November 29th: Toldot
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Of the three Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), Isaac is the least exciting. Whereas Abraham starts a new religion, argues with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, and passes the test of the Binding of Isaac, and whereas Jacob talks his brother out of the birthright, talks his father out of the better blessing, sees God at the top of the Ladder to Heaven, wrestles an angel, and fathers the Twelve Tribes of Israel, Isaac garners far fewer “headlines.” He is born, is loved by his parents, is almost sacrificed by his father, gets married, prefers his manlier son to the homebody, and gets fooled by his wife and younger son when it comes to giving out blessings.
This last confusion is only possible because “his eyes were too dim to see,” (Genesis 27.1) a condition the Midrash attributes to his almost-death up on Mount Moriah. While God knows all along that this is just a test of Abraham’s loyalty—that God will not let Abraham go through with the sacrifice, the angels are not aware of God’s plan. When they see Abraham lift up the slaughtering knife over Isaac’s throat, they burst into sobs, and their tears flood into Isaac’s eyes—rendering him visually impaired.
One could summarize Isaac’s life and career with the words weakness, passivity, and victim-hood, but I think that there is much more to his long and complex life. There is more to life than just the headlines.
One commentary suggests that Isaac is not a victim of his father’s zealotry—that he volunteers to be sacrificed. If, as one Midrash puts it, Sarah has a prophetic vision of Abraham putting the knife on Isaac’s throat and dies at the moment of the almost sacrifice, then that would make Isaac thirty-seven years old—old enough to wrestle his elderly father and thwart God’s instruction. According to this Midrash, Isaac has as much piety and faith as his father, and should be seen as a willing and faithful participant.
Another commentary suggests that Isaac is not fooled by Rebekah’s and Jacob’s subterfuge. Think about the absurdity of their tactics. No matter how hairy Esau is, it is hard to believe that he is hairy as a goat. Moreover, Isaac recognizes Jacob’s voice and detects Jacob’s piety in his explanation of how he gets the meat so quickly—“Because the Lord your God granted me good fortune” (Genesis 27.20). Then, note the fact that God goes along with Isaac’s blessing—giving Jacob the spiritual leadership. God does not have to acquiesce to Isaac’s words—especially if Isaac speaks them by mistake. The fact that God and Isaac agree that Jacob is to be the new Patriarch suggests that Isaac is not fooled—is not a victim, but rather is involved in the plot to ease a volatile Esau out of any spiritual leadership expectations.
There is a passage in this week’s Torah portion that speaks of Isaac’s particular role in God’s long-term Jewish plan: “There was a famine in the land—aside from the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham—and Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar.” Why did Isaac stay so close—less than a day’s walk from the family homestead in Beersheba? “The Lord had appeared to him and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land which I point out to you. Reside in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; I will assign all these lands to you and to your heirs, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your heirs as numerous as the stars of heaven, and assign to your heirs all these lands, so that all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your heirs—inasmuch as Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge: My commandments, My laws, and My teachings.’ So Isaac stayed in Gerar.” (Genesis 26.1-6)
Life gives different people different roles, and, while some are called to move and be revolutionaries, others are called to stay and maintain. God wants Isaac to stay and keep the new religion going, and Isaac does this successfully. He too is a servant of the Most High.
In explaining his Developmental View of Jewish History, Ellis Rivkin notes that each generation must decide on its response to its inherited religious tradition. Most of the time throughout Jewish History, the response has been repetition or continuation. Sometimes, important changes in reality led to variations on the theme—small changes that kept the tradition going. Sometimes, however, the nature of reality changed so drastically that a seismic change became necessary—one Rivkin terms a mutation or quantum leap. Such changes are relatively few in our history, and Abraham’s call and mission can be termed the first. Then, there was the shift away from Prophecy after we returned to Judea from the Babylonian Exile (circa 500 BCE). A few centuries later, there was the discovery of the Oral Torah as Rabbinic Judaism responded to Hellenism (circa 165 BCE). And, there was the modern development of individual autonomy that led to progressive forms of Judaism: Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist.
Though these movements are prone to continuing development, not everyone is called upon to be a revolutionary and change the religious world. There is much value—as there has been throughout most of Jewish History—in maintaining the faith and practicing it, allowing the contributions of the ancestors to guide us and inspire us and help us in our relationship with God.
While there are certainly moments when action is necessary and when things need changing, the urge to improve things can often devolve into self-indulgence and attempts to make the world revolve around us. This is where humility can be helpful, and this is where we can study the value of modest continuity and faithfulness. Isaac may not have gotten the headlines that his father and son garnered, but his is an example of consistent and persistent holiness that is also worthy of our attention.