Yawn

At the beginning of this week's Parsha, we find the famous story about Esav selling the bechora to Yaakov. While we are all familiar with the encounter, what I just noticed is that both when the passuk is describing Esav entering, and when Esav describes himself, the word עיף is used. At the time when he made the fateful decision that by the end of the parsha would have him crying bitterly, Esav was tired. This rings very true to me. Despite all of the things that we are meant to do and accomplish in this world, Hashem created us as beings that need to sleep. When we don't sleep enough, we are compromised in everything we do. I know that personally, when tired, my classes are not as good, I'm not as patient with my children, etc. The irony is that we usually sacrifice on sleep because of all of the important things we need to do, but then end up not doing them as well as we could. Even worse, we then walk around with a built-in excuse as to why we aren't at the top of our game - "it's not my fault, I'm exhausted". Esav had no idea that day that he was going to have such a crucial decision to make, and when it came along, he wasn't equipped to make the best choice he could because he was tired.

Interestingly, while I was in the middle of writing this, a student asked me what to do when you just seem to be in a constant state of fatigue. How can you effectively learn (especially first period Gemara) when it's so hard to focus. I don't have a better answer than "get more sleep," which I realize is a lot easier to say than to do.