When it comes to family feuds, facts and fiction are often intertwined. Healing can happen, over time, and for starters, it’s helpful to ensure that all the hurts and harms, real or assumed, are honored. Echoes of one such feud and possibly its resolution can be found in our chapter, where history is not just reviewed in this so-called repetition of the Torah that Moses delivers to his people - it is also being radically revised.
Like many family feuds and domestic dramas recounted over countless years, sometimes generations - accounts differ on what happened, how, and why.
This specific family drama is about the way the Nation of Edom - descendants of Esau -did or did not welcome Israel - the descendants of Jacob - through their land on their way to Canaan. There are two versions, one in this second chapter of the Book of Words, and the other in chapter 20 of the previous Book of Wilderness. In the previous version it’s an ugly war threat and a long roundabout for Israel, but in today’s version it’s diplomacy, commerce and a faster route, with clear indication of boundaries:
“Charge the people: You will be passing through the territory of your kin, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. Though they will be afraid of you, be very careful not to provoke them. For I will not give you their land so much as a foot can tread on; I have given the hill country of Seir as an inheritance to Esau.”
It’s possible that the existence of two different versions is about conflicting territorial politics. But it’s also about enduring mythic tensions between siblings and the archetypes they stand for, generations later. Jacob and Esau split ways in Genesis over inheritance. They will be known as founding fathers of two nations - Edom and Israel will perpetuate tensions for many centuries, well into the period in which the Bible was finally redacted. The different versions that depict the encounter between the two nations may reflect the different eras in which such cultural encounters occurred, depicted or imagined, over time.
Perhaps this also lets us understand how this sacred book got created - scraps of prior information cobbled together an attempted coherent narrative, with its own time-stamped political agenda. The glitches and rough stitches like this one help scholars recognize the historical layers, and give us the opportunity to make better sense of the evolution of the text.
Dr.David Glatt-Gilad tries to solve this textual conflict with the interesting proposal that what we are reading here is an attempt to bury the bitterness of prior struggles between the nations and their blood ties:
“Deuteronomy 2’s upbeat presentation of the Edomite-Israelite encounter serves as a kind of tikkun (corrective) of the negative experience of Num 20:14–21. The author of Deuteronomy assumes that Moses did make the original, failed request in the second year, but he chooses to skip over this event—to bury it as it were—and continue with the second request with its positive outcome. Only once the 40th year had arrived could Moses redo what had gone awry long before, and this time receive permission from the Edomites to cross their territory. “
Whoever edited both versions, he suggests, made extra effort to smooth over tensions and depict a resistance free passage through Edom in this chapter. Esau forgives Jacob. All is well. For the most part.
Is this a form of propaganda that prevents us from remembering the tensions, trials and troubles that may have been part of history, the agenda of the conquest of Canaan? If so - it’s on us to notice the cracks, not diffuse the feuds, old hurts, narratives of loss, and echoes of a hostile occupation. If any healing is to happen - both or more versions of the stories must be heard, aired, and allowed to heal, with time.
The Torah is told from the point of view of Jacob’s children, but at least in this version there is respect for the land, lot and heritage of Esau, with a clear warning not to mess with our siblings, provoke them or incite a fight. Esau’s inheritance is not just the Mountains of Shir, in what is today’s Jordan. It’s also this story, and this feud.
Maybe it’s a good reminder, for each of us today and our own family feuds and inner struggles, as we mend our hurts towards a new year, noting where there's forgiveness waiting for our open hearts: Even family feuds, as old as the bible, can heal if we allow ourselves not to sugar coat the past but open our eyes, and hearts, to whatever still hurts, no matter how many versions there are.
Image: 1731 Physica Sacra (Sacred Physics) by Johann Scheuchzer (1672-1733) "Hairy Esau"
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