Lacking In Brains or Lacking In Heart

This Shabbos is the yartzheit of Rav Aharon Kotler, so it is only fitting to share some of his words.
The midrash says on the words  למה זה לי בכרה that the word זה refers to Hashem as it says זה קלי ואנוהו.  From here the midrrash says that Esav denied the existence of Hashem.  This Chazal is very difficult for if Esav didn't believe in Hashem then why did he care about the בכורה at all,  why the need to sell it and why was he upset that Yaakov took it?  Furthermore, Rav Kotler asks how could it be someone who saw Yitzchak Avenu could deny Hashem?  Even one who saw the Gra couldn't remain in denial of God (this is what Rav Kotler claims).  [I also found the following line in B'ekvos Hayerah pg. 15 at the end of the page, מספרים עליו על הגרא ז"ל שכל מי ששמעהו אומר בשעת קבלת שבת יום אם בקולו תשמעו מיד היה נעשה לבעל תשובה]  for sure if one saw Yitzchak all the time like Esav, he would know there is a God?

Rav Aharon Kotler explains that Chazal don't mean that Esav didn't acknowledge the existence of Hashem, he knew there was a God but he chose to ignore Him if he felt it interfered with his desires.  The word זה means something you can point to.  Esav was fully cognizant of Hashem to the point that he could point to Him, however he said למה זה לי, I don't want Hashem for I don't want ruchnious, I want only gashmious.

Quite too often in life we know what's right and wrong, that's not the issue.  It is the lack of desire for ruchnious that drives our (my) decisions.  The lesson is that one must have the desire for the proper thing in order to do what's right.  

My great-grandfather explains in a different manner.  He cites many statements of Chazal in various places that call a kofer such as Tosefta Shveis (3:5) that one does an averah only because of denial of God.  Does this mean everyone who commits a sin denies God?  He explains based upon the Tanya in letter 25 that explains the Chazal that one who gets angry is as if he served avodah zarah.  Why is getting angry tantamount to avodah zarah?  The Tanya says if a person had complete faith that everything Hashem does is for the best, he would not have gotten angry.  Similarly, in all the statements of Chazal, they are pointing out that the misdeed stems from a certain lack of faith in Hashem.  Chazal are pointing out the source of averaos and in our case, Esav stemmed from a measurement of denial in God.  It is indeed an intellectual lack of faith in Hashem that Chazal are highlighting in Esav.

We see from here that it is indeed a lack of faith in Hashem to be able to forgo ruchnious, to have the gall to not to the desire of Hashem is indeed a denial of Hashem.