{"id":71031,"date":"2020-03-01T11:07:12","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T09:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=71031"},"modified":"2022-03-09T23:00:26","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T21:00:26","slug":"the-tricksters-appetite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-tricksters-appetite\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trickster\u2019s Appetite"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":51083,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[486,490,492],"acf":{"old_id":"71031","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":69185,"related_cahpter":"25","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Two sides of the same character","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At first glance, the contrast between the brothers seems simple: Jacob is the spindly trickster, Esau the outtricked rugged outdoorsman. Rabbinic tradition, however, considers the true situation in reverse: Esau is the real deceiver, winning his father\u2019s favor through feigned piety, while Jacob\u2019s tricks are merely the steps needed to entrap the trapper in his own snare. Although the rabbis\u2019 desire to salvage Jacob as the clear and unadulterated hero is transparent, nonetheless there is license to regard Esau as a trickster like his brother. Tricksters are famous for their enormous appetites, for food and sex. They are hunters who can never be satisfied no matter how much they eat. In many stories, the trickster\u2019s voracious appetite is his own Achilles heel, enabling his opponents to vanquish him, at least until the next story; In other tales, the trickster succeeds in suppressing his appetite, allowing him to outsmart his opponent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Esau fits perfectly into this archetype of the trickster hunter undone by his appetite. As the literary scholar Lewis Hyde (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trickster Makes This World<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) observes, \u201c[A] trickster is at once culture hero and fool, clever predator and stupid prey. Hungry, [a] trickster sometimes devises stratagems to catch his meal; hungry, he sometimes loses his wits altogether.\u201d The biblical narrator calls Esau \u201ca skillful hunter, a man of the field,\u201d and yet, the moment he returns from the field, Esau feels tired, consumed by hunger: \u201cI am at the point of death, so of what use is my birthright to me?\u201d (Gen. 25:32). Note that the text does not say whether or not Esau succeeds in his hunt. If he is such a great hunter, why does he return so ravenous? Why the dramatic exaggeration, \u201cI am at the point of death\u201d? One possibility is to align Esau with this pattern of tricksters who are depleted by their own appetite. The more he eats\u2014the more there is \u201cgame in his mouth\u201d\u2014the more he needs to eat. He will give up anything to supply his craving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jacob is the opposite: the trickster who suppresses his appetite. By relinquishing his food, Jacob gains the upper hand over his brother. Jacob\u2019s self-mastery over his appetite enables his triumph as a trickster: to deceive and not be deceived. In fact, Jacob is never seen eating, unlike Abraham (Gen. 21:8) and Isaac (26:30); even on the road he seems unencumbered by appetite. In this reading, the twin brothers are two sides of the same character, acting out different plots in the widespread narrative of the trickster and his gargantuan appetite.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Excerpted from<\/em> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Biblical Hero: Portraits in Nobility and Fallibility <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by Elliott Rabin by permission of the Jewish Publication Society. \u00a92020 by Elliott Rabin.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69430,"id":69430,"title":"BiblicalHero","filename":"BiblicalHero.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-gap-between-god-and-humankind\/biblicalhero\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"biblicalhero","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69219,"date":"2020-02-02 17:04:11","modified":"2020-11-23 12:14:53","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":3200,"height":2372,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-300x222.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":222,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-768x569.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":569,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-1024x759.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":759,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1139,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1518,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-1200x890.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":890,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-567x420.jpg","home_baner-width":567,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Trickster\u2019s Appetite","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Two sides of the same character","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":69430,"id":69430,"title":"BiblicalHero","filename":"BiblicalHero.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-gap-between-god-and-humankind\/biblicalhero\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"biblicalhero","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69219,"date":"2020-02-02 17:04:11","modified":"2020-11-23 12:14:53","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":3200,"height":2372,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-300x222.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":222,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-768x569.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":569,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-1024x759.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":759,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1139,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1518,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-1200x890.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":890,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-567x420.jpg","home_baner-width":567,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51083"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102822,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71031\/revisions\/102822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}