Parashat Toldot

Who is Yitzhak? 

It’s a question that should have a simple answer. Yitzhak is the son of Avraham and the father of Yaakov. He is the child of the covenant, the ram that was not sacrificed, the living whole burnt offering. 

And yet, despite these titles and the grandeur associated with his position, Yitzhak is not an active figure like Avraham and Yaakov. Avraham leaves his home to travel to a new country, he goes down to Egypt, fights in wars, strikes covenants with G-d, acquires the first piece of land to be owned by a Jew in Israel. Yaakov takes his brother’s blessing, flees to Paddan Aram, outwits Lavan, wrestles with an angel, and has a family that starts the Jewish people. 

Yitzhak re-digs wells Avraham dug. He gives a blessing that Avraham earned. That’s it. How can it be that one of the patriarchs, someone whose name we invoke three times a day in prayer appeared to do so little? Moreover, he takes on a somewhat tragic figure. He does not pass away in peace like Avraham. His son Yaakov is gone, his family is broken, Rivka and Esav unsurprisingly never reconcile. 

And, yet, according to our rabbis, Yitzhak perhaps has more to teach us than either Avraham or Yaakov. Yes, his father and his son were radicals. They saw the world through a different lens, seeking to bring about their own revolutions, their own upheavals, either to their society or their own family. 

Yitzhak, however, is about consistency. The re-digging of the wells of Avraham is the subject of much debate amongst the commentators. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz OBM explains Yitzhak’s undertaking beautifully. He writes that Jewish life cannot be constantly defined by “chiddush”, originality. Yes, we need originality in our lives, but we need consistency, and not only that, the chiddush, the originality we create has to be within the dalet amot of the halacha. Hashem, when he gave us the Torah gave us 70 ways to interpret it, but not 71. Yitzhak re-digging the wells of his father means that he delved into the depth of his father’s teaching and learning, and drew on it in order to communicate his message of Torah life.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch OBM famously states there is value and intrinsic importance in secular study. He does not believe Jews must be confined to the four walls of the house of study, but should go out into the world and be an Or LGoyim, a light unto the nations. We must be conversant in science, mathematics, history and other disciplines. However when it comes to the Torah, there can only be the mesorah, our tradition, our heritage and the lifeblood that has sustained us for thousands of years.

Yitzhak understood that. His Torah was his fathers, but deeper. It was old, but new, and it sustained the covenant for a generation, without radical revolution.

Today few of us are zoche to be a true Avraham or a Yaakov. To face such challenges that our life has to be turned on its head as part of fulfilling the divine plan. We are all, however, very much Yitzhak, and to emulate his gadult, his greatness is no small thing. Perhaps he alone amongst the patriarchs saw the importance of consistency, of drawing on what he was taught, and of transmitting his lessons to the next generation. It is this has kept us together, growing, succeeding, and surviving as a nation.

In every lifetime there are perhaps a few great moments where perhaps we are given the choice to be an Avraham or a Yaakov. Maybe we will rise to the occasion, maybe we will fall. But to be Yitzhak, that’s an opportunity we are given every day. Provided we learn every day, are inspired every day, and are strengthened in our connection every day, we emulate Yitzhak, we live life by his mission. We must know and believe with certainty that as we once again dive into the waters, and wells, of Torah, we will draw out living water that sustains us, and gives us new life, just like Yitzhak Avinu did, all those generations ago. 

I wish you all a shabbat shalom.