By the Book of Judges, the biblical depiction of Esau settles on permanent antagonism, and in the main, the rabbinic and medieval traditions dig in against him. Esau and Jacob (and their ...

The earliest midrashic commentaries on the story of Jacob and Esau portray Esau as thoroughly ... Harry Freedman’s 2014 book The Talmud: A Biography is now available in paperback on Amazon.

The story of Jacob’s surreptitious acquisition of the blessings his father intended for Esau is well known. This episode, coupled with the Torah’s declaration of Isaac’s love for Esau ...