“One Blessing”: Holiness and the Blessing of Esav

22a“Have you only one blessing, my father?” There is life and blessing that come from holiness, and since “God made the one opposite the other,”¹ there is also life that comes from the kelipos, the husks that hide holiness. The Arizal wrote that holiness is called “one,” because it cleaves to the Oneness of the Creator, blessed be He; Chazal say so too in several places, and so does Rashi [where Yaakov's household is called one “soul”].² Yitzchak had blessed Yaakov from the side of holiness. So Esav said, “Have you only one blessing, my father?” Notice the word “one”: it alludes to holiness. He meant: can you bless only from the side of holiness? “Bless me too, my father”: from the side of the kelipah. In asking this, Esav went against his father's words, “Behold, I have made him your master.”³ Yaakov's blessing came from the side of holiness; if Yitzchak blessed Esav from the sitra achra, the side opposed to holiness, Yaakov would not be master over him, since Esav's blessing would come from the side opposite Yaakov's.

22bWhen Yitzchak heard Esav's words, he saw his wickedness: Esav was drawn after the sitra achra. He said, “And by your sword you shall live.”⁴ When the sword, killing and destruction strike you, then you will “live,” that is, rise, because through it Hashem's Name will be sanctified.⁵ He also said to him, “And it shall be, when you are aggrieved.” Chazal teach that vehayah, “and it shall be,” is a word of joy,⁶ and Rashi explains tarid, “you are aggrieved,” as a word of grief.⁷ So vehayah means there will be joy “when you are aggrieved”: when you have grief, sorrow and sighing, all the worlds will rejoice, as the verse says, “When the wicked perish, there is song.”⁸

22cHe also said, “And you shall throw off his yoke from upon your neck.” The prophet Yeshayahu said, “The ox knows its owner …”⁹ But while a yoke is on its neck, the ox does not know its owner by its own choice; the yoke compels it. When the yoke is taken off, it shows honor by its own choice. So it is with the nations. As long as the Beis HaMikdash stood, the yoke was on the nations' neck, and they were subdued before Israel. Now that the Beis HaMikdash is destroyed, the yoke has been taken off them. Yet even with no yoke to compel them, of their own choice they are obligated to do Israel's will now too, in exile, for Israel is the owner: as Chazal said, the Holy One, blessed be He, created all the worlds for the sake of Israel.¹⁰ And the nations are like animals, as the verse says, “They are counted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness.”¹¹

22dThat is what Yitzchak told Esav: “And you shall throw off his yoke from upon your neck.” Even when you throw off Yaakov's yoke from your neck, which is the time of exile, as Rashi explains,¹² it is only “from upon your neck” that you remove it: you will no longer be compelled. But of yourself it is fitting for you to do Israel's will, even though the yoke is no longer on your neck, as the verse says, “The ox knows its owner …” This also explains the verse “And Esav raised his voice and wept.” Vayisa, “raised,” means lifting up: the lifting of his voice speaks of his own rise, for raising the voice is a going up. When will his rise come? “And wept”: when he weeps, when he has the sorrow and sighing we saw in “when you are aggrieved.” That is when he rises, as we saw in “By your sword you shall live.” One who understands will understand.