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50th Anniversary of his Bar Mitzvah
Given by Samuel M. Gilston on November 29, 2008 (2 Kislev 5769
)
D'var Torah on Parashah "Toledot"
One of the delights of attending services at Tikvat Israel over the years is sitting in services and listening to our B'nai Mitzvah kids deliver some really profound d'vrai Torah. And I count the ones given by our daughters, Meredith and Judi, among them.
What is both charming and brilliant about the d'vrai torah that our youngsters give is how they relate the most complex themes of the Torah reading or haftorah to their own lives. They do not search for great metaphysical meanings from the readings. Rather, they see the Torah as a personal message, and they put it in the context of their own families, their parents, their brothers and sisters, their friends and school and the local community.
So preparing today for this D'var Torah, I knew that I faced the challenge of having to live up to the high standard set every week by our children.
That brings me to today's Parashah, Toledot. I'm sure everyone is well aware of the stories in today's portion. We read the stories about the birth of Jacob and Esau; how Jacob bought Esau's birthright for a bowl of soup; how Rebecca and Jacob contrive to fool Isaac into giving the blessing for the first born to Jacob instead of Esau; and how Jacob flees for his life to the home of his uncle Leban.
Instead of examining those tales, however, I'd like to talk about one character in the story who gets little attention, Isaac. In fact, throughout the book of Genesis, Isaac receives only passing notice.
Toledot begins by saying, this is the story of Isaac son of Abraham. "Ve' aileh tol'dot yitzhak ben avraham." But, in fact, it tells only part of the story of Isaac and spends more time on his sons, Jacob and Esau.
Of our three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we know the least about Isaac. His is a life implied, rather than described.
But I think when we do examine what we know about Isaac, as well as Midrash and rabbinical interpretations of his life, we will find that he is more representative than Abraham or Jacob of the Jewish character and of Jewish history from his day to ours. I believe it is with Isaac that Jewish destiny is born.
Why do I think Isaac is the unrecognized hero of Genesis and why are his life and faith important to us today? To answer that, I'd like to look at Isaac the way our bnai mitzvah kids would look at him in the context of family and personal relationships.
To me, Isaac's story is the first telling of the life story of what we today call "the sandwich generation." He is the son of the dynamic, larger than life Abraham - the founder of a new religion, the builder of a wealthy tribe, a warrior and a saint. Isaac is also the father of Jacob, the lover, the adventurer, the patriarch of the 12 tribes of Israel - in fact, the man whose name becomes the name of the Jewish people.
Abraham is the classic example of the self-made man who is too busy building a fortune, building a career, carrying a mission from God to pay much attention to his children.
Isaac is the second generation son who always lives in the shadow of his father. No matter what he does, he never seems to live up to his father's expectations.
Isaac is also the father of Jacob who becomes the true heir to Abraham; in effect, taking over the family business and making it even more successful than Abraham had.
In between these two giants of the Bible is Isaac. Rather than being the protagonist of his own story, Isaac is portrayed as the victim of other people's schemes and ambitions. Yet, there is a profound holiness in Isaac. There is a sense of contentment and calm. While being a bridge between Abraham and Jacob, he is also the faithkeeper, the preservationist, the strong rock upon which Jacob can build the future of the children of Israel.
In the beginning, however, we are not sure how Isaac's life will turn out. Even his birth is surrounded by rumors and gossip. Because Sarah became pregnant after being held by the Pharoah in Egypt and in the harem of Abimelech, the Philistine king, the rabbis of the Talmudic period and afterward recognized that some people may have questioned who truly was the father of Isaac.
So the Torah and the Talmud stress all the points that will assure us that Abraham is the true father of Isaac. We read how angels visit Abraham and tell him Sarah will conceive and give birth to a child in one year. We are told that God made Abimelech impotent so nothing untoward could happen to her. When Sarah delivers Isaac, the Torah makes clear that Isaac was "born onto Abraham," and later it recounts the genealogy of Abraham and says "Abraham begot Isaac."
So this is the Torah's version of a paternity test.
When we look back at Isaac's life, we have to conclude he was a "mamma's boy." The child of Sarah and Abraham in their old age, Isaac lives a sheltered life under Sarah's over protective mothering. Sounds familiar, doesn't it.
One of the first stories we read about Isaac is his relationship with his older step brother Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Sarah's handmaid, Haggar the Egyptian. We read that Ishmael was, in effect, a bully who picked on his younger stepbrother Isaac.
The Torah says Sarah saw Ishmael "playing." "Hamitzrit." That word is interpreted in many different ways. One Midrash says Ishmael was seen shooting arrows at Isaac. Another says Sarah saw Ishmael worshiping idols as his mother had, and another suggests Ishmael was scornful of Isaac's circumcision and the covenant.
In any case, the reactions of Sarah and Abraham are quite different. Abraham seems too busy building his new religion to pay much attention to his sons. He neither chastises Ishmael nor tells him to stop what he is doing. He doesn't try to teach Isaac how to box and defend himself against bullies in the school yard. No, he just ignores the whole thing.
Sarah, on the other hand, goes to the other extreme and tells Abraham to disown Ishmael and to cast him and his mother out into the wilderness. God endorses her wish by telling Abraham to follow her advice because it is through Isaac that the covenant will be fulfilled and not through Ishmael.
The Torah than skips ahead in Isaac's life and we see him next being taken by Abraham to Mount Moriah to be sacrificed. To me, it is in the telling of the great story of the Akeda, the binding of Isaac, that Isaac's true importance to our history and faith becomes clear.
But again, as in other parts of the story of Isaac, he is not portrayed as the hero of this story, which he really is. As told in Torah, the Akeda is all about Abraham - his faith and his obedience - and God's mercy and abhorence of child sacrifice.
The story raises countless questions. Why would God test Abraham in this way? Why would Abraham obey? Isn't there an inherent inconsistency between God's promise that Abraham's line will be carried on by Isaac and His instruction to sacrifice Isaac
Whatever motive God has, we really don't know. All we know is that God speaks to Abraham and says, "Take your son, your only son, the one you love, Isaac" and go where I will send you.
In reading this story, most of us have the image in our minds of Isaac being a small child when he goes with Abraham to Mount Moriah. The few words Isaac speaks in the scene are almost child-like.
But most rabbinic writings agree that Isaac was 37 at the time of the Akeda. 37. He is not a child or even a teenager. He is a full grown man. If the rabbis are correct, this raises a whole bunch of other questions about the Akeda.
If Isaac is 37, that would mean Abraham is 137, because we are told he was 100 when Isaac was born. By any estimate of biblical years, Abraham was an old man. So why didn't Isaac fight to stop Abraham from binding him up for a sacrifice? Why didn't he just run away? One Midrash asks, "Could one bind a man 37 years old but with his consent?"
This is where Isaac becomes the unsung hero of Genesis. Isaac is clearly a willing participant in the binding. It is not Abraham's faith that is tested and proven true, it is Isaac's. According to one interpretation, Isaac is willing to sacrifice his own life to prove his faith in God and his obedience to God.
Abraham is the religious fanatic who is willing to sacrifice all for his faith, but not his own life. He is offering his son's. He is like many men who are willing to sacrifice their families for their careers. The father gets the glory, and the family suffers the ill effects.
But Isaac, in his quiet way, is saying, in modern poker parlance, "I'm all in."
Isaac thus becomes the symbol for Jewish martyrdom for centuries to come. Just as Isaac was willing to give up his life to affirm his faith, so too have Jews throughout history died to sanctify God's name. Here Isaac is not the victim but the hero.
After the Akeda, there is a big gap in the story of Issac. I think the post-Akeda period has to be one of the most dramatic untold stories in history. The Torah says nothing about what happens when Abraham and Isaac get back to their camp. What is the relationship between father and son after that scene. The silence of the Torah screams at us that the bond between them has been broken.
How does Sarah react to the story? I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of Sarah's tent when her husband and son return. I have long imagined Isaac running into the tent and crying to Sarah that "Daddy tried to kill me!"
And we know how protective Sarah was of Issac, so we almost can hear her yelling at Abraham: "You did what?"
The Midrash about this unwritten period is quite extensive and suggests that Sarah knew what Abraham was going to do and became very upset - as we would expect. She is not home when Abraham returns but is out searching for Isaac.
We can assume that Sarah's reaction was quite severe because the next scenes in the Bible tell of her death and Abraham buying a burial site for her at the cave of Machpelah. We also know that Isaac -- the momma's boy -- takes Sarah's death very hard. It appears that he is in mourning for her for three years - right up to the time he is married to Rebecca when he is 40 years old.
The estrangement between father and son is further underscored by the fact that Isaac is in mourning for Sarah for three years, but it seems Abraham gets remarried right away to a woman named Keturah. The Torah made a big deal about Abraham fathering Isaac as an old man when he is 100 years old, but with Keturah he fathers six more sons when he is over 137 or 140.
Some writings also suggest that Keturah is actually Haggar, Sarah's concubine and Ishmael's mother. Did Abraham and Haggar hook up again after Sarah's death? This sounds like material for a Danielle Steele novel.
After Sarah's death, Abraham finally gets around to the task of getting a wife for Isaac. It seems Abraham once again has been too busy building his new religion and his career to pay attention to Isaac. Not only does Abraham come late to his responsibility to find a suitable wife for his son, he doesn't even do the job himself. He gives the assignment to one of his servants.
When the servant returns with Rebecca, Isaac accepts the match without question. And Isaac and Rebecca become a great love story. But Rebecca becomes like Sarah, a protector of Isaac and his inheritance.
So now we finally come to Toledot, today's parashah.
Although the parashah begins by saying this is Isaac's story, only two main stories are told about him. In one, he is the protagonist when he travels to Gerar during a famine, and in the second, he is the victim again, when Rebecca and Jacob fool him into giving the blessing for the first born to Jacob.
The story of the famine and the move to Gerar is almost a direct copy of the story told about Abraham and Sarah. Even the name of the Philistine king of Gerar, Abimelech, is the same as in the story of Abraham, although this is probably not the same man, but a family name like the eight Edwards of England.
Just as Abraham had tried to pass Sarah off as his sister, Isaac also tells the Philistines that Rebecca is his sister. Both men are afraid they will be killed so their wives could be taken by the Philistines.
But Isaac's charade is discovered by Abimelech in one of the most tender scenes in Torah. Abimelech is seen looking out of his window one day and sees Isaac fondling Rebecca as only a husband would touch a wife. This scene is an affirmation that Isaac not only accepted Rebecca as his wife, because his father had chosen her, but he actual came to love her.
After this, Isaac settles in Gerar and becomes a wealthy and successful farmer and shepherd. His success breeds envy among the Philistines in a way that will be repeated throughout Jewish history.
In a friendly but emphatic way, Abimelech tells Isaac to leave his country. Isaac and his clan leave, but they continue to have fights with the Philistines over water rights - a story that is still at the heart of the struggle in the Middle East to this day. Isaac's response is to keep digging more and more wells until the Philistines have enough water and leave him alone in peace.
Finally, we come to the story of Jacob pretending to be Esau in order to obtain the blessing for the first born.
Again, Isaac is the victim of other peoples' schemes - or is he
Just as the story of the binding of Isaac raises many questions, so too does the blinding of Isaac and his blessing of Jacob.
Why, we ask, does Isaac love Esau? Why can't he tell the difference between the disguised Jacob and the real Esau? Why doesn't he take back the blessing he mistakenly gave to Jacob and give it to Esau
When we consider the blindness of Isaac, we know there are many different forms of blindness. There is physical blindness, moral blindness and spiritual blindness. Isaac appears to be blind to Esau's character, just as many parents are blind to the bad behavior of their own children. This is self-blindness.
Midrash and modern psychology offer similar explanations for why Isaac favored Esau over Jacob. Isn't it very common for us to try to give more love to the child who gets in trouble than to the good child? Also, we often decide to raise and treat our own children differently than we were raised by our parents.
And we suspect that Isaac is aware that Jacob is trying to fool him. He says: "The voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau." Perhaps there is a moment when his blindness is cured.
Then there is the blessing he gives to Jacob. Isaac cannot revoke the blessing because there is magic in a blessing; there is power in words. And it is as true for us as it was for Isaac. Once we have offered a blessing or a curse, it cannot be taken back. Carl Sandberg wrote that proud words "wear long boots, hard boots; they walk off proud; they can't hear you calling."
And Isaac's blessing has a built-in non-revocation clause because it says "Cursed be they who curse you; Blessed be they who bless you."
And the blessing that Isaac gives Jacob is a beautiful blessing that each of us would wish for our children as well. He prays that God will grant his son the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth. What more could we pray for?
So in the end, what do we know or believe about Isaac and why do I think he is so important
- Isaac is the obedient son, the loving husband, the tolerant father.
- He is the first Jew who is willing to sacrifice his own life to demonstrate his faith.
- He is the well-loved child who is the victim of other people's schemes, ambitions and envy.
- He is the calm and simple figure who lives the spiritual life.
- He is a man of peace, who will do almost anything to avoid conflict either within his home or with his neighbors.
In essence, he is everything we aspire to be.
And as descendants of Isaac, the message of his life resonates with us today. The prophet Amos refers to the House of Isaac, which is what we are as much as we are the House of Israel.
We learn from Isaac that:
- We are the favored children of God, but the ones God will test most severely.
- That God loves us - but will challenge us;
- And that even though God will make us struggle, God will not destroy us;
- And although we may be blind for a while, in the end, we will see clearly.
- And just as Isaac could not take back the blessing that he gave to Jacob, so God will never revoke the blessing he has given to us.
I will close with a quote from a Christian interpretation of the Akeda. In the Abington Bible Commentary, one Christian theologian explains the scene in this way. He says, "It is as though God was offering to man a supreme gift which is always imperiled, but never destroyed, and God himself would not have it otherwise."
And so it is with the Jewish people -- the House of Isaac.
Shabbat Shalom
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