28:9 “וילך עשו אל ישמעאל ויקח את מחלת בת ישמעאל בן אברהם אחות נביות על נשיו לו לאשה”
“And Eisav went to Yishmael and took Machlas, the daughter of Yishmael son of Avrohom, sister of Nevoyos, in addition to his wives, as a wife for himself.” Rashi says that the Torah tells us this to teach us that Yaakov Avinu was hidden away in the house of Eiver for fourteen years, and only after that he went to Charan. We learn from this that Yaakov Avinu was learning in the Yeshivah of Eiver for fourteen years. Why didn’t the Torah tell us explicitly this wonderful thing that Yaakov Avinu learned for fourteen years straight in the Yeshiva of Eiver? The following Divrei Torah will expound on this topic, and support the P’shat offered in the closing paragraph.
דברי ישראל
28:9 “וילך עשו אל ישמעאל ויקח את מחלת בת ישמעאל בן אברהם אחות נביות על נשיו לו לאשה” – “And Eisav went to Yishmael and took Machlas, the daughter of Yishmael son of Avrohom, sister of Nevoyos, in addition to his wives, as a wife for himself.” Rashi says that the Torah tells us this to teach us that Yaakov Avinu was hidden away in the house of Eiver for fourteen years, and only after that, he went to Charan. We learn from this that Yaakov Avinu was learning in the Yeshivah of Eiver for fourteen years. We can understand why the Torah didn’t explicitly state that Yaakov learned for fourteen years, for the Maharal tells us a rule that anything that was done “hidden”, is also hidden in the Torah. Being that Yaakov hid himself in the Yeshiva there for fourteen years, the Torah doesn’t mention it outright.
However, why hide it in the Parshah of the wicked Eisav getting married – why not allude to it elsewhere? Eisav was very calculated in taking this Shidduch for himself. Eisav took a granddaughter of the great Tzaddik Avrohom Avinu, for he thought that between himself, who was a son of Yitzchok and Rivkah, combined with a granddaughter of Avrohom Avinu, he would be able to overpower Yaakov. Yaakov Avinu feared the power of having the Zechus of Avrohom Avinu from both sides, Eisav and his wife, so Yaakov needed something to counteract it. The main Zechus that Avrohom Avinu had was his learning of the Torah Hakdosha. Thus, Yaakov figured that he would connect to the root of the Zechus of Avrohom Avinu, the Torah Hakdoshah, which as the Gemara in Zevachim 116a says that it came before the world, and in that Zechus, he would be bolstering his own Zechuyos against the wicked Eisav. The Torah alludes to us that Yaakov learned in Eiver for fourteen years through the marriage of Eisav, for it was Eisav marrying the granddaughter of Avrohom Avinu in order to obtain Zechuyos to defeat Yaakov, that was the impetus of Yaakov Avinu learning those fourteen years, so that he would have the antidote against Eisav’s plan, and would be able to defeat him.
