Toldot
Genesis 25:19-28:9
Malachi 1:1-2:7
Although Abraham and Sarah both passed away in last week’s Torah portion, our patriarch Isaac spends much of this week’s parashah encountering their ghosts. In fact, the narrative of Isaac’s life follows that of his father’s to an uncanny degree.
Genesis Chapter 26 opens with Isaac facing famine in the land and sojourning to Gerar, where he encounters Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. Fearing that he will be killed so that Abimelech may take his wife, Rebekah, for his own, Isaac lies to Abimelech’s men, saying that Rebekah is his sister. When Isaac and Rebekah’s true relationship is revealed to Abimelech, he is incensed that Isaac has now endangered the king to the wrath of God.
If any of this sounds eerily familiar, there is good reason. Genesis Chapter 20 finds Isaac’s father, Abraham, in Gerar, passing off Sarah as his sister to Abimelech. Like his father before him, Isaac eventually prospers in Gerar and settles his affairs with Abimelech.
Genesis 26 continues with the story of Isaac, redigging the wells once forged by his father. Isaac first digs the well of Gerar, where his father once dwelled. He continues on to Sitnah and Rechovot before arriving at Beersheva, a town that received its name, “Well of the Seven,” from the oath over seven ewes made by Abraham and Abimelech at a well (Genesis 21). Now Isaac redigs the same well and makes a vow with the very same Abimelech. In all, our parashah finds Isaac tracing the footsteps of his father and re-enacting his father’s confrontations.
We can understand from the parallels of Genesis 20-21 and Genesis 28 that Isaac clearly harbors some serious daddy issues. Abraham casts a long shadow over his son, and many of our classical commentators imagine Isaac as bEing terminally scarred from the experience of the Akedah, or binding. Indeed, the central character connecting Abraham and Isaac through these distinct chapters is Abimelech, whose name can be read as “My father is ruler” or “My father rules over me.”
We may find similar precedent in the story of Nadav and Abihu, who perish while offering alien fire in Leviticus. One interpretation of their punishment is that Nadav and Abihu are taken as a penalty for their father Aaron’s role in the building of the golden calf. Thus we may read their names as Nadav “the given one” and Abihu “it is my father.” In this way, the sons’ names act as clues, pointing to the true culprit of the story. Likewise, this week we find Isaac, ruled by the memory of his father, following in the footsteps of the man who seemingly abandoned him.
Isaac’s parental issues go beyond his relationship with his father. When Sarah gives birth at an advanced age, Abraham offers the name Isaac, meaning “He will laugh.” Just two verses later, Sarah reappropriates the name, saying, “God has brought ME laughter; everyone who hears will laugh with ME.” The laughter is no longer Isaac’s; it is now kept for Sarah and her kinsmen. Isaac’s name eventually devolves into an ironic title for a tragic individual.
In last week’s parashah, we read the tale of Rebekah being brought to the Negev to meet her new husband, Isaac. The text offers a fitting coda on Isaac’s mother issues: “Isaac then brought [Rebekah] into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebekah as his wife. Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother’s death” (Genesis 24:67).
The poet Zelda famously wrote that each of us receives a name from our parents. Throughout our lives, the people we love each give us additional names. Many of our ancestors earn new names due to personal transformations within the Book of Genesis. Avram becomes Abraham. Sarai becomes Sarah. Jacob becomes Yisrael.
And yet Isaac remains Isaac, the boy named for the very laughter that is clearly absent from his life. By the end of this week’s parashah, we find a weak and blinded Isaac, manipulated by his wife and son, unable to break the chain of parental favoritism leading to sibling rivalry. He follows his parents to the very end, unable to escape the shadow of the father who was willing to offer his son as a sacrifice and the mother who emptily promised laughter.
Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe is a rabbi at Reform Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. He can be reached at [email protected].