Commentary for Genesis 27:3

שא נא — The word שא means sharpen, similar to what שא read in the Mishna (Beitzah 28a) “One may not sharpen the knife in the usual manner but one may sharpen it by passing it (משיאין) over another”. Isaac said to Esau, “Sharpen your knife and slaughter an animal according to the regulations so that you may not give me to eat נבלה” (i.e. the flesh of animal that is not killed according to the ritual rules) (Genesis Rabbah 65:13).

שא נא כליך, the reason for the repetition of the word נא both in verse 2 and verse 3 is similar to that in Genesis 12,11 where I have already explained it. [not found there. Ed.]

שא נא כליך, so that you will not return with your mission unaccomplished.

ועתה...כליך, the tools you use to hunt with.

תלייך, “your quiver.” According to Rashi this is a reference to Esau’s sword, swords being hung in their scabbard. [based on the root תלה, “he hung” Ed.] According to Ibn Ezra the word means “quiver,” i.e. the container within which the arrows are stored. Yitzchok told Esau to equip himself with his hunting tools, these consisting of a bow and arrows and their container, or the sword and its scabbard.

Sharpen your knife and slaughter properly... Meaning: there should not be a nick in the knife. Re’m asks: Granted that Yitzchok relied on Eisov, as he held him to be a good person. Nevertheless, since Eisov slaughtered birds in flight [with his bow], why was Yitzchok not concerned that the slaughter would be invalid because of chaladah [when the simonim — windpipe or esophagus — are cut under the cover of the feathers or skin]? Re’m answers as in Chulin 31a, [that the feathers around the neck were cut; see there]. But Re’m’s discussion is unnecessary, as Yitzchok never asked Eisov to bring fowl, only animals [such as deer]. This is as Rashi explains in v. 9: “The taste of kid is similar to the taste of deer.” Although our verse mentions the bow, which implies that Eisov was asked to shoot arrows at birds, however, the bow could be used for animals: he could shoot the animal so it cannot flee, but in a manner that does not render it a treifah, and then he would slaughter it with a sword. (Nachalas Yaakov)

וצודה לי צידה, “and hunt some venison for me.” The word for venison, i.e. ציד, has been spelled here with the letter ה at the end, to remind us that there are five potential causes that invalidate a ritually acceptable slaughtering of animals from making them fit for consumption by Jews.

תליך, “your quiver,” the bag fastened around one’s midriff containing the supply of arrows;”

תליך means thy sword which is usually hung (at the side).

תלייך¸ his bag containing his arrows.

תליך וקשתך, now he spelled out the tools in detail. Possibly, there were other hunting instruments in addition to these. תליך, is the quiver in which one keeps the arrows. Onkelos translates it as סיפך, “your sword,” (the ending ך in the word as a personal pronoun.). A sword would also be a tool which is hung in a scabbard, or suspended from one’s belt, so. that the root תלה implied in the word תליך is part of his translation.

וצודה לי ציד, “and hunt some venison for me.” This reveals that Yitzchok was quite unfamiliar with Esau’s lifestyle, as if he had been familiar with it he would not have eaten anything that had been killed by his son. Still, it is problematic how Yitzchok could have eaten animals that had been killed by an arrow. Some commentators therefore explain that Esau had perfected a technique of luring animals by imitating their voices so that when they came close he could slaughter them. This is what the Torah alluded to when it wrote כי ציד בפיו, “he hunted with his mouth.”

From the ownerless and not from the robbedtherwise, why does it say, “For me,” when it is written (v. 4), “Bring it to me”? Thus Rashi explains: “From ownerless....”

וצודה לי ציד, “and hunt some game for me.” If you were to question how it is possible for Yitzchok to have been eating the meat of animals that had not died through ritual slaughter even inadvertently, seeing that we have a statement by our sages that G-d protects the righteous from becoming guilty of this, seeing that He even protects their livestock from becoming guilty of this? (Talmud Chulin 7) We have to answer that Yitzchok stopped eating meat slaughtered by Esau after he found out that he was a heretic. He acquired his name as a ציד בפיו, before he had become a heretic.

צודה לי AND HUNT FOR ME [SOME VENISON] of animals that are ownerless, but not of such as are acquired by theft (literally, by robbery).

The word is derived from the root תלה, “to hang,” We find it used in this sense in Genesis 40,22 in connection with Pharaoh hanging the chief of the bakers, as well as in Judges 5,12 where the word שביך בן אבינועם is derived from the root שבה, Similarly, the word עניך in Genesis 16,11 כי שמע ה' אל עניך, “for the Lord has paid heed to your suffering,” is derived from the root ענה.

וצא השדה, Yitzchok issued this instruction as Esau did not go out hunting on a daily basis.

צידה, the letter ה at the end of this word is unnecessary. Our sages explain it as an acronym, warning the ritual slaughterer of 5 possible problems that would invalidate the halachically acceptable slaughter of an animal, i.e ,שהייה דריסה, חלדה, הגרמה, עיקור, undue delay in completing the severing of the vital pipes; leaning on the knife performing the cutting; a rusty blade, sliding of the knife from the correct position, tearing loose either of the two pipes.

צידה, spelled with the letter ה, but read as ציד. According to a well known aggadic interpretation the letter ה is an allusion to 5 major halachic requirements in killing an animal to make it fit for consumption by Jews. (compare Torah Shleymah 23)