How Old Were Jacob and Esau When...

(26) Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau; so they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

(27) When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the outdoors; but Jacob became a mild man, raising livestock.

(1) ויגדלו… ויהי עשו AND THEY GREW … AND ESAU WAS — So long as they were young they could not be distinguished by what they did and no one paid much attention to their characters, but when they reached the age of thirteen, one went his way to the houses of learning and the other went his way to the idolatrous temples (Genesis Rabbah 63:10).

(10) “The lads grew; Esau was a man who knows hunting, a man of the field; Jacob was a simple man, a dweller in tents” (Genesis 25:27).
“The lads grew” – Rabbi Levi said: This is analogous to a myrtle and a thorn bush that grew adjacent to one another. When they grew and blossomed, this one produced its fragrance and that one produced its thorns. So, all thirteen years, both of them would go to school and both of them would come from school. After thirteen years, this one would go to study halls, and that one would go to houses of idol worship. Rabbi Elazar said: A person must be responsible for his son until age thirteen. From there on, he must say: ‘Blessed that He has absolved me from the punishment of this one.’

(28) Isaac was a hundred and eighty years old (29) when he breathed his last and died. He was gathered to his kin in ripe old age; and he was buried by his sons Esau and Jacob.

(1) ויהי כי זקן, the word זקן is a verb in the past tense. The Torah relates that Yitzchok kept on aging until his eyesight was badly impaired. Yaakov experienced a similar problem; (48,10) In fact most people experience the problem of failing eyesight in their old age. In some instances this is a sudden phenomenon, in others it is a phenomenon experienced gradually. In the case of Yitzchok he was struck with this affliction more than 20 years before he died. He misinterpreted the onset of this phenomenon considering it as foreshadowing that his death would occur soon. In the event he was proven wrong. However, this is what prompted him to call in Esau at this time to bestow his blessing upon him before his death. Perhaps this failure of his eyesight at a premature time was one of the afflictions with which the righteous are sometimes afflicted. It may be that the reason why the Torah bothers with telling us this detail is to inform us that G’d subjects some of the righteous to some afflictions in this life in accordance with His wisdom. Some commentators attribute Yitzchok’s premature blindness to the smoke of the incense burned by his daughters-in-law to their respective deities. (quoted by Rashi).

(3) Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons—he was his “child of old age”; and he had made him an ornamented tunic.

(1) BECAUSE HE WAS THE SON OF HIS OLD AGE. This is to be taken literally since Joseph was born to Jacob when the latter was ninety-one years old.7Joseph was 30 when Pharaoh appointed him vizier over Egypt. Jacob came to Egypt nine years later, after the seven years of plenty and two of famine (Gen. 45:11). At that time Jacob was 130 years old (Ibid., 47:9) and Joseph 39. Thus Jacob was 91 years older than Joseph (Cherez).

(9) And Jacob answered Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourn [on earth] are one hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been the years of my life, nor do they come up to the life spans of my ancestors during their sojourns.”

(33) When Jacob finished his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and, breathing his last, he was gathered to his kin.

(30) And Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stuff to gulp down, for I am famished”—which is why he was named Edom.

מן האדם האדם הזה FROM THIS RED, EVEN THIS RED THING —red lentils. On that day Abraham had died in order that he might not see his grandson Esau falling into degenerate ways. This would not have been the “good old age” (cf. 25:8) which God had promised him; therefore the Holy One, blessed be God, cut his life short by five years — for Isaac lived 180 years and he only one hundred and seventy five. Jacob was boiling lentils to provide the customary first meal for the immediate mourners. Why should lentils be the mourner’s food? Because they are round like a wheel and mourning (sorrow) is a wheel that revolves in the world (it touches everyone sooner or later as a revolving wheel touches every spot in turn) (Bava Batra 16b)....

(12) Rabbi Tanchuma said: The two lads grew up; the one went by the way of life, and the other went by the way of death, as it is said, "And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter" (Gen. 25:27). Jacob went on the way of life, for he was dwelling in tents, and he studied the Torah all his days. Esau went on the way of death, because he slew Nimrod and his son Chavir, and he almost sought to kill Jacob his brother, as it is said, "The days of mourning for my father are at hand, and I will slay my brother Jacob" (Gen. 27:41).