Rabbi Pinchas Winston
These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before a king ruled over the Children of Israel. (Bereishis 36:31)
If you think about it, Edom and Yishmael seem to represent two polar extremes of the same continuum. True, Eisav was the source of Catholicism, one of the biggest religions in the world today with many loyal followers, but compared to Islam, it is quite a different religion. In any case, Eisav today represents the Western World, which is intensely secular, and even if President Joe Biden professes to be a somewhat religious man, he leads a nation that acts in very non-religious ways.
On the other hand, Islam is at the other extreme. In many places they still cut off the hand of the thief, among other extreme acts of law enforcement. In some places in the world, Western backwardness is a function of Third World poverty. However, many Arab countries have more than enough money to be even more western than the West, but choose not to as a matter of culture, often rejecting it to an extreme.
Historically, the Jewish people have stood in between both cultures, or were supposed to have stood between both cultures, at least. As we have seen, just like any other people, we are capable of going to extremes. Today, some Jews are more secular than anyone else in the world, and historically we have fostered groups capable of taking the letter of the law too far.
Okay, we may never have cut off the hands of thieves, but we still have been quite extreme in our judgment of ourselves and others at times. Especially today, we can’t seem to find that national “Middle Road,” and as a result, we still find ourselves in a long, spiritually and often physically brutal exile.
It is interesting how the above verse mentions where the kings of Edom ruled — in the land of Edom — but stops short of doing so with respect to the Children of Israel. It is as if the posuk is trying not to confine itself to a single time period, but rather wishes to refer to the entire period of Jewish history — until a true king will finally come and rule over the Jewish.
Once Moshiach comes, the extremes will disappear. That which is good and holy, at least in potential, within Western society will be absorbed and appreciated, and that which is not, will be flatly rejected. And with the end of the yetzer hara at this time of history, extreme judgment will no longer be necessary either.
If so, then maybe this posuk has yet to be truly fulfilled. After all, even Moshe couldn’t quite get the nation to walk that straight line of Torah perfection, and certainly the kings after him did not either. Thus, no Jewish king has ever really “ruled” the Children of Israel, while in the meantime the kings of Edom still seem to rule the world.
Thus, this posuk is a fitting end to this week’s parshah, which just happens to end with Chapter Thirty-Six, the number of the Final Redemption as the thirty-six candles of Chanukah remind us. After all, nothing happens by accident, even the non-Jewish numbering of the Torah, especially when it is based upon traditional “stops” and “starts” — even if they didn’t know it at the time.
