Parshas Toldos

[Ayala1]

The root of Eisav's mistake was in focussing on the physical mortality instead of the spiritual imortality of Man. Rav Hirsch has a fascinating take on the ideas of tumas hames and parah aduma which is relevant to this mistake. When a person sees someone die, just like Eisav saw Avraham die, one is overcome with the feeling that man is not moraly free, and all people are bound by the rules of nature. However, the whole process of parah adumah teaches us that though man's physical body is bound by the rules of nature, man also has a soul, which is moraly free and is imortal - it can not be touched by death. Through focusing on Torah, which teaches us how to control our physical desires that pull us down to be bound by nature, we are able to sour spiritually, and go beyond the limits of our physical nature. Eisav, instead of recognizing this, let himself be carried away by his physical passions, which further tie one down. Chazal say that people turn to avoda zara and denial of Hashem in order to more freely be able to follow thier passions without the limits of the Torah. But truely the Torah is what makes us free. Cheirus al haLuchot - true freedom is only through Torah's liberating us to be spiritually and moraly free - which ultimately makes us imortal and not bound by the gravitational force of nature pulling us down.