Why did Eisav's emotions turn on?

Question

In בראשית לג:ד, the word "וַׄיִּׄשָּׁׄקֵ֑ׄהׄוּׄ" is dotted. Rashi explains that this is to tell us that Eisav kissed Yaakov with a full heart and not just for show.

1. What caused Eisav to suddenly show his emotions?

2. What can we learn from this?

Answer 1

One can learn the answer from well-known midrash Bereshis Rabba 78:9

“Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell upon his neck, and kissed him, and they wept” (Genesis 33:4). “Esau ran to meet him…and kissed him [vayishakehu]” – it is dotted above it. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: Every place you find the script more numerous than the dots, you expound the script; the dots more numerous than the script, you expound the dots. Here, neither is the script more numerous than the dots, nor are the dots more numerous than the script. Rather, it teaches that at that moment he was overcome with mercy and he kissed him with all his heart. Rabbi Yannai said to him: If so, why is it dotted over it? Rather, it teaches that he did not come to kiss him, but rather to bite him, and Jacob’s neck was transformed into marble and the teeth of that wicked one were blunted. Why does the verse state: “And they wept”? It is, rather, that this one wept over his neck, and that one wept over his teeth. Rabbi Abbahu in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan derives it from here: “Your neck is like the ivory tower…” (Song of Songs 7:5).

The literal meaning of the midrash, according to Rabbi Yannai, is that Esav tested Yaakov by acting as a true brother and trying to sway his heart. At the same time, in the mind of Yaakov, Eisav was coming as a ruthless and cruel killer with an army of 400 armed men. Thus, we see, that Eisav tried to split Yaakov's mind and Yaakov's heart, force him to act contrary to his convictions, and get trapped in the land of Seir. Technically, the separation of head and body is called melikah and that's why Eisav's most dangerous descendant, Amalek can be read as "am melikah* - nation of melikah. It is also related to Esav's death, when his head was separated from his body, i.e. Eisav died from what he did to others. The fact, that Hashem made Yaakov's neck strong like marble according to Rabbi Yannai, means that Hashem gave Yaakov extra strength to resist Eisav's emotional outbreak.

According to Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, Eisav felt pity for Yaakov, who just gave much of what he earned to him. It looked in his eyes as a proof that the blessing, which Yaakov took ahead of Eisav from Yitzchak, did not materialize. Yaakov looked meek, while Eisav was a head of an army of men. Certainly, in such a situation Eisav would not be destroying Yaakov and his family in front of 400 armed men. But if Eisav could trap Yaakov to the land of Seir - there he could do what he pleased without any witnesses.

We also see a similar point in Rashi on Bereshis 46:6 when Yaakov takes his posessions to go to Egypt:

אשר רכשו בארץ כנען WHICH THEY HAD GOTTEN IN THE LAND OF CANAAN — But all that he had gotten in Padan-aram he gave to Esau in payment for his share in the Cave of Machpelah. He said, “The possessions I obtained outside the land are of no value to me”. It is to this that the words refer (Genesis 50:5) “[Bury me in my burying-place] which כריתי” I obtained for myself by means of a כרי. He placed before him (Esau) piles of gold and silver like a heap (כרי) of corn and said to him, “Take these in exchange for your share in the Cave of Machpelah” (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 6).