Efrat, Israel: “And Isaac loved Esau because the trap was in his mouth” (Genesis 25:28)
Isaac, our father, was a great man, a prophet and someone who strove to follow G-d's will throughout his life. So it's hard to understand why he loved the wicked Esau, apparently favoring him above the righteous Jacob. Our puzzle becomes even greater when we take into account the explanation given in the Bible that “the trap – the venison meat – was in his mouth" (Genesis 25:28). Did Isaac really overlook the fact that Jacob “was wholehearted, a studious dweller of tents, preferring Esau the hunter to continue his father's traditions because of culinary considerations?
By returning to the events of the Akeda, we may be able to uncover some profound truths about the complex family relationships in the Bible and how they affected our forefathers' perceptions of the birthright and the honors it bestowed.
The events of the Akeda were dramatic – an intense moment for father and son. But from the moment that Abraham was told by the angel to put down his knife rather than sacrifice his son, their relationship seems to be severed, since Isaac disappears from the narrative. The Biblical text is very clear: “And Abraham returned to his lads, [the two young men who accompanied father and son to the Akeda, but whom Abraham told on the third day to remain behind with the donkey while father and son would go to worship]… and they rose up and went together to Be’er Sheba, and Abraham [alone!] dwelt in Be’er Sheba" (Gen 22:19). In fact, Isaac does not appear again in the Biblical text until he encounters Eliezer returning with Rebecca, his intended bride. Then we are told: “And Isaac was just coming from Be’er La’Hai Ro’i, and he was dwelling in the land of the Negev and Isaac went out to commune with G-d in fields" (Gen 24: 63,64). Apparently Isaac was living separately, neither in Be’er Sheba nor in Hebron, but in the Negev near Be’er La’Hai Ro’i. Why is he not living with Abraham, and why would he choose Be’er La’Hai Ro’i? And apparently Isaac continued living in that place: “And after Abraham died, G-d blessed Isaac his son; and Isaac was dwelling in Be’er La’Hai Ro’i” (Gen 25:11).
The rabbis were well aware of this extraordinary disappearance of Isaac from the family home. The Targum Yonatan accounts for Isaac's absence by suggesting that he was miraculously transported to the Yeshiva of Shem and Ever, but there is little support for this idea in the Biblical text.
There are further problems in the text, as well as in the Midrash, which require explanation. Although Sarah insisted that Isaac's step-brother Ishmael be banished from the family after he mocked Isaac at his weaning party, the Midrash suggests that Abraham specially went and fetched Ishmael to accompany him on the journey to the Akeda; that Ishmael and Eliezer were the “two lads” mentioned. (See Rashi on Genesis 22:3). Why would he have recalled his estranged son Ishmael for this event? Stranger still, despite the tense relationship between Isaac and Ishmael, the Midrash further suggests that after the death of his mother Sarah, Isaac made a special journey to Be'er Lehai Roi to meet with Hagar under her new name of Keturah, reintroducing her to his father, who promptly remarried her (Rashi on Genesis 24: 62).
Furthermore, the Midrash (Pirkei D’Rebbe Eliezer 30, Yalkut Shimoni 95), tells how Abraham never stopped missing Ishmael, and three years after the expulsion set out to visit him, promising Sarah that he will not get down from his camel. After making the long journey, Ishmael’s wife informs Abraham that his son is not at home, and refuses to give her father-in-law any water or bread. Abraham sends a message for Ishmael to change the entrance-way to his tent, a hint that he should find a new wife, who would be more suitable. Another three years pass, Abraham attempts another visit to his son, again Ishmael is not at home, but this time the new wife gives Abraham food and drink, even without his asking for it. Abraham prays for Ishmael, the house is filled with blessings, and Ishmael understands that Abraham’s love and compassion extends to him as a father’s love and compassion extends to his children. What is the point of the Midrash?
Finally, the relationship between Abraham and Isaac seems increasingly complicated. True, we are told that Abraham favored Isaac over Ishmael and allowed him to inherit all that he had, but we see no sign of any conversation between Abraham and Isaac from the time of the Akeda until Abraham's death: even Abraham's preparations for finding Isaac's bride take place in the absence of the prospective groom! And while most of our forefathers used their final moments to bless their children, Abraham does not bless Isaac, leaving it to G-d to bless him.
To answer all our questions, it's important to understand that it cannot have been easy to be the son of the universally acclaimed Abraham, a dynamic leader who was a wealthy herdsman, a successful military general, a path-breaking religious visionary and a man chosen by G-d to lead a religious and social revolution. No one could blame Isaac if he felt inadequate in relation to the model established by his father.
Indeed, Isaac avoids any real confrontation with Avimelekh, and merely struggles to re-open the wells that his father had previously dug and which Avimelekh had stopped up. His passivity is further demonstrated by his having been taken to the Akeda and given a wife. Isaac’s nemesis seems to be his older brother – Abraham’s first born son – Ishmael, the man “whose hand is over every thing” and who seems to be far more the natural, strong leader, the heir to Abraham, than he!
And so Isaac may well be obsessed by the fear that had it not been for G-d’s intervention, his father would have preferred Ishmael to bear the birthright. After all, had not Abraham requested of G-d – at the very moment that he had been informed of his, Isaac’s impending conception – “would that Ishmael live before Thee”? (Gen. 17:18)
Therefore, Isaac is fascinated by Be’er LaHai Ro’i, the place where G-d promised Hagar a son who would become a great nation. Isaac continually returns to that place and eventually moves there. And when Abraham takes him on the journey to Mount Moriah, and he begins to realize that he is to be the sacrificial lamb – and he sees in front of him Ishmael, restored from his banishment and joining with his father to participate in the journey to Mount Moriah, can one blame Isaac if he thought the unthinkable, if he thought that at least unconsciously, his father wanted him to be sacrificed, so that Ishmael could displace him as the recipient of the birthright?
Perhaps Isaac leaves the Akeda angry and disturbed by the fact that his father had been ready to slaughter him. Yes, he suggests and even brings Hagar as Abraham’s new wife, but maybe only as if to say, “I always knew you wanted her as your real wife and her son as your real son.” Abraham fulfills Isaac’s worst fears by not blessing him before his death, and the Midrash strengthens Isaac’s suspicions by having Abraham “find” a wife for Ishmael – the expected task of a father, certainly for the son he sees as his real heir – and give special blessings to Ishmael as well.
Since Isaac always feared that his father favored the more aggressive son, when it comes to his handing out the blessings to his sons, it is only psychologically natural that he favor his own more aggressive son, the hunter, who went out into the fields with strength and cunning. But G-d – who ultimately shapes and directs the chosen family of His covenantal people – insists otherwise. The birthright of ethical monotheism belongs not to the son who is most aggressive and powerful, but rather to the son who believes most passionately in Abraham's mission of ethical monotheism: Isaac and Jacob, not Ishmael and Esau.
Shabbat Shalom
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