Esav, according to one ancient interpretation, was an exemplar of honoring his parents: “Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: My entire life I have served my father and I have not served one-hundredth of how Esav served his father.”

When I shared this midrash with a student yesterday she was surprised—an understandable reaction.

Many voices in our tradition consider Esav wicked along with other bad guys like Pharaoh and Haman. Rashi, the great Bible exegete, consistently offers interpretations that present Esav in negative terms.

By now we’re all so used to the negative assessment of Esav that an ancient midrash giving Esav credit for being really good at one mitzvah—honoring parents— seems highly implausible and surprising.

There are many possible lessons here. One that resonates with me is that we should always be open to reexamining the evidence. Our rabbis did not view Esav in only negative terms. Biblical characters, like all people, are multi-dimensional, and the rabbis understood that.

Our opinions and interpretations of people, events and communities are usually based on limited data. That doesn’t stop us from forming opinions. But we always have to be willing to re-consider that maybe there’s another part of the story or another dimension to a person or a reasonable explanation for what someone said or did.

Shabbat shalom,

Seth Winberg