereshit Rabba 78:9, p. 927 in the Theodor-Albeck edition and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Genesis 33:4.
See the various midrashic sources mentioned by Kahana, ibid., pp. 474-475. Kahana also notes that the Church Father, Origen, interpreted the dots on the letters of וישקהו this way.
After Talmudic times, we do find such an attitude, for instance in the famous line in the Haggadah that suggests that in every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. For a more detailed discussion of the issue of rabbinic attitudes to the hatred of Jews, see my article “Sinat Yisrael (Hatred of Jews),” in Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism, edited by Sol Goldberg, Scott Ury, and Kalman Weiser (Palgrave, 2021).”
