ואיה וענה, וי"ו ואיה נוספת והיא הוי"ו שנמצאת במקרא לתחלת הדברים, כמו וישא אברהם את עיניו, נרדם ורכב וסוס (תהילים ע״ו:ז׳) ורבים כהם, ואדני אבי ז"ל כתב, כי אלה הווי"ן אינם נוספות אבל הם מורות על מלה חסרה, כענין וי"ו של וישא אברהם ר"ל השכים ביום השלישי וישא את עיניו. ופירש ואיה וענה, כי היו לו בנים אחרים קודם אלה ולא זכרם, אולי לא היה להם תולדות, וזה ענה הוא ענה אחר לא הנזכר למעלה, כי אותו היה בן שעיר וזה בן צבעון, ודעת רז"ל כי הוא היה אותו ענה הנזכר (ב"ב קט"ו) והקשה המקשה ודלמא תרי ענה הוי, והשיב המשיב הוא ענה דמעיקרא ואמרו שבא צבעון על אמו והוליד ממנה ענה, ואמרו ענה פסול היה והביא פסולים. ועל דרך הפשט אמר הוא ענה הידוע. ואלה בני צבעון ואיה וענה, the letter ו in the word ואיה, is not part of the name of the person described. It is the kind of ו used in Scripture sometimes to introduce a new sequence, such as in 22,4 ויהי ביום השלישי וישא אברהם את עיניו, “on the third day Avraham raised his eyes.” For the previous 2 days he had been proceeding in the direction of the land of Moriah; now, on the third day, he thought it was time to look for a definitive place in that region. A similar use of the letter ו occurs in Psalms 67,7 נרדם ורכב וסוס, where the letter ו at the beginning of ורכב, introduces a new subject (of sorts). Other examples of a similar nature are Samuel II 13,20, etc. My grandfather of blessed memory wrote that none of these letters ו are additional, i.e. meant for considerations involving syntax, but they are an alert to the reader that a word prior to the word starting with the letter ו is missing in the sentence and has to be found in the text preceding it. Accordingly, the meaning of the words ואיה וענה is that Tzivon had other sons beside those listed here, senior to the ones listed here, but that the Torah had not considered it necessary to mention their names. Perhaps the reason is that those sons had not produced progeny. The ענה mentioned here is not the same as has been mentioned in verse 20. The one mentioned in verse 20 was a descendent of the בני שעיר and was not a son of Tzivon who was a brother of Tzivon. Our sages in Pessachim 54 believe that the two men called ענה are one and the same. To the possible question whether we are dealing with two men of the same name, the Torah answers: “this is the Anah who was well known previously for having located the Yeymim, etc.” Our sages concluded further that Tzivon had slept with his mother having begotten Anah from that intercourse. Not only had Anah himself been a bastard, but he had produced more bastards himself. According to the plain meaning of the text, the words הוא ענה, simply mean: “he is the well known Anah.”
אשר מצא את הימים, פרשו אותו פרדים, וזהו שאמר ברעותו את החמורים מצא בדעתו שירכיב החמור על הסוסיא לראות מה יצא מהם ויצא מהם פרד או הרכיב הסוס עם החמורה, כי משני המינים יצא פרד או פרדה. וארז"ל כל שאזניו קטנות אמו סוסיא ואביו חמור (חולין ד' ע"ט) וכל שאזניו גדולות אמו חמורה ואביו סוס, וזה עשה כנגד רצון האל, כי האל יתברך ברא הנבראים והצמחים כל אחד למינו לפיכך אסר הכלאים. ובב"ר (פ"ב) תני האש והכלאים לא נבראו בששת ימי בראשית, כלאים אימתי נבראו, בימי ענה, האש למי לוי אמר ל"ו שעות שמשה אותה האור, שתים עשרה של ערב שבת שנברא בו אדם, וכיון ששקעה חמה בערב שבת בקש הקב"ה לגנזה וחלק כבוד לשבת, וכ"ד של שבת וי"ב של ערב שבת הרי ל"ו, כששקעה חמה במוצאי שבת אמר אדם הראשון עולם חשך בעדי וזימן לו הקב"ה שני רעפים להקישן זה בזה ויצא מהן אש, ובירך עליה אדם "ולילה אור בעדני" (תהלים קל"ט) אתיא כר' שמואל דאמר מפני מה מברכין על האור במוצאי שבת מפני שהוא תחילת ברייתו. ר' אבוה בשם ר' יוחנן אמר אף במוצאי יום הכפורים מברכים, מפני ששבת כל אותו היום. אשר מצא את הימים, our sages explain the word as meaning “mules,” i.e. just as he had been a bastard he now bread bastards, i.e. animals which resulted from crossbreeding horses and donkeys. This is the meaning of the words that follow ברעותו את החמורים “while he was engaged in tending the donkeys.” It occurred to him that it might be a good idea to see what would happen if he allowed or persuaded a horse to mount an ass. He found to his astonishment that the ass gave birth to a mule as well as a female mule. Our sages have said in Bereshit Rabbah 82,14 that any mule, i.e. an animal resembling it traces its ancestry by means of the size of its ears. If the ears are short it has been sired by a donkey and born by a horse, whereas if it has long ears it has been sired by a horse having been born by an ass. Tzivon had violated G’d’s law according to which the species are not to be crossbred, whether humans or animals or plants. As a reminder of this legislation the Torah subsequently forbade products of crossbreeding, a prohibition which extends to our having any beneficial use of the result of such crossbreeding. According to Bereshit Rabbah in the section just quoted, neither fire nor kilayim, i.e. the product of crossbreeding different species of animals, were created during the 6 days of creation. Mules, i.e. the result of crossbreeding was not created until the days of Anah (whose father had made the experiment). There is a discussion as to when fire was created. According to Levi the original light created on the first day served man for 36 hours, i.e. during the 12 hours before the onset of the first Sabbath, i.e. the first 12 hours after his creation, and the 24 hours of the Sabbath. When the world sank into darkness as a result of G’d withdrawing the original light, as part of Adam’s punishment for having violated His commandment not to eat from the tree of knowledge, Adam was disconsolate and exclaimed (Psalms 139,11) “is darkness to conceal me permanently?” G’d responded to his cry of anguish by replacing the original light with fire, sparks, by teaching him how to produce fire by striking two flints against each other. Having been successful in this, Adam blessed the fire. This corresponds to the view of Shemuel who taught us that the reason we pronounce a benediction over fire on the evening following the Sabbath is that this was the time that fire was created. Rabbi Avuhu added in the name of Rabbi Yochanan that we also bless fire on the evening after Yom Kippur because the fire had to observe “Sabbath” during that whole day, i.e. handling it was out of bounds to us. [Of course, fire is also prohibited for use (handling) on the Sabbath, but Yom Kippur is also called Sabbath even when it does not occur on the day we would normally observe the Sabbath. Ed.]
ומה שאמר ברעותו את החמורים גם סוסים היה רועה אלא שרוב מרעיתו היו החמורים לפיכך זכרם, ואונקלס שתרגם הימים גבריא, לא ידענו דעתו (עיין רמב"ן) וזכר אלה אלופי שעיר להודיע כי לאהבת יצחק נתן לעשו נחלת אלופים אלה בני שעיר: Concerning the words in our verse here ברעותו את החמורים, he was also tending horses, but most of the animals he was looking after were donkeys. This is why the Torah mentioned only the donkeys. We do not know what Onkelos meant when he translated the word הימים as גבריא. The reason why the Torah mentioned all these Alufim of Seir is because of G’d’s love for Yitzchok. Had G’d not loved Yitzchok He would not have gone out of his way for Esau and his sons and have allowed his sons to become such “bigshots” in the land of Seir.