Comentário sobre Gênesis 25:29

ויזד means boiling, as the Targum renders it.

ויזד יעקב נזיד. Jacob cooked food. Perhaps the reason Jacob did this was that he had observed how effective Esau's providing his father with delicious meals had been in cementing Isaac's love for him. He therefore tried to emulate his brother.

ויזד, the formulation of vayazed which normally should have been vayizad with a dagesh in the letter ז, the middle letter of the root, is not as unusual as it appears, [the author discussing this in detail in his grammar known as shoroshim. Ed] The meaning of the expression is that “he cooked a dish ויבשל נזיד;” the Torah reports that on a certain day when Yaakov had cooked a dish Esau returned from the hunt tired and found the dish Yaakov had cooked ready for eating. He requested to be given some of it so that he could eat it. The purpose of this story being recorded in the Torah is in order to contrast Yaakov’s virtues with Esau’s irresponsible way of looking at life. Not only that, but Esau considered the gobbling up of food as an end in itself, he was what our sages call a גרגרן, glutton. Yaakov, on the other hand, was so little concerned with the physical gratifications available on earth that when cooking for himself, he cooked a dish of lentils, the simplest undistinguished vegetable. If, in spite of his general outlook, Yaakov refused to share this dish with Esau unless the latter sold him his birthright, even though Essau was his brother, this demonstrates Yaakov’s intelligence and his moral principles which made it difficult for him to give something for which he had toiled to someone who was self-centered and who did not make any contribution to civilisation at all, assuming that whenever he felt ravenous he could demand to be gratified by what belonged to others. It is concerning people like Esau that Solomon said in Proverbs 22,16:נותן לעשיר אך למחסור, “(He who oppresses the poor) is like giving gifts to the rich. The end result is loss.”

ויבא עשו מן השדה והוא עיף, “Esau came home from the field, very tired;” he was so tired that he was overcome by a dizzy spell, fainting, so that he concluded that he was about to die soon. He meant that unless he would get something to eat immediately, his condition would deteriorate and result in his death. This being so, what good would the birthright be to him? One of the allegorical explanations of the Midrash claims that his condition was due to his having lost his bearings in the field and the forest, areas that do not abound with markers showing the way; instead of finding deer to kill, he exhausted himself finding the way home. When he found his brother Yaakov tending his father’s flocks in the field, he remarked that he would die soon as there was no one who had the power to restore him except his saintly father. [in the ספר הישר, Esau’s exhaustion is even described as fatigue after having successfully battled two of Nimrod’s soldiers, and his fearing for his life as a result. Ed.] The expression הלעיטני נא, “spoon-feed me,” indicates that this commentary may be close to the truth, as otherwise Esau would have said something like “תן לי,” “give to me!” He was so weak that he could not even lift his hand to his mouth.

ויזד יעקב נזיד, “Yaakov cooked a dish.” We would have expected the Torah to write that Yitzchak cooked such a dish seeing it was on account of mourning for his father Avraham. Seeing that the mourner must not eat what he has cooked himself, this dish had to be prepared by a third party, i.e. Yaakov. It was a dish of lentils as it was the custom to eat such a dish in the house of mourners. The lentil is round and closed like a wheel, and it thereby symbolizes the recurring nature of physical life on earth which ends where it began, i.e. “dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return.” As the lentil has no “mouth,” opening, so the mourner is not to open conversations (or speak at all).
Avraham had died on this day. He had been fortunate to have been spared seeing one of his grandchildren despise the birthright and to forsake his teachings. According to Baba Batra 16 Esau committed five different sins on that very day. 1) He slept with a girl who was betrothed to another man. 2) He killed a human being. 3) He scoffed at the idea of resurrection. 4) He denied the existence of G’d, and reward and punishment. 5) He despised the birthright.
The Talmud finds allusions in Scripture to support all these allegations: The Torah describes Esau here as ויבא עשו מן השדה, and in connection with the prohibition of sleeping with a girl who is betrothed to another, the Torah worded this in Deut. 22,27 כי בשדה מצאה “for he found her in the field.” The choice of the words: “in the field” is not arbitrary but an allusion to what happened here. The allusion to Esau committing murder is based on the words here כי עיף אנכי, “for I am exhausted,” and the verse in Jeremiah 4,31 כי עיפה נפשי להורגים, “for my soul is exhausted from killing.” The allusion to Esau denying resurrection of the dead is based on Esau saying here הנה אנכי הולך למות, “here I am going towards death,” and Job 7,9 כלה ענן וילך כן יורד שאול לא יעלה, “as a cloud fades away, so whoever goes down to Sheol does not come up.” As to Esau denying the existence of G’d and the system of reward and punishment, the sages point at the expression in our paragraph where Esau said למה זה לי, “what good is all this for me,” and the words זה אלי ואנוהו, “this is my G’d and I will glorify him;” this was the affirmation of G’d sung by the Jewish people after they had emerged from the sea and the Egyptians had been drowned in it (Exodus 15,2). The fact that Esau despised the birthright needs no allusion as it is spelled out right here.

As a result of committing murder... Otherwise, it should say he was hungry.

וַיָזֶד Hiphil von זוד (der Grundwurzel von סוד und צוד): etwas lange zubereiten und ganz reif werden lassen. Daher ja auch Ausdruck der absichtlichen vorbedachten Tat im Gegensatz zu der unvorsätzlichen. Dem Hiphil nach hat er es nicht selbst bereitet, sondern durch andere. נזיד: wie מול und זול ,נמל und זור ,נזל und נזר, scheint auch זוד und נוד zusammen zu hängen, und נזיר das Weichgesottene zu bedeuten.

והוא עיף, “and he was worn out;” it is usual for hunters to be worn out after chasing their prey. Moreover, sometimes they lose sight of their prey in the forest and get lost and it takes them a long time to find their way home. They may remain lost for a day or two, and when they finally get home they are totally worn out, hungry and thirsty.

והוא עיף AND HE WAS FAINT through murdering people, just as you mention faintness in connection with murder, (Jeremiah 4:31) ‘‘For my soul fainteth before the murderers” (Genesis Rabbah 63:12).