Two Boys Grew Up Like a Myrtle Beside a Thornbush

"And the boys grew up, and Esau became" (Genesis 25:27). A parable to a myrtle and a thornbush that were growing one beside the other; and when they grew up and blossomed, this one gives forth its fragrance and this one its thorns. So for all thirteen years both go to the schoolhouse, and after thirteen years this one goes to the schoolhouse and that one goes to the house of idolatry. Rabbi Eleazar son of Rabbi Shimon said: a person must occupy himself with his son until thirteen years; and after thirteen he must say, "Blessed is He who has freed me from the punishment of this one" [the father is no longer answerable for the son's conduct]. "And Esau was a man knowing the hunt" (Genesis 25:27): he hunted creatures with his mouth [by deceit]. You did not steal? Who stole with you? You did not kill? Who killed with you? Rabbi Abbahu said: a robber and a hunter, he hunted in the house and hunted in the field. He hunted in the house, [asking] how does one prepare salt? He hunted in the field, how does one prepare straw? Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: he made himself ownerless like a field [available to all for sin]. Israel said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, is it not enough that we were subjected to seventy nations, but also to this one that is penetrated like a woman? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: in that very language I will exact punishment from them, as it is written, "and the heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be like the heart of a woman in her travail" (Jeremiah 49:22). "And Jacob was a wholesome man, dwelling in tents" (Genesis 25:27): two tents, the study house of Shem and the study house of Eber.