Good Erev Shabbos my dear friends from beautiful Kerem B’yavneh! The Story of Yaakov and Eisav is one of the most enchanting tales in all of the torah. Two brothers with diametrically opposed personalities: Eisav, the wild hunter, and Yaakov, the wholesome and simple man. Which begs the question- how did they turn out so different from each other? More specifically, Yitzchak and Rivka were such righteous people; how did they end up with a son like Eisav? 
Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch answers: Although they had nothing but pure intentions, Yitzchak and Rivka’s parenting method contained a tragic flaw: they raised their children in the same way. They didn’t embrace King Shlomo’s plea (Mishlei 22:6), “Chanoch lina’ar al pi darco”- educate the child according to his unique way. For Yaakov, it worked out great; he became exactly what his parents dreamed of. But for Eisav, it didn’t work. Imagine Eisav, a brawny outdoorsman, being confined to disciplined study in the tent; it just wasn’t who he was! So because his talents weren’t being appreciated, he expressed them in other ways, hunting and pursuing his desires. Says R’ Hirsch, the tragedy is that they could have made a great team! With Eisav as the military leader, and Yaakov as the spiritual leader. But instead, Eisav was put into a box that he didn’t fit in, causing him to rebel against the way that he was raised.
The former Rosh Yeshiva of KBY, R’ Mordechai Greenberg, recently shared the following in a talk about individuality in Judaism. Chaim Nachman Bialik, one of the giants of Israeli literature, grew up in a religious household in Europe. He went to learn in Volozhin, one of the most legendary yeshivas of pre-war Europe. But Bialik, a deeply emotional person, was turned off by what he viewed as the cold intellectualism of the yeshiva, dropping religious observance, and moving to Israel. Around the same time, the future leader of cultural zionism, Achad Ha’am, Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsburg, was attending a Chassidish yeshiva in Europe. Achad ha’am, as an intense intellectual, was very turned off by the singing, dancing, and other more emotional forms of religious observance practiced in his yeshiva, dropping observance, eventually moving to Israel. The irony, laments R’ Greenberg, is that Bialik and Ginsburg each left Orthodox Judaism in pursuit of exactly what the other’s yeshiva offered! If only they had switched yeshivas with each other, they could have found their place in religious life.

While not all of us (myself included) have yet been privileged to children, all of us are surrounded by people with incredibly diverse talents and skillsets. So this week, embrace the unique personalities of those around you, celebrating the unique things that each and every person can bring to the table. I wish you all a beautiful Shabbos!