Was he a hypocrite? – Tol’dot
The Talmud identifies this righteous person with Jacob (Makkot 24). Yet the way Jacob gained Esau’s blessing was rather deceitful. How can the Talmud think so highly of him?
What were Jacob’s words when he disguised himself as his hairy-armed brother Esau? “Perhaps my father will feel me and I will seem to him as a deceiver” (Gen. 27:11-12). Maybe Jacob was uneasy about his mother’s plan to deny Esau the blessing; she felt that Jacob deserved it more. But the ruse she wanted Jacob to resort to was dishonest.
Why did he not refuse to go along with it? He was a quiet person and she was forceful and he could not change her mind. But he said truthfully in his heart that he hoped his father would feel him and realise that he was not Esau and in that way the plan would misfire.
Looked at on this basis, Jacob did have a conscience – but whether Isaac did immediately realise the truth we cannot be sure.
