Jacob and Esau haven’t seen each other for 20 years, ever since Jacob took their father’s blessings and Esau threatened to kill him. Now they’re headed toward one another – Jacob with his family and his riches, and Esau with 400 of his henchmen. Jacob’s got so many things on his mind at this moment: Keeping his family safe. Placating his brother. Using his wits to get out of the situation without making things worse. That’s the best he can hope to achieve, right? Or… is it? Could Jacob have actually had a shred of hope for reconciliation?

And there’s more we could wonder about: How does Jacob choose what preparations to make for seeing Esau? Why does Esau meet his brother with open arms? If you’re curious to dig into these questions, join Ami Silver as he takes a fresh look at this tense encounter. It turns out that there's a whole lot more to this story than meets the eye.

What did you think of this episode? We’d genuinely like to hear your thoughts, questions, and feedback. Leave us a voice message – just click record, and let your thoughts flow.

Into the Verse is a project of Aleph Beta, a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide. If you’re enjoying this podcast, help support our work by subscribing to Aleph Beta.

For past episodes of Into the Verse, go to our website, alephbeta.org, where a premium subscription gets you access to all of our past episodes and our full library of over 1,000 videos and podcasts on the parsha, holidays, and so much more!

Follow us on your favorite social media.