(Genesis 32:5) "And he commanded them, saying: Thus shall you say to my lord, to Esau." He called him "my lord." Jeremiah said (Jeremiah 13:21): "What will you say when He appoints over you those whom you had trained against yourself as chiefs, as head?"
Rabbi Pinchas said: Antoninus honored Our Rabbi (Rabbi Judah the Prince) beyond all measure. And when Our Rabbi would send me to him, he would write him a letter and write in it, "Your servant Judah asks after your welfare." And it displeased Antoninus that he called himself a servant. He said to him: Do not write again in this manner. Our Rabbi said to him: This is how I write to you, for I am no better than Jacob my father. When he sent to Esau, what did he say to him? "Thus says your servant Jacob" (Genesis 32:5): I have not become an independent master; "with Laban I have sojourned" (Genesis 32:5); not one of the blessings with which your father blessed me has reached me. Your father blessed me, "And may God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth" (Genesis 27:28), and I have not one of them in hand; rather, "and I have acquired ox and ass and flock," which is neither of the heavens nor of the earth. Do you hate me only because of the blessings? [Yet not even one of them has reached me.]
And did he have only one ox and one ass, that he says "and I have ox and ass" (in the singular)? Rabbi Judah and Rabbi Nehemiah differ. Rabbi Judah says: It is the manner of speech, as a man who says about everything collectively, "the ass went," "the cock crowed." But Rabbi Nehemiah said: He said to him, "your servant Jacob"—behold, I humble myself before you; if you wish, well and good; and if not, "I have ox and ass." [The ox]—this is Joseph, as it is said, "His firstling ox, majesty is his" (Deuteronomy 33:17). And it is a tradition of the aggadah that Esau falls only by the hand of the children of Rachel. Why? Because it says, "Surely the youngest of the flock shall drag them away" (Jeremiah 49:20)—these are the children of Rachel. And the ass—this is the King Messiah, as it is said, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem... humble and riding upon an ass" (Zechariah 9:9). The flock—these are Israel, as it is said, "And you, My flock, the flock of My pasture, you are man" (Ezekiel 34:31). And the manservant and maidservant—these are Israel, of whom it is said, "Behold, as the eyes of servants..." (Psalms 123:2).