Midrasch zu Bereschit 27:37

(Gen. 27:36:) THEN HE SAID: HAVE YOU NOT RESERVED ME]⁹⁸See above, 5:6, n. 25; 6:1, n. 1. A BLESSING?⁹⁹With the word BLESSING, Buber is able to follow his Oxford MS again. Resh Laqish said: This is one of three children of Adam who came with a legal circumvention against the Holy One.¹⁰⁰Sanh. 101a (bar.) names Cain, Esau, and Manasseh as the three. Esau said to him: If both of us are righteous, does not your God have < enough > blessings to bless both of us? The Holy One said to him: May your mouth be stopped up! Look, Jacob is blessing twelve tribes, and it is not a case of him blessing one as he blesses another. Even so he was filled with compassion for him. He came to bless him, but the Divine Presence departed from him. He began to pray and say (in the words of Is. 26:10): LET THE WICKED BE SHOWN FAVOR.¹⁰¹Gen. R. 67:5. He said to him (ibid., cont.): HE WILL NOT LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS. He said to him: Do you desire to bless this one? He is going to destroy my house and confuse lands¹⁰²‘Aratsot. Perhaps the text should read ‘otsarot (“treasures”) here. See MS 1240 of the De Rossi library in Parma. and riches. Thus it is stated (ibid., cont.): IN A LAND OF INTEGRITY HE WILL ACT UNJUSTLY. Isaac said to him: Give to him in this world, AND (ibid., cont.) HE SHALL NOT SEE THE MAJESTY OF THE LORD in the world to come because he would compel¹⁰³Gk.: anangke. me to repay him the glory with which he honored me. Esau immediately raised his eyes upward and wept, as stated (in Gen. 27:38): AND ESAU LIFTED UP HIS VOICE AND WEPT. The Holy One said: Although he is wicked, flatter him. R. Eleazar said: Esau shed three tears, one from his right < eye >, one from his left, and one disappeared in the midst of his eye.¹⁰⁴M.Pss. 80:4. The Holy One said: Look, the wicked one is weeping over his life! How am I to turn him away empty! He immediately told his father to bless him. This text is related (to Ps. 80:6 [5]): YOU HAVE FED THEM THE BREAD OF TEARS AND HAVE HAD THEM DRINK A SHALISH¹⁰⁵The word SHALISH has the same spelling as shelish, which means “one-third,” and has the same root as the word for “three.” In the context of the psalm shalish denotes a dry measure, which is a third of an ephah. OF TEARS. R. Abbin said in the name of R. Aha: Israel said to the Holy One: Sovereign of the World, now if in the case of Esau the Wicked, because he had shed two tears, < you were > filled with compassion for him immediately; how much the more so in our case, when our tears < flow > constantly day and night like bread, as stated (in Ps. 42:4 [3]): MY TEARS HAVE BEEN MY BREAD DAY AND NIGHT. Up to now the proper time has not arrived for him to be filled with compassion over you. David has said (in Ps. 39:13 [12]): HEAR MY PRAYER, O LORD, AND GIVE EAR TO MY CRY. DO NOT KEEP SILENCE AT MY TEARS. The Holy One said to them: I will repay Esau the Wicked for the glory of his ancestors, and I will exalt him. Afterwards, I am coming to exalt you and repay {them} [you] for what you have achieved and for what your ancestors achieved. It is so stated (in Ps. 46:11 [ 10]): I WILL BE EXALTED AMONG THE GENTILES; I WILL BE EXALTED IN THE EARTH. It is simply that the Holy One said to Jacob (in Gen. 28:14): AND YOUR SEED SHALL BE LIKE THE DUST OF THE EARTH. It is also written (in Mal. 3:12): FOR YOU WILL BE A DELIGHTFUL LAND. Esau said to him (in Gen. 27:37): BLESS ME ALSO, O MY FATHER. Isaac said to him: With what shall I bless you? R. Berekhyah said: He said to him: I made him a lord over you. In anything whatever that I should bless you, I should be blessing him. Why? Because whatever the slave acquires, he acquires for his master. (Gen. 27:29:) BE A MASTER TO YOUR BROTHER is what Isaac said to Jacob. That was the seventh blessing (in Gen. 27:29). Now Isaac had set down ten blessings with which he had blessed him, but he said to him only (in vs. 27:37): "BEHOLD, I HAVE MADE HIM A MASTER OVER YOU." He did, however, say to him: With everything that you are thinking I should bless you, I should only be blessing him. Why? Because whatever the servant has belongs to the master. Thus in Egypt, even though they had been enslaved to them, when they left them they took all their property. So also in the case of thirty-one kings (in Josh. 12:7-24), Israel drove them from their land and took their wealth. So also now in respect to what the peoples of the world are plundering from Israel, Israel belongs to the LORD. Thus it is stated (in Is. 23:18): HER (in reference to Tyre as a harlot) PROFITS AND HER HIRE SHALL BE DEDICATED TO THE LORD {OF HOSTS}. THEY SHALL NOT BE TREASURED OR STORED, FOR HER PROFITS SHALL BELONG TO THOSE WHO DWELL BEFORE THE LORD FOR EATING THEIR FILL AND FOR SPLENDID CLOTHING.