The True Esav

Rashi says Yaakov kicked to get out by the beis midrash and Esav kicked to get out by the avodah zarah temple. The Maharal points that the yetzer harah doesn't yet exist until a person is born, it wasn't that the yetzer harah was causing Esav to sin, it will built into his hardware to desire to sin.  In Noach (21:8) he says the same idea to explain the Gemorah in Yoma (83a) about the children that even in the womb were evil, the idea is that there inclination is to evil.  We learn from the Maharal that even if a person is born with an innate tendency to do evil, it is still their responsibility to curb it (Sifsay Chayim.)  This is of course, a true and important lesson.  However, I would just add that its not that Esav had to become something that he was not in order to overcome his inclinations, rather he just had to look deeper into himself.

The Kabbalists teach that what Yitzchak saw in Esav was the great converts that would descend from him most notably Rebbe Akiva.  That is the meaning of ציד בפיו, he contained within himself the power of תורה שבעל פה.  The name עקיבא has the same letters as יעקב plus an 'א.  The Avodas Halevi says that יעקב is עקב plus the 'י of the bittul of chachma.  Esav contained the potential to be greater than that, to reach the levels of keter represented by the 'א.(Haderech Pnemiyah.)  On the inside Esav contained tremendous potential but he had to be able to overcome his outer instincts to reach his inner power.  Esav's failure was to reach into his inner talents that were hidden under the deep exterior.