Vaietze 5772 - English

Rabbi Claudio Jodorkovsky

Asociación Israelita Montefiore - Bogota

IN DEFENSE OF ISAAC

Our second patriarch is the most controversial of the three.  Of a passive nature, Isaac does not seem to take part in the events he experiences, letting others decide for him. He doesn’t complain nor offer resistance on his quasi-sacrifice; he shows no interest in obtaining a wife, so his father has to do it for him; and finally, he ends his life blind and cheated by his wife and youngest son, with no signs of being annoyed or any attempt to do justice to his eldest son Esau.  If we review the Torah stories in which Isaac appears, we see that he plays the role of Abraham’s son or of Jacob’s father, never appearing as the main character.  In the words of my friend Rabbi Gustavo Suraszki, Isaac occupies his place among the patriarchs as the middle son does in a family: he’s just there “without pain or glory.”

The question that arises, when we analyze Isaac’s character and life, is why he was chosen by our sages as “Patriarch” of the people of Israel.  Other biblical figures, such as Noah and Joseph, could have deserved the honor, but tradition decreed that it was Isaac who received such distinction.  Then, what were his merits?

One opinion says that his merit was no more no less than carrying his father’s ideals.  He receives the inheritance from his father, founder of monotheism and Hebrew tradition, and is able to pass it on to his son Jacob.  We could underestimate his task and think that, compared to the achievements of his father and son, passing on the family legacy was the least he could do.  However, considering his nature and the events that marked his life, I think we should believe the opposite.  (Elie Wiesel, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize, considers that after the Akedah, the “binding”, Isaac became the first Jewish survivor in history.)

On the other hand, there are those who maintain that our second patriarch’s merit lies in an event we read about last week.  Parashat Toledot (Gen.26:15-18) tells us that Isaac discovers that the wells dug by his father in his time had been closed by the Philistines.  Facing this situation, Isaac decides to go in search of water, but instead of going anywhere else, he looks for it in the wells, now shut down, already dug by his father in the past.  The midrash (Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah 1:19) compares the Torah with water, and based on this metaphor (even if we remove ourselves a little from the literal meaning of the text), we could see in this initiative a spiritual search on the part of Isaac, who goes out to find his own religious identity, starting out from the legacy of his father Abraham.  In our times, many of our brothers and sisters in search of a transcendental path for their lives, instead of exploring the rich spiritual proposal of the tradition of Israel, look for existential meaning in traditions and philosophies alien to our people, and in this sense, Isaac gives us a great example to follow by staying with the original aspects his father created.  .

Finally, unlike Abraham, Jacob, and other biblical figures, Isaac proves to be one of the few characters that show any sensitivity and true identification with the distress and suffering of their wives.  Abraham, on two occasions (Gen. 12:10-20 and 20:1-18), makes his wife pass for his sister in order to save his own life, with no thought concerning the dangers that could threaten her from doing that.  Jacob, in our parashah, far from understanding Rachel’s grief for her barrenness, answers her with annoyance when she cries out to him:  “Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?” (Gen. 30:2).  Elkanah, father of the prophet Samuel, although he does not show anger before Hannah’s distress for her barrenness, expresses his solidarity through a demonstration of affection which betrays very limited understanding of her pain.  While she grieves for her frustration for not being able to conceive, the husband attempts to comfort her under the premise that apart from him, there is nothing more important to her:  “Hannah, why weepest thou? … Am not I better to thee than ten sons?” (I Samuel 1:8).

Isaac, on the other hand, is the only one that seems to have enough empathy to actually understand his wife’s feelings due to her condition.  We read in Parashat Toledot:  “And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren” (Gen. 25:21).  Notice that the patriarch does not pray to God for his own anguish facing the possibility of not having any descendants (as Abraham did once).  Isaac feels Rebekah’s pain, and it is this pain what leads him to pray to God.

Though it is true that his character could well make us consider him unworthy of becoming a patriarch, this brief analysis can make us reflect and contribute ideas that can lead us to a different opinion.  Far from living “without pain or glory”, Isaac passed on important lessons that constitute a model of life for all of us.  May God grant, then, that we may follow his example and incorporate his legacy into our lives.

Shabbat Shalom u’Meborah!