Your Credit and Your Discredit

When Yaakov called Reuven his firstborn (Bereishis 49:3), he told him what stood to his credit and what stood against him. To his credit, Esav the firstborn went out to hunt, and if he found no game he meant to bring a stolen animal, whereas Reuven took only what was ownerless: in the days of the wheat harvest he found dudaim growing wild in the field and brought them (Bereishis 30:14). To his discredit, Yaakov himself had never had a nocturnal emission until the age of eighty-four, when he married, yet Reuven went and lay with Bilhah. The birthright, the priesthood and the kingship were all Reuven's, Yaakov said, but now the birthright goes to Yosef, the priesthood to Levi and the kingship to Yehudah. Rav Acha adds that Yaakov also said the birthright was never rightfully Reuven's, for he had gone to Lavan only for Rachel, and on the wedding night he consorted with Leah thinking she was Rachel. Now the birthright returned to its rightful owner, Rachel's firstborn, Yosef.