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[Morgenstern]

L'Kovod Rabbi Shapiro Shlit''a

I read a Rav Miller (ztvkl) that said that Esav was greater than any Jew alive today..yet I can pull up Torahs that say he was a cold-blooded murderer, would commit adultery, and he did avodah zarah. So were those just exaggerations that never happened like Shlomoh Ha'Melech "worshipping idols" because Esav was on such a high level that it was as if he had done those things? 

 

[taon]

Rav Miller explains one such statement in Rejoice O Youth par. 348 (p.173 in my copy). It's on the Gemerah that says Esav did 5 things on the day he sold the bechor.

1) he was with an arusah (but erusin didnt have any status before Matan Torah 2) killed someone (Nimrod) 3-5) denied Hashem, techiyas hameism, and scorned the birthright (he doesnt explain positively, but as the first two were implied by the third, he does say that Yitzchak could have interpreted it favorably as humility).

 

It can be that all these statements can be explained similarly. Or that esav was at first a tzaddik and fell, or that he behaved as a tzaddik in certain areas, or  we would think of him as a tzaddik just as Yitzchak did.