גרתי I HAVE SOJOURNED —
..The word גרתי has the numerical value of 613 - תרי״ג - it is as much as to say, “Though I have sojourned with Laban, the wicked, I have observed the תרי״ג מצות, the 613 Divine Commandments, and I have learned naught of his evil ways.
The commentators of Israel have a question on this Rashi.. What difference does it make to Eisav if Jacob kept the Torah or not? Even more so, wouldn't it be the opposite that Eisav may come to hate him even more because of this?
The answer appears clear to me based on the teaching of the Holy Baal Shem Tov, may his merit rest upon us. As he explains a deeper insight regarding the below conversation from the Talmud -
We learned in the mishna, among those liable for performing primary categories of labor: And one who slaughters an animal on Shabbat. The Gemara asks: As there was no slaughter necessary for construction of the Tabernacle, one who slaughters an animal, due to what prohibited labor is he liable? Rav said: He is liable due to dyeing, as in the course of the slaughter the hide is dyed with blood. And Shmuel said: He is liable due to taking a life.
שוחט משום מאי מיחייב - לאו אשוחט דמתני' קאי דההוא פשיטא דלא הוי אלא משום נטילת נשמה דצובע תנן בהדיא במתני' אלא אשוחט דעלמא קאי:
The slaughterer discussed here is not the same one we discussed in the Mishna... rather this is speaking about slaughtering in general.
And to explain what you just read - we are going to bring in another quote from the Talmud -
כִּדְדָרֵשׁ רַבִּי יְהוּדָה: לֶעָתִיד לָבֹא, מְבִיאוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְיֵצֶר הָרָע, וְשׁוֹחֲטוֹ בִּפְנֵי הַצַּדִּיקִים וּבִפְנֵי הָרְשָׁעִים.
Rabbi Yehuda taught: In the future, at the end of days, God will bring the evil inclination and slaughter it in the presence of the righteous and in the presence of the wicked.
We have to understand, why is HaShem slaughtering the evil inclination? Wasn't this its purpose in its creation? To tempt humans in order that there be reward and accountability in this world? And that due to him there will be much greatness and preciousness in store for Israel in the world to come!? Seemingly the evil inclination was appointed to do this specifically!
So the Holy Baal Shem Tov, may his merit be upon us, teaches -
"The matter here is that the evil inclination agitates humans to chase after their temptations. He then sees that Israel acts in an elevated way, and they don't accept his words, so what does he do? He colors his words and makes himself appear to be promoting something that is a commandment or a good reality!
However, in truth, he was created to tempt humans to sin, and violate the will of The Creator, and NOT to appear as righteous, and a good reality that disguises/colors sins as good, and justifies them as commandments and good deeds. And because of this the evil inclination will be found guilty and punished in the future to come. And now we can explain the Talmud from above when it asks why is the slaughter liable? And the Tosfot then says we are talking about slaughters in general. Over here there is a hint referring to the evil inclination who slaughters the whole world and corrupts pure souls via seducing them into a world of sin of missing the point. So - when the Talmud is wondering why is he liable, isn't this is what he was created for? We then see the answer is that he is liable for dying, as if to say that he is coming in the visage of the inclination of goodness, and he is really dying/coloring his face as if this reality he is pitching really is good.. and then this is why Shmuel (above in the Talmud) says his opinion that the evil inclination is liable due to taking a life. He is considered taking a life because he is successful in tripping up humanity in missing the point, and from this humanity gets disconnected from its pure soul. And for this he was NOT created. Therefor he is liable in regards to his mission here."
Until here are his words.
And this matter is a simple one, behold is a very simply practical difference in regards to if a human is really doing a sin, or if he thinks he is doing a commandment, and still sinning. Even if the evil inclination is successful in causing an Israelite to sin, after the sin, the person now sees clearly, and immediately has regret and arouses his heart and repents and returns in full back to a state of being one with The Creator. This isn't the case however when the evil inclination tricks a human to thinking something is good when it is really evil, because this person doesn't repent, as they don't know something was done or is wrong. So we see two different ways how the evil inclination wants to misdirect man. The first way is that it attempts to cause man to violate a simple code of Moses from the Torah, and the second way, which isn't trying to get a human to sin, rather, it causes a human to see the sin as a mitzvah itself! In light of this second way, we see its much more dangerous, because if a person doesn't have the clarity to see the sins they are living in, then forever the doors of returning to the divine are closed to him/her.
And therefore because of this information, it's fitting to refer to the evil inclination as Laban, as well as the name Pharaoh. Laban because it whitens (the name of Laban in Hebrew also means to launder, to wash) and dyes a sin from red to white, as it says on a sin that it is indeed a commandment. And in regards to Pharaoh is fitting because the Hebrew word for the name of Pharaoh comes from the Hebrew word Periya, which has a meaning of set abound without counsel, as we can see (in bold below) from the scriptures.
וַיַּ֤רְא מֹשֶׁה֙ אֶת־הָעָ֔ם כִּ֥י פָרֻ֖עַ ה֑וּא כִּֽי־פְרָעֹ֣ה אַהֲרֹ֔ן לְשִׁמְצָ֖ה בְּקָמֵיהֶֽם׃
Moses saw that the people were out of control—since Aaron had let them get out of control—so that they were a menace to any who might oppose them.
And here there is a hint to how the first manner the evil inclination functions that we mentioned above, in which there is no masking or coloring the sin proclaiming it to be righteous, rather it simply temps the Israelite to sin knowingly.
And this is what Jacob our forefather, loved by heaven, was telling is brother Eisav when he said "With Laban I lived" The explanation is that Jacob really was saying - Even the evil inclination which is an aspect of Laban and causes an illusion of a sin to be good, I dwelled, and I kept the 613 commandments the whole time, as Rashi of blessed memory had explained. And he was not able to convince me of a false reality that this sin is a commandment, as I kept only the 613 commandments.
And with this we can answer our initial question, of what difference does it make to Esav if Jacob kept the commandments of the Torah or not? With what we just said above it makes perfect sense, that Jacob was coming to Esav to inform him that he was the manifest of the evil inclination himself, and wanted to get across to him not to try and convince him of any wrongful activities G-D forbid, by making them appear as good, because I very well know the difference between a commandment and a sin, since I lived with Laban, implying he lived with someone who did just that and convinced everyone around him to follow his ways, and even with all of that, I stayed true and kept just the 613.