“Esau said to him: Please, I will place with you some of the people who are with me. He said: Why do that? I will find favor in the eyes of my lord” (Genesis 33:15). “Esau said to him: Please, I will place with you…” – he sought to accompany him, but he did not accept it.
Rabbeinu, when he would ascend to the empire, he would look at this portion and would not take a Roman31The text says Aramean, but the reference is to Romans. with him. One time, he did not look at it, and he took Romans with him. He did not reach Akko before he sold his horse.32He did so in order to garner funds to bribe the Romans to allow him to proceed. “Esau returned on that day on his way to Seir” (Genesis 33:15) – and the four hundred men who were with him, where were they?
Each and every one left on his way; they said: Let us not be burned in Jacob’s coals. When did the Holy One blessed be He repay them? It was elsewhere: “Not a man of them escaped except for four hundred lads, who rode on the camels and fled” (see I Samuel 30:17).33These were Amalekites, descendants of Esau.