If less than perfect is what we
have come to give complete respect,
when perfect comes we will not see
in it a reason to reject
the less than perfect we have grown
to love because we’re used to it:
with perfect we will pick a bone,
and it will take a mental hit.
We all grow so attached to many
mistakes and errors over time,
we don’t believe that there is any
point in the correction paradigm.
Correction of a grave mistake
arouses in us total terror;
we fear our confidence to shake,
and therefore learn to live with error.
I recalled this poem on 12/3/12 after reading Bekhor Shor’s explanation of Esau’s appearance even while emerging from the womb. Gen 25:25
וַיֵּצֵ֤א הָרִאשׁוֹן֙ אַדְמוֹנִ֔י כֻּלּ֖וֹ כְּאַדֶּ֣רֶת שֵׂעָ֑ר וַיִּקְרְא֥וּ שְׁמ֖וֹ עֵשָֽׂו׃
The first one emerged red, like a hairy mantle all over; so they named him Esau.
Behkor Shor, a 12th century French Tosafist who lived in Orleans, states that the name of Esau, the twin brother of Jacob, implies “parfait,” in other words that Esau was physically perfect as soon as he was born.
This might explain why Bekhor Shor’s great predecessor, Rashi, explains that everybody who saw him called him Esau, thinking he was perfect even though Jewish tradition teaches us that he was an ancestor of the greatest enemies of the Jews, the Romans, who destroyed the second Temple.
Rashi described Esau as having emerged from the womb fully formed, with facial and pubic hair; I take advantage however of my poetic license to suggest that Bekhor Shor’s translation of Esau’s name as parfait may have suggested that Esau’s unusual newborn appearance anticipated a sad fact: Jacob’s descendants would be the victims of Esau’s descendants, who would claim that what they worshipped – the fully formed male body – was closer to perfection than the invisible entity that Jacob’s descendants worshipped. This claim is supported: the midrash compares Esau to an animal which misleadingly claims to be kosher because it has cloven hoofs, as might a pig, although the animal is unkosher because it does not chew its cud.
Of course, the adjective תָּ֔ם to describe Jacob in Gen 25:27 may mean “perfect,” a meaning that that not only applies to all sacrificial offerings, which must be תָּמִ֣ים, but is a condition for which, according to Deut.18:13: all Israelites should strive to achieve:
תָּמִ֣ים תִּֽהְיֶ֔ה עִ֖ם יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃
You must be perfect with your God who is YHWH.
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.
