TOLDOS 1985

In the Torah portion Toldos we learn "and it was when Yitzchok grew old and his eyes grew dim from seeing he called Esau, his older son, and he said to him, 'Now, lift please your weapon, your quiver, and your bow? and go out to the field and hunt for me a hunt in order that my soul will bless you before I die.'"  The rabbis say that the reason that Isaac's eyes were dim was because when he was placed on the altar by his father the angel's tears fell on his eyes, and from then on he became a semi-recluse.  He could not look at the world.  This, the rabbis explain, is the reason he was willing to give the blessing to Esau.
Life is not easy.  Life is, many times, very difficult.  We just cannot live by certain hard and fast rules.  One thing almost always depends upon another thing, and it takes a great deal of maturity to know what to do in life.  For example, we all know that we should not lie, but sometimes we have to lie.  We cannot say, like Philosopher Cant tried to say, that we have in life certain categorical imperatives which we cannot break.  For example, we should never lie.  However, the case that is always used against Cant is:  What happens if a huge burly sex maniac is knocking at your door and wants to know if you have a certain little girl in your house?  You have no way to stop him if you let him in.  In fact, if he knew the girl were there he could even break the door down.  What should you do?  Should you lie or tell the truth?  Obviously, you should lie.
In Judaism you are allowed to do anything to save a life except to kill an innocent person or to worship idols publicly or commit incest. Life depends on many things.  It is difficult to know what you are to do.  In the story of Jacob and Esau we see how here it looks like

the good guy did bad and the bad guy did good.  Esau, who is the violent uncaring person, seems to have had the blessing unjustifiably taken away from him while, on the other hand, Jacob, the simple and good man, seems to have committed a gross deception here against his brother, and, in fact, if we look carefully at what happens here we can see that in this instance Jacob probably should not have told a lie.  After all, the blessing that Yitzchak gave to Esau thinking it was Jacob was only a material blessing.  The spiritual blessing he gave to Jacob when he left for Mesopotamia.
It is hard to know when to tell the truth and when not to tell the truth.  It is hard to know what to do in a given situation.  We know that 90% or 95% of the time we have to tell the truth, but sometimes we should not either to protect people or save people.  Yitzchak looked at the world through tear stained eyes.  He saw that there was evil and lie and corruption all around, and perhaps he felt that it really did not make any difference whether Esau or Jacob got the blessing.  After all, they were both going to tell lies in the world. After all, wasn't it the religious impulse or his father which almost led to his own death?  There was probably not too much difference between Esau and Jacob anyway.  They both had to lie and cheat sometimes. Sure, they would call it diplomacy or tact.  Yitzchak saw that there were no perfect solutions in the world, and there were only imperfect solutions, and it did not make any difference which imperfect solution you chose.
That's the way people today say there is no difference between Russia
and America.  Russia has a KGB; we have a CIA.  Russia invaded Afghanistan;
we invaded Viet Nam.  Russia has corruption; we have corruption.

Russia uses violence; we have violence in our society.  But we all know that this is not true.  There is a difference between imperfect solutions.  Ask the Russian Jews.  They know what it is to live in Russia, and they all want to get out.  I just met an 84 year old woman who left Russia when she was 80.  I asked her if it was hard. She said it was but that every night she went to bed with lies and every morning she got up to lies.  It was important to her that her grandson be able to live as a free man and as a Jew.  Not all imperfect solutions are the same.
When Yitzchak tells Esau to hunt him a hunt, the word for "hunt"
is spelled in an unusual way.  It is spelled with a "hay".  The hay
is not needed.  This word can then be read, instead of "sayid", it
can be read "sadia".  Sadia means "to do things with malice, with
intent".  The difference between Esau and Jacob was that Esau acted
evilly on purpose.  Jacob only used lying to save himself or others.
His intentions were good.  There is a difference when somebody does
something in self-defense or when he does it as a way of life.  The
idea of perfect solutions is a great deadener of the human capacity
to act.  The enemy of the better is the best.  It is true America
is not perfect.  It is true that there are a lot of problems here,
but, on the other hand, we should never feel that the imperfect solutions
we have here are no better than the imperfect solutions they have
in Russia.  Jacob was better than Esau.
I am reminded of the story they tell about the time they tried to mate a five star general with a dove.  It ended up with a military coup.  Trying to live by law and order, trying to live with human dignity and freedom is important even if sometimes we fail.  At least we tried.  Other philosophies do not even try.