ויאמר עשו אל יעקב הלעיטני נא מן האדם האדם הזה כי עיף אנכי על כן קרא שמו אדום.” (תולדות כ”ה ל’)
רש”י: “הלעיטני- אפתח פי ושפוך הרבה לתוכו, כמו ששנינו: אין אובסין את הגמל אבל מלעיטין אותו.”
Rashi: “Pour into me – I will open my mouth, and (you) pour a lot into it, as we have learnt in the Mishna, ‘You may not stuff a camel (on Shabbos), but you may pour food into its mouth’.”
Have you ever had to wait at a simcha or shul kiddush because someone forgot to bring the kiddush cup? Typically, someone runs to the kitchen to fetch a glass, or when even that is not possible, doubles up a pair of plastic single-use cups. But I always wondered: why not make kiddush on the bottle? The bottle is made of glass; it is a halachic kli (lit. vessel), and perfectly acceptable for kiddush. We all know that is not appropriate, but why?
When you drink from a glass, you lift the glass up to your lips, drink, and then lower the glass. If you want another sip, you must lift the glass again. When you drink from a bottle, the second sip is already “waiting”; it follows the first sip automatically. You do not have to do anything other than swallow. This is a manner of eating very similar to Esav’s: “הלעיטני”, to just eat and eat without having to think or do anything at all: “I will open my mouth, and you pour a lot into it.” That is what the body wants, to be left to its own devices, to be completely independent.
If you think about your approach to eating, you can probably identify certain similarities to the manner described above, even if you would never lean your head back and “chug” from a 2-liter bottle. Watch a friend eat (you eat the same way). While he is still chewing on the first bite, he is already slicing up a second, and he lifts fork up to his mouth just in time to fill it again, so that he doesn’t need to pause for even a moment. He can just eat and eat. Did you ever wonder why you so often forget whether you said a beracha achrona or not? Sometimes a person decides to be machmir and eat again, only to again lose track of whether he made a beracha achrona or not! What happened? He thought about the Borei Olam, made a beracha on his food, and then gave himself up to his body completely; his body is on “auto pilot”.
With such an approach to eating, there is no place for penimius or inner meaning: only the body. We therefore find that Esav related to the most external aspect of food, the color: “Pour into me some of this very red stuff…” In truth, eating can be a most meaningful undertaking, as we experience the “טוב ה’” – the good of Hashem – in a very tangible and pleasant way. But we cannot expect to eat like Esav and still think like Yaakov. Try one time to eat differently. Take an apple, sit down, make a beracha and eat thoughtfully and patiently, and enjoy. This will enable you to think about the “טוב ה’”. Instead of thanking Hashem with a beracha and then forgetting about Him while you eat, try to continue the appreciation of the beracha through the eating as well.