The Torah has quite a bit to teach us about history and offspring. To be sure, it has been aptly noted that “a person that knows not from whence he came, will be ill-equipped to properly deal with where he is going to.” Our current portion gives us the beginning of the fast-paced story of two brothers, ‘Esav (Esau, also called Edom), and Ya’akov (Jacob), and their ongoing struggle to become the men that they feel they deserve to be. It is an interesting tale, complete with deception and disappointment. Rivkah, Yitz’chak’s wife, gives birth to twins, who grow to become individuals with quite opposite character traits. The elder, ‘Esav, is a skilled hunter, a rough, hairy man, with a flair for cooking tasty game. He winds up being favored by his father. On the other hand, the younger, Ya’akov, is a tenderhearted, dweller of tents, smooth-skinned and quiet; he becomes the favorite of his mother.