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Rabbi
Haim Lifshitz
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Isaac’s Characteristic Trait of POWER contrasts with Abraham’s Characteristic Trait of LOVINGKINDNESS Translated from Hebrew by DR. S. NAthan l'ilui
nishmat Esther bat mordechai “These are the descendants of Isaac the son of Abraham: Abraham begat Isaac.” The opening verse informs us twice that Abraham was the father of Isaac. Why the redundancy? "This verse shuts up those jokers' mouths who were insinuating that Sarah had conceived [Isaac] from Avimelech. What did God do [against this slur]? God formed Isaac’s countenance to exactly resemble Abraham’s. Thus all who saw him would testify: 'Abraham is the father of Isaac.''' (Midrash) Nevertheless, it seems to me that we must explore the plainer, profound meaning of this verse, for it comes to tell us that the trait of loving-kindness that characterized Abraham, begat the trait of power that characterized Isaac. Abraham’s loving-kindness allowed Isaac’s power to be revealed to the world, and power is no small thing. It suffices to simply analyze the narrative of Isaac, Rebecca and Avimelech, in contrast to the depiction of Abraham, Sarah and Avimelech to discover an obviously different approach. With Abraham, heaven intervenes at every step. God warns Avimelech not to touch Sarah, for she is Abraham’s wife. He smites Avimelech’s entire household with severe and painful plagues despite the fact that Avimelech has not yet laid a hand on Sarah. Avimelech complains that Abraham has wronged him by concealing the fact of his relationship with Sarah. Abraham apologizes and enters into a lengthy explanation as to why he had felt compelled to conceal this fact for various reasons, one of them being that he was apprehensive regarding what had appeared to be the flawed morality that prevailed in Avimelech’s country: On his arrival, he had noticed that Avimelech’s subjects began to inquire about Sarah rather than responding to the question of lodgings that Abraham had raised. Another explanation Abraham offers is that it really is so, that Sarah is his sister, on his father’s side, though not on his mother’s side. With Isaac, God does not appear to intervene at all. Avimelech discovers the truth on his own. “And Avimelech looked through the window and saw Isaac making his wife Rebecca laugh,” or more literally: “He saw ‘He Will Laugh’ making laughter with his wife Rebecca.” In response to Avimelech’s indignation over the deceit, Isaac replies plainly that he had feared to admit Rebecca was his wife for it would have endangered his life. He offers no further explanation. Immediately afterwards, Isaac’s affairs begin to flourish. His fields give forth one hundred times the normal produce, and his cattle increase, to the point that the Philistines become envious of his wealth. Isaac perseveres in his efforts to walk in his father’s footsteps. He re-digs Abraham’s wells, which have been stopped up by the Philistines, and this attempt provokes a feud between Isaac’s men and the Philistines. Only when Isaac’s shepherds dig a new well does the quarrel cease. This teaches you that Isaac was required to carve his own independent path, and not to suffice with renewing the path of his father. This point requires elaboration. Abraham’s trait of loving-kindness was the positive path. It began with heaven’s lovingkindness, bestowed upon Abraham by the Creator, Who lavished his goodness and lovingkindness upon Abraham through His blessing to him. Abraham deliberately limits the amount of loving-kindness that he transfers from the Creator to His creants, in order to force his contemporaries to comprehend that lovingkindness comes from God. Until Abraham made his public appearance, the people of his generation assume that the sustenance they draw from the world simply flows from the natural bounty of the creation. They do not comprehend that the source of the bounty in creation must necessarily derive from the source of God’s lovingkindness. Along comes Abraham and points to his discovery. The fact of a Divine source comes as a complete surprise to them. They have not been accustomed to thinking in these terms until Abraham reveals this secret to them. Yet these verbal teachings were inadequate, in that there was no parallel practical action. Abraham therefore had to be tested, through ten trials that were totally unnatural. The purpose of these trials was to test the measure of Abraham’s attachment to and belief in the Creator of the universe. These were direct and tangible proofs, especially as they did not follow the course of nature. In contrast to these heavenly trials, Isaac had to cope with the risk-filled realities of nature: Digging wells in hostile territory and coping with the trial of Avimelech. These confrontations were not intended to achieve the same purpose that his father had strived to achieve. Isaac’s ordeals dealt with the need to clarify the messages received from God, for these messages were covered by the events of nature, by normal processes – or so it appeared. Upon Isaac lay the task and mission of sorting through and filtering out and clarifying the way of God as it is hidden within the way of nature. Such a mission is not at all times clear and straightforward. Isaac’s dilemma is expressed most palpably in his effort to clarify his relationship with Esau. What attitude shall he take toward this coarse person who has succumbed to the ways of nature? Perhaps he is really a holy and righteous man, skilled at exposing the heavenly meanings and intentions hidden behind and within the ways of nature. Perhaps he is a hidden tzadik, greater even than the obviously righteous Jacob. Isaac would never have been unable to cope with this complex problem were it not for his familiarity with the clearly visible ways of God, as he had encountered them in the past, together with his father Abraham. When Isaac is praying for a child, opposite his wife Rebecca who is also praying, God responds to Isaac’s prayers rather than to the prayers of his righteous wife, Rebecca. The Midrash explains: Isaac was “the righteous child of a righteous parent,” whereas Rebecca was “the righteous child of a wicked parent.” On the surface of things, should not Rebecca have been considered greater than Isaac? She prevailed over, ignored and remained untouched by the habits of evil seen in her parents’ home. Isaac grew up accustomed to the heavenly presence. God’s obvious and open involvement was clearly visible at every stage in his parents’ home. What is so impressive about Isaac’s righteousness? Yet God’s different responses to Isaac and to Rebecca prove the validity of our interpretation of the concept of being born into righteousness: Isaac cannot suffice with walking in the righteous furrow plowed by his righteous parents. He cannot travel the path his father paved, nor quench his thirst with water drawn from the wells his father dug. Isaac must forge a new road to righteousness and pave his own independent path. Isaac is thus charged with the mission of discovering new sources of water, of digging new wells. Isaac’s path in righteousness must elucidate and uncover the way of God, as it lies concealed behind what looks like the plain and obvious way of nature. What attitude should he take when faced with the negative responses of his fellow creatures, when he elicits their envy, hatred and cunning? Should their intentions be read simplistically, or is there a concealed Godly intention discernible through them? What are the real intentions of his neighbors, Avimelech and Fichol, the military commander? Did they not long ago seal a covenant with his father Abraham in Beer Sheba? They declare: “We have truly seen that God is with you.” How is he to respond to this? How have they seen this? If God’s ways are hidden from Isaac, how are they so clear to Avimelech and Fichol? Perhaps precisely for this reason: Because they have been so familiarized with, and well-schooled in the ways of nature, they can easily tell the difference between the forces of nature and the hidden powers of the Divine, for which the forces of nature are only a veil. How to relate to Esau? In his essence and behavior, he is “a hunting man.” (Rashi: He uses verbal cunning to trap human beings.) He is a “man of the field.” (He confronts the forces of nature.) Perhaps his labor is the more difficult one. Perhaps it is precisely Esau who is most in need of Isaac’s blessing – rather than Jacob who is so obviously righteous. Their behavioral differences become more blatant at the death of their grandfather, Abraham. Jacob mourns, and gives expression to his mourning by brewing “a stew of lentils,” which is a symbol of mourning and a custom among mourners. Esau, in contrast, arrives home in a state of exhaustion (having committed numerous grave sins on that very day) and takes an interest only in the food that Jacob has prepared, while contemptuously ignoring the sublime dimension of height entailed in his own status as firstborn. “Here I am going to die, so what good is this firstborn status to me?” That is, there is no value to the life that comes after death. Death controls all. There is no life after life. The single determining factor is death. The law of nature sets the rules, and nothing else. Compare this to Jacob, for whom the law of God sets the rules, and nothing else. Jacob ignores the superficial rules of nature, and sees only the Godly truth that hides behind the law of nature. He therefore buys the birthright of the first born, which is a Godly privilege, the main role of which is played out in the life after death. This is explains Jacob’s uneasiness over the shrewd ploy his mother wishes to attempt. His mother has been schooled like no one else in life’s bitter realities and in the cunning that permeates the forces of nature along their entire path. Jacob, the man of innocence, the dweller of tents, ignores the tricks of the natural forces, yet he knows that he must one day learn to confront them, for he will soon find himself in their midst. He will have to learn how to deal with the forces of nature. In next week’s Torah reading, Vayeitsei, we shall see how Jacob prays for precisely this: To be capable of being fully immersed in the forces of nature, and to learn from them how Godly involvement expresses itself specifically through nature: “If God will be with me…and give me bread to eat and a garment to wear…” Isaac, with his trait of quiet power, is confronting two paths, attempting to clarify which of these is the path of God. He does not give up on Esau so quickly, as does Rebecca who simply and readily recognizes the reality, classifying Jacob as righteous and Esau as wicked. Isaac believes that with a bit of assistance, supplemented by his blessing, Esau will be shown to all as a man who has withstood a great challenge – a challenge far more difficult than Jacob’s challenge of righteousness. When Isaac “trembled in great terror,” the midrash states that he suddenly saw the entry to hell open - beneath Esau. The baseness of Esau’s way becomes suddenly clear to Isaac. Yet Esau’s way is bound together with Jacob’s way, which puts Jacob at great risk. Jacob must exercise extreme caution in order to avoid falling into Esau’s purgatory, if his own path is bound together with Esau’s. Only through the power of Jacob’s service to God, only if “the voice is Jacob’s voice,” then “the hand [that] are Esau’s hands” are powerless to harm. Isaac takes this new discovery - that evil can be bound together with good - and transforms it into a blessing, which he then bequeaths to his children. |