“Esav Hates Yaakov”: Why Antisemitism Acts Like a Law of Nature

“It is a well-known halachic principle: Esav hates Yaakov.” What truly lies behind this principle? And what causes the nations of the world to uphold it with such striking devotion?

Throughout Jewish history, this “law” has found constant reinforcement — both in the anti-Jewish ideologies embraced by nations and in the cruel acts carried out against us. It often appears as though something internal and uncontrollable drives them beyond reason.

Why? And what does the word halacha truly mean in this context?

Chosenness: A Privilege That Is Also a Responsibility

If we assume that the world was created for the sake of the Jewish people, then this privilege carries with it an obligation. The chosen people were chosen in order to spread the light of God throughout the world — otherwise, for what purpose was the world created?

However, for this inner quality to be revealed and expressed, it must be refined. The Jewish people must become a vessel capable of carrying out this exalted and responsible mission.

Losing Identity Triggers Hatred

When the Jewish people forget where they come from, why they exist, and where they are truly meant to go, they begin to lose their unique spiritual essence — first in their own eyes, and then in the eyes of the nations.

As the process of identity loss begins, the people allow themselves to see themselves — or to be seen, as “a nation like all other nations.” When this happens, an alarm is triggered, so to speak, and the nations rise up against Israel to destroy it. The hatred embedded within them awakens and erupts with cruelty.

Just as when an enemy breaches a security fence, alarms sound and all defense systems are activated, so too here.

Hatred as a Built-In Warning System

Hatred functions as an internal warning system. God activates it within the nations whenever we, as it were, cross the fence of our own boundaries. When we trample our defining identity, seek to assimilate among them, and turn toward them in a desire for acceptance and peace, the mechanism is activated.

At that precise moment, a force within them is triggered that calls upon them to rise against us, shouting its hatred all the more intensely. They do not need to supply rational explanations for their actions, to themselves or to us. The answers lie with us.

They are simply instruments in the hands of God, tools through which He calls us back to our true path.

Disconnection from Self Leads to Disconnection from Land

When the Jewish people are not connected to themselves and their inner identity, a process of retreat and detachment begins — first from themselves, and then from their land.

Something in the bond between the components of the nation cracks, and with time, cracks appear between the people and their land as well. The ability to be rooted, to belong and take hold, is damaged.

The nation no longer has a sufficiently strong answer to the question of what connects it to the Land of Israel, or by what right it dwells there.

Crossing the Fence — From Our Side

This primordial process leads to a desire to become part of something international, something much larger. A longing arises to resemble the nations, because one’s own identity has already been abandoned.

The drift toward the nations — the desire to imitate their culture and ways, is itself a crossing of boundaries. The people step outside the contours that defined them as the chosen nation and cross the fence to the other side.

Every time the nations, as it were, cross the fence and invade our land to destroy us, it is merely a reflection of the boundary we crossed first — when we moved one or two steps, consciously or subconsciously, from our side toward theirs.

It is not they who crossed the fence, but we.

Hatred as a Law of Nature

This mistake stems from a life lived without awareness, and without a proper connection between the people and their essence. This is something God cannot allow to persist.

Therefore, from the outset, He embedded within the nations — within their consciousness, if not their very nature, a mechanism of “hatred” that functions as a law, a halacha.

Whenever there is a drift toward their side, whenever we cross the boundary, first conceptually and then physically, this mechanism is activated, and they rise against us.

Being Forced Back to Our Place

Then, whether we wish it or not, we are forced to return to our place — either physically, by returning to our land and recognizing that “I have no other land,” or spiritually, by reconnecting as a people to our essence, our strength, and our inner identity.

In Judaism, the word halacha refers to the system of laws by which a Jew is commanded to live. Esav’s hatred of Yaakov is like a law of nature. The system was programmed to function this way from the beginning.

There is an external stimulus that triggers an internal response. Understanding that a specific stimulus will inevitably produce a specific reaction enables us to weigh our steps carefully and to understand, at a deep level, how reality is governed from within.

Not a Nation Like All Others

The mechanism of hatred implanted within the nations, which expresses itself toward us, is meant to signal that we have crossed the boundary separating us from them.

We were never expected to be a nation like all others, and it was not God’s intention in creating us that we dissolve into them. The moment that happens, the mechanism is activated, and we are pushed back to our place.

In order not to awaken it, we must increasingly reconnect with ourselves and our essence, and take root where we truly belong. For the ground upon which we stand is holy ground.

Inbal Elhayani, M.A., is a certified therapist in NLP, mindfulness, and guided imagery.