Finding Yitzchak by Rabbi Shmuel Goldin

okay as we begin once again I'd like to announce and thank the sponsors for the year of our she Dr M MAA Marcus in memory of their beloved aunts irah and Hilda Meyer whom I had the uh the to know once again we thank them very very much okay everybody find [Music] seats how many seats are here three one one seat over here there no more papers they had a whole bunch of them I need AER no more what on the table outside there were papers are they G I got the last one there was some here some here too table okay here's a paper somebody has okay thank you all for cooperating need the paper okay so we we thanked our sponsors I'd like to I know I'm do doing my best doing my best you know what if if some people want to take some white chairs and put them up here you could way up front oh that's a good idea anybody want to take some white chairs and can put them up front here and you can sit up front put chairs over here you don't sit I don't sit okay I I also want to thank the many of you who spoke to me about my son's teaching we very uh L from him and U thank you for your comments and uh good to know what does he teach usually he he teaches in a number of different places but he works his primary work is he works for a number of organizations actually okay we're going to take a look at the second of the three Patriarchs today we're going to take a look at y y is the most en we took a a detour studying Pim last week but now we're coming back to our we're coming back to the Kish study in that and we're up to we're going to take a look at at is the most enigmatic of all of the Patriarchs very little do we know about him um a lot of the drama that surrounds the other Abraham or surrounds yo doesn't surround His Life seems to be very very seems to be controlled by circumstances rather than controlling circumstances and to understand him I think that there are two major components that we need to look at that Forge and form the the of his life and we can look if we look at those those two components perhaps we can understand him better if you take a look at the first paragraph on page one you find it a fascinating medish from EST which is appropriate and in it RAB lists a whole series of people who are the first of the first of he says for example that K Cen is the first murderer uh Noah is the first to Survivor Y is the first of the bound now that means that we need to take a look at y from the perspective of his experience on the altar during the time of AAS we often Focus only on Abraham we see the test to be one of Abraham but Y is tested as well and Y is affected as well one would assume by the trauma of of that entire event and do the rabis discuss that do they tell us that in some way he is affected by that what if and if they do then what effect do we see upon y the scene of the AR of it's father holding that knife over him ready to sacrifice him ready to offer him to aish so if you take a look at the second of the two paragraphs the effect you see inous the Torah says was when y was old and his eyes became weak literally from seeing so that's a strange language why does it mean from seeing the says the blindness was caused the med says by the vision of the a by what he saw at the and the angels tried when was bound on the Altar and those tears were stamped or embedded in his eyes and when he became old they caused him to be blind that's a fascinating me on the one hand again you can take a medish literally and and and there are those who do or you can take a medish and look at what it's trying to teach the key issue with the medish is not its literal truth the key issue with the medish is what are the rabbis trying to convey through this medish through this study and I would argue that one way to look at the medish is to say that he was he was traumatized by the event and that that affected a number of things in his life that were then marked by that event or shaped by that event in terms of how he dealt with circumstances around him or how he was told to deal with circumstances around it for example take a look at the last paragraph on page one there was another famine in the land aside from the first famine which forced Abraham to go down to MIT [Applause] by he went to so what happens is is trying to do what his father did he is going down through through ab's territory he's going down to where to Egypt to MIT says no not for you you have to stay and and Y becomes the only one of the Patriarchs who stays his entire life in the land of Canan in the land of Israel he doesn't believe and yet at the same time Hashem says let's remember what we said about the two words that are usually used for living somewhere me comfortably to live somewhere lur means what to to to temporarily or discomfort so even though he never leaves the land of Israel he's never completely comfortable where he is and one wonders whether it's the effect of the AA and the rashley actually says if you take a look at the second page don't go down to Egypt it was his intent to go to Egypt as his father did in the days of to dialogue I'm sorry that's me in the middle of teaching now sorry I don't no she's she uh does um she works today volunteer sure okay sure sorry about that let me just [Music] so so Hashem says the outside the land is not fit for you you're an you're you're a pure offering because you were on the M but one way to look at that and again I'm not suggesting that this is Rashi or the medish but one way to look at that is that y as a Survivor cannot live on promises he needs concrete he needs something real and therefore he cannot be forced to leave erit Canan with the promise of return he has to stay there he has to be there it must be concrete for him if you think of the survivors we know of the Shah the things they gravitate too very often and again I'm generalizing are the concrete and the real I remember for example being at the first survivors con conference in Washington and I am not a Survivor nor a child of survivors but I went as a rabbi and every time they we were we one of the things that that that that I remember so clearly is that we were in RFK Stadium and dignitaries dignitaries were speaking to us and every time the land of Israel or state of Israel was mentioned there was like a swell in the crowd and everybody stood up and and screamed and there was this sense that if you saw an IDF Soldier survivors couldn't couldn't believe that there were soldiers defending the land of Israel that and it was so important for them it was so important for us as a people to have that concrete land at the time that we did at the time after the show up so therefore a way to look at this is that y requires the concrete that also explains something we probably will talk about next week a little bit more in depth and that is y's gravitation towards which son he's gravitating towards strength he's gravitating towards the S he's gravitating towards the one it's not the one who's sitting and learning in the tents that that captures his heart it's the strength of the IDF Soldier it's the strength of asov that captures him and that may be as a result of the trauma of the AO that may be that he is the first first of the bound he's the first of the survivors he's the first one to to go through this kind of experience so therefore I write down here only patriarch NE can relationship to the land tentative nonetheless how might have affected his need to remain and we're suggesting it affected it by needing the concrete and I would add that also preference for ASA might well I didn't write that down but that might well be understood in that way as well what does tentative tentative means not tentative means not not he's he's not totally comfortable why is it tentative because he said he he can't the land is his says the land is yours he himself he himself feels ambig yes he feels why because it says G he never feels totally comfortable in the land why not why not because because again I don't we're postulating let's let's let's recognize that we're postulating but one could argue that perhaps as as someone who survived the trauma of the AO it's very hard for him to find full comfort in any one place any or outside of the land or outside of the land would have been worse but but also the I I think we have to understand the background that time of the Isaac he was surrounded or living among the Canaanites right he's not totally have a victory yet no he again we'll see we'll see how he deals with that a little while okay so so this is what I would suggest is Force number one force number one in understanding yits is to understand him as a survivor of the AO and to recognize some of the effect that the AO might have had upon him in terms of his relationship with those around him and in terms of his relationship with the land I'll take one question yes I I just feel that his name means laughter and yet he's like the MAA of of strength that's also interesting interesting yes one other um what about is maybe he had an impact on you maybe he did is have an impact on as well that very good and the sending away of Y 100% all right now there the second force that I want us to look at is is we're going to look at in in a longer and and deeper way and that is that yok is very much his father's son if you take a look at the first that's a very strange sentence right this is this this is these are the generations of Y the son of ab ab gave birth or birth y first of all the women here will will Rebel right because it wasn't was he did not carry it nor give birth to him but what does it mean AB Holi as so the answer seems to be one would argue that y was shaped very much by Abraham by who he was and by by his by his actions and we can look at a whole series of events that occur in y life that parallel the series of events that occurred in Abraham's life take a look at the list childlessness and the need to pray for a child two sons one of them Wayward famine when he goes to the land of the plishtim he he will ask his wife rria to say that she's his sister the way same way that did with SAR he will make I wrote Covenant with AB but we'll see that that's not necessarily the case but he does have have an interface with abiel that seems to be the same at face value is the one that his father had before him a generation earlier he digs Wells and his father dug Wells and he will dig the wells that his father dug call them by the name so what you have is a man who is going to live a life that in many ways parallels the life of and therefore abam holded as you to to underscore this and to make it even more powerful his relationship with God seems to be predicated upon the relationship that ab and had with look look again at what the Torah says the bottom of the page page the same section we're looking at the same section where tells him not to go to but we're looking at the end of that section turn to the next page says stay in this land I will be with you and with your generations and I'll give you all of these lands and I will fulfill the that I made to Abraham your father I'll make your children as numerous as as the Stars etc etc why will I do this because Abraham listen to me I'm I'm going what am I chop liver right in other words it seems that Hashem recognizes y's gravitation to Abraham and therefore is predicating all that he's promising to Y he's predicating it on Abraham and saying because Abram did X Y and Z and you you see Abraham this large figure in your life understand that you will be the Fulfillment or you will see the Fulfillment of his promise yes waying thatou not doing in other words even this [Music] the that Abram caused him to be which have problems and then he has to recover from that so you're saying that it's possible that because of the a he was traumatized and would not have followed ab's ways andem is is p is pushing him to do so right quickly quickly yes go ahead I think we've seen in other Frameworks of ideology that there's very strong Beginnings but how the question is how far is that going to be able to continue afterwards right and in a certain way that's what happened here we see he was he was injured and things like that but that allowed the the second generation think I'm going to come back to what you're saying I'm going to come back to what you're saying what you're talking about is continuity here okay even though it seemed like he was the opposite I'm still right let's continue okay okay yes I just want to continue that uh that point we talk in rough cook we talk about the father and the son I always as a similar thing where the father was one who wrote and the son was one who wrote it down and continued all right we're going to talk about that we're going to talk about y's unique place in in the the panoply of of of the tradition we'll see that in a minute yes no I would think would that a normal person should have resentment toward someone who was prepared to set Harbor resentment against Abra I would imagine he was normal he would but traa caused him to be not so normal we don't see again we're postulating we got to postulate carefully we're suggesting that he's affected by the by the AA that there may be many waves but we also see this this tendency on his part to relive the experiences of his father and we see the tendency on the part of a to predicate his promises on the Promises given to AB okay I'll take one more one more comment yes um I'm going to take issue with your choice of vocabulary not arguing with the idea y affirms the choices he chooses to live the life of and Hashem affirms his choice correct okay very good very good what you're suggesting is that this is an shows an affirmation of Abraham and hasem Echoes that affirmation in in his words take a look at a fascinating M and that is you see it next to last on page number three page number three m [Music] until Abraham's time there was no old age you just got old and dark but you stayed stayed young however what was happening was looked like his father so much that people who wanted to go to went to ABR and people who wanted to go to Abram went to so abam prayed for old age to allow there to be a distinction between him and his son all right now we ow it all to now but again take the medish literally or take it as is struggling to get out of the shadow of his father another words Y is struggling to get out of so now we can stop for a minute and and ask ourselves what is yock's unique challenge in this tradition what is he the first of he said he said he's the first of the bound but he's the first of something else to pass down the he is the first one to receive tradition not just from but from his parents right and that means that his challenge is the challenge of Missa his challeng is uniquely that of as you said very well continuity but I'm going to I'm going to challenge you guys for a second and ask you a question Define for me the word missa it's tradition down right what does it mean to would you say that the def I'll give you a definition the means to take from one generation and pass it down to the next is that is that the definition of m values all right all right yeah with your own variation ah there is a third step that that you're leaving out m means to receive from one generation to have it course through you and your life and your experience and then to hand it down so that each generation each individual each family everybody's making their contribution to the the panoply of tradition to the this great tradition that theil the fish is not written in the Torah right is not found in I'm choosing Foods other things what are we saying we are the products of that that which is unchanging but we are also the products of that which changes and as tradition courses through someone's life and as tradition courses through your family and you you are suddenly changing that tradition and handing it down to the Next Generation with your contributions and that's what it's struggling with here D doesn't shouldn't be just a mirror of his father's events it's shouldn't just be an affirmation of of of the tradition of Abraham yok should be someone who is making his own contribution to that tradition and and I believe that yok struggles to do that and we'll see now how that struggle emerges yes and that struggle is his contribution that's correct the idea of struggling is is is his contribution to the theor that is part of it that is part of it but we'll see that there may be more it may not just be the struggle it may be but the struggle creates take a look for example and and to underscore this just take a look at something very interesting tal talks about how each of the it's the last last uh section on page three how each of the Patriarchs referred to harabas referred to the mountain of the B and ab referred to it as a as a and as a bias all right and they base this on statements in the Torah goes out to or to talk or to talk to God in the field but each of these each of these symbols is symbolic of the unique challenge of that individual Aram is the one who climbs the mountain of faith he's the Pioneer y tills the field the yo build a bias he's the only one all of his children follow his ways so yov finally creates the home so the medish is telling you these these were the ways that they referred to the harabas but the medish is also suggesting I think that these are ways in which to look at their unique contributions to the process of Sol now turn the [Applause] page so do we see yok reaching his own potential finding making his own Mark so first of all you can see that he digs the wells and it says on p on Section number one he Reds the wells that his father dug and he calls them by the names that his father F so at that point he is still mirroring his father's or affirming his father's contribution now the wells by the way are both important in terms of of of the reality the concrete reality and also what they symbolize the reality is water is more important than oil in this in this area right water the fact that you find be May and you're digging Wells and you're trying to find water right we always wonder how is the keric what's happening is it is it full is it not so there's even though now we have other ways of creating palatable water salinization etc etc water remains very important at the same time there's a med medim say that the wells represent the B MC or represent other things so one way or the other he's digging the wells that his father dug and he's calling them by the names that his father called them then then at the end of that paragraph Digs at the end he digs his own way so therefore he's making his own Mark it's not just the copying of his father's or the affirming of his father's tradition but the wells he digs are his own as well but what I find Most Fascinating and and this has very much current application to our own experience as well is the contrast between how y deals with a and Abraham now we've had this before or some of you may not have been here so I want to review in Abraham's life he makes a bris a covenant with AB ABI the king of the Philistines the take a look at you'll see a summary not all not all the sentences it's a much longer section right they and his and the head of his army come and they say we see God is with you promise me you won't deal falsely with me or my son or like I've treated you well you should treat us and immediately says I will I I will swear I agree he then remonstrates but he goes on and if you look at the underlined section they they they make a covenant on the next page it is reiterated so yes ABR makes a covenant with and that Covenant is by the way seen in a very negative way by will remonstrate Abraham for it saying you never should have made the Covenant with the lights of some of you will remember that we learned the rashbam who said that the rashbam is a revolutionary approach to this the next event after this after this Covenant is and it says connects it to the the the rash says that the is partially a response to the bris you were you according to the the rasham God and says you you were willing to endanger your son by creating an intergenerational Covenant with lights of now I'm going to show you what it would feel like to lose that and the rash sees it as a as a course direction for in terms of his terms of his life and and sure enough in the in the in the next par Abra is much more focused on his own family and not on the world even though that's not a negation of his preaching to the world but it's a refocus on the importance of his family all right then now we come to a section in par toos and let's just read it and then we'll take a look at the questions and this is now on page five the second part of second paragraph Right comes from and he's coming now this is to coming to says why are you coming to me you hated me and you you expelled me you exiled me from your land saw that God is with you right where have we heard this before right seems that seems to be a paral this face value seems to be what a parallel event right once again to what happened to ABRA at face value it seems to be parallel we didn't hurt you we send you out in peace they make promises one to the other and sends them on their way all right now at face value you can read this 10 times and say this is what happened to AB same thing right the Covenant is created between ABI Miller but take a look at the next page the series of questions and then we'll come back to it again we'll look at at the paragraph again are these two events the same what word is missing in in G Scot's agreement how is his agreement more limited than his father's and disagree on the facts what is the nature of their disagreement how does handle their differences so those are the questions we're going to look at let's go back now to the paragraph So the first thing we see AA comes to you stuck and says now I want to make a covenant with you because God is with you so what's the first thing we see exactly the Covenant that was made with aam was supposed to be intergenerational if there's supposed to be an intergenerational Covenant why do I have to make another Covenant now because obviously that intergenerational Covenant did not hold right and the way in which they treated yo did not reflect right that RIS okay so says says have you come to me and you hated me and you sent me from you so first of all you see that there is a limitation here they are not not asking for an intergenerational Cen they're saying let there be an agreement between us a covenant between us because I guess the inter they have to acknowledge that the intergenerationality didn't work so so you can't say we're going to do that if it doesn't if it doesn't work but now I'll ask you a question look at it carefully do a and disagree on the facts or not I think they disagree on the terminology they disagree on the terminology okay it's very clear with but do they disagree on the facts no doesn't seem like no the facts are clear y said you sent me away and they say we sent you away right they both agree they agree there there is a full agreement here as to the facts what is the disagreement about the interpretation of those facts what those facts mean right says you hated me and you and you sent me away what do they say don't do evil to us like we did not touch you or harm you and we only did good to you and we sent you away in peace sounds like if we hated you we would have what we would have killed you what do you mean we love you we love you huh yes I it seems to be C Abraham was was basically based on the fact that that ab's son yot would have the same the same status as his father did and at this this was a trial period and he did not know that Aram was successful no matter what and every became obvious to everybody that he was he was very special person but but know that was going to be that right so he sent them away to see if he if he's special we'll find out he's special all right interesting in other words you're saying that it was a trial period to see see how gets is is seen I I see it a bit differently I see it as they are saying we agree on the facts we just disagree on one thing what is the definition of Peace that's that's what we disagree on according to PE is I don't kill you right according to peace is we peace right we can live together so you are you are talking totally different you're speaking totally different languages here in other words I'm I'm talking about in one world and you're talking in another world because we just don't we we don't see eye to eye we don't see eye to eye we did not we did not hurt you we loved you you sent me away you hate me two two two very different interpretations of the same fact it's almost like a current situation well isra always want Co things don't change right what how how do we view peace how does Egypt view peace how do we view peace how does Jordan view peace right what what what is what is the definition of peace they want a piece of us all right all right so what what happens when is confronted with this disparity between his interpretation of the facts and their interpretation what does he do look at the very next person he stops talking right negotiations are over right and he makes a party right so in other words accepts it but he doesn't he doesn't he doesn't that he doesn't continue the negotiation he does he let's remember he's also in a very dangerous situation he's got these guys are here you know he's got to so he says I can't continue to negotiate with them because there's nothing to negotiate we're living in two different worlds so instead of trying to negotiate what I'm going to do is I'm going to make believe it's all okay and I and I'll throw a party and what word is absent here that is found in the in in ab's case there is no Covenant they ask for it they ask for it that they they say they ask him for a bris they ask him for a covenant but at no point at the end of this event does it say it does by Abram because there is no comant is too smart for that so here you see y emerging from Abraham sh here's I believe is the case most clearly where you see itot making his own Mark and saying I'm not going to fall into the same trap that my father fell into and I'm I'm going to recognize who I'm dealing with and the irony comes about in the last [Applause] [Music] puzzle she they ask that's where they're asking for that's right that's that's where they're saying let there be a covenant but nowhere does it say that a covenant sign in the case right they asked for it but there's no commen right so therefore they make these promises between each other not a bris not a covenant and a covenant is much stronger and then what happens wait what's the point of the party I don't get it point of the party is to diffuse tens tension diffuse tensions to take take your attention away from the negotiations to just enjoy to say wow what a wonderful thing it is to have our ourselves together whatever it is it's to it's to it's it's to celebrate what you're not you're celebrating nothing end with the word Shalom and then sent them away well this look at shal I look look out at the irony the irony is what does he do exactly he does exactly what they did to him right and he does it balom according to their definition of Peace so in other words he's basically saying connected with them I I right I'm not I have my boundaries I'm not going to be totally intertwined with them I'm sending them away from me just like they sent me away from them right and I'm sending them away balom according to their definition of peace right so it's brilliant it's suddenly you see if you take a look at the Torah text it's brilliant how the nuances change the whole story this is not Abraham's this is not Abraham's Covenant this is much more limiting and and it is a recognition of the limitation of the relationship and and by the way you do not find kazal criticizing the way they criticize Abraham when it comes to this this this interchange because they understand that this is not an intergenerational relationship it's not a bris it's not a covenant and he's limited yes I mean to put it plainly it's a it's an episode of negotiation without a treaty that's correct that's correct it's an episode of negotiation without a treaty but he's got to sort of hide that from them somehow and that's the Mish yes so what do you make of the fact that it says that they swore one another it means that they made they made agreements that that but a verbal agreement which is useless they made agreements they they promised we won't we won't harm you you won't do any but but they make no a bris a covenant is a is a is a is a statement as a relationship between us the two of us are are together that friends that we're going to none of that it's basically similar because what you're saying is that with the episode of Abraham there was this Covenant when y they came to Y they broke they didn't abide by the they didn't abide by the Covenant so he's not he's not going to be foly again that's correct that's correct he's learning from his father's error as it were it seems and at least the error that kazal say it was say was an error and and he himself is saying I'm not going to be pulled into the same or ass that that yeah sorry one more comment but so what is the relationship between theob with the therea because they kind of see disappear from the story basically that's it in other words it seems that that this this this dis agreement solidifies the their separate lives their separate being they're not they're not going they're not intertwined the way the way they might have been if there was a real RIS well so yes didn't go to them and say look my father made Ace with you and includes me and look what you're doing in a sense he in a sense he does in the very the first thing he does as soon as they come to him he doesn't refer back to to AB he says but what are you coming to me for yeah but they every time he dug the will they claimed it was theirs that's right so he didn't invoke the Covenant that uh he's not invoking it he basically is saying what are you coming to me for you you treated me poorly you treated me maybe saying he sent them away completely that's correct their definition in their definition of Peace which is which is a relationship that that does not exist yes let me make sure I'm not offending any historical or polic of state of Israel but I feel like this situation is almost like remind us current situation just before the Hamas attack Israel Abraham Accord was almost fulfilled ironically the name of the the agreement was Abraham's Accord now because of the jealousy of the Hamas Israel actually going war and still in the war all right so there's no agreement there's no there's no that's for sure that's for sure in other words in other words what do we learn from here we learn from here that you have to know your enemy right that you have to know your enemy and that if your enemy is such that you have that your language your your the world in which you live is totally different from the world in which they live then you cannot create a covenant you cannot create an agreement you're not going to be able to that that can't be done all right I one more comment and okay so let's let's just briefly review We we've looked at Y and we we're trying to find a picture of this of this patriarch who serves as the continuity is the first one who has the challenge of Miss Sora the first one who has the challenge of tradition in Jewish thought the first one who receives from one generation it courses through him and it goes through the next we've learned that the definition of m requires that third step that's probably one of the most important things that I'm teaching today that when it comes to M it's not just taking and handing down it's taking making it your own and handling with that and therefore the S includes that third step we've seen y struggling to emerge from outside of the shadow of his of his father we see him repeating all the same same events we also spoke about how the ARA might have had an effect upon him so these are all we're postulate we're postulate but finally the last section is not postulate the last section we we really see a fascinating difference between the way deals with and the way deal and we see that yock is is able capable to understand his enemy and therefore more more able to limit the agreements he makes with them send them away saying you you your that's your definition of Peace well that let that be the definition definition of peace between us and and he goes on we're going to take a look next next week eem at again but we're going to look at in particular in the way in which he deals with the to to ASA and what what happens with that whole that whole event there are a series of questions which for homework you might think about and and that is what's what's what does the braa represent and Rifka wants yanov to get this even though he know even though in a way she wants him to masquerade his ASA so that jaob will will think he's blessing and and actually B what what's the meaning of a br given an error why is that why is it just because I I say something I don't I think you're a different child and I say it then then that there there's so much to talk about in that story so so hopefully we we'll have a chance to take a look of that all right one last uh piece of housekeeping um we're we're starting to move into the P off season I bought two copy brought two copies of a ha and I you know I edited and wrote which is for sale if you are interested please take a look at that at it and uh let me know and I'll make sure that you get