In R. Aharon Lichtenstein’s 2000 Sicha for Parashat VaYeitze, “Yaakov’s Demands of Himself” (Vayetze | Yaakov’s Demands of Himself | Yeshivat Har Etzion ), he begins by citing a verse from the Parashat HaShuvua describing the conditions under which he shepherded his father-in-law, Lavan’s, sheep, and a Gemora that explains it:

Beraishit 31:40

Often, scorching heat ravaged me by day and frost by night; and sleep fled from my eyes. Continue reading →

In R. Jonathan Sacks’ 2014 essay for Parashat Toldot, “Communication Matters” (Covenant & Conversation | Toldot | Communication Matters | Rabbi Sacks | הרב זקס), he notes that according to NeTzIV’s view, rivka never got over a sense of intimidation when she first saw Yitzchak:

HaEmek Davar on Beraishit 24:64-5 “64  Raising her eyes, Rebekah saw Isaac. She alighted from the camel. 65 And said to the servant, ‘Who is that man walking in the field toward us?’ And the servant said, ‘That is my master.’ So she took her veil and covered herself.” Continue reading →

In R. Amnon Bazak’s sixth essay for Parashat Toldot, “Kocha Shel Ahava” (Nekudat Peticha: Iyunim Ketzarim BePeshuta Shel Parashat HaShavua, [revised and expanded], Yediot Acharonot, Rishon LeTziyon, 2018, pp. 67-8), he wonders why the story of Yishmael’s wives is “bookended,” before (Beraishit 26:34-5) and after (Ibid. 28:6-7) the blessings that Yitzchak gives his sons:

Ibid. 26:34-5; 27:1-46; 28:1-7

34 When Esau was forty years old, he took to wife, Yehudit daughter of Be’eri the Hittite, and Basmat daughter of Eilon the Hittite; 35 And they were a source of bitterness to Yitzchak and Rivka. Continue reading →

In Sivan Rahav-Meir’s 2021 essay for Parashat Toldot, “A Salute to Those Who Persevere” (BaltimoreJewishLife.com | Sivan Rahav-Meir / The Daily Portion, Toldot / A salute to those who persevere), she characterizes the life of Yitzchak, whom the Parashat HaShavua focuses upon, as “quiet” and “dedicated” when he carries out Avraham’s innovations

…Avraham was a revolutionary, who rebelled against all the conventional wisdom of his day, and laid the foundations of Judaism.

(Obviously, Avraham’s major preoccupation and contribution lay in his opposition to idolatry and the spreading monotheism throughout Canaan:

Beraishit 12:7 “…And he (Avraham) built an altar there to HaShem Who had Appeared to him.”

Ibid. 8 “…And he built there an altar to HaShem and invoked HaShem by Name.

Ibid. 13:4 “The site of the altar that he had built there at first; and there Avram invoked HaShem by Name.”

Ibid. 18 “… And he built an altar there to HaShem.”

RaShI on Ibid. 18:4 “ורחצו רגליכם AND WASH YOUR FEET — He thought they were Arabians who worship the dust of their feet, and he was particular not to have the object of idolatrous worship brought into his house (Bava Metzia 86b)…”

RaShI on Ibid. 21:33 “’ויקרא שם וגו AND HE CALLED THERE etc. — Through this Eshel the name of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, was called “God of the entire Universe”. For after they had eaten and drunk, he [Avraham] said to them, “Bless Him of Whose Possessions you have eaten! Do you think that you have eaten of what is mine? You have eaten of that which belongs to Him Who Spake and the Universe came into existence” (Sotah 10a).)

Yitzchak did not rebel and yet, it could be said, to continue in the path of your father, as Yitzchak did, is the biggest rebellion of all…

(therefore, the case of Yitzchak resembles “negative conformity,” whereby the need not to conform is as big a variable as the need to conform!)

We read how Yitzchak confronts the same challenges his father faced, how he digs the same wells,

(Ibid. 26:15-22)

hears the same Promises from God,

(Ibid. 24)

(Yitzchak even emulates Avraham’s efforts to spread monotheism:

Ibid. 25

So he built an altar there and invoked HaShem by Name…) 

and yet all of this ultimately elicits our admiration. Without Yitzchak and his dedication and commitment, Avraham would have just been a one-time phenomenon with no residual effect.

Rahav-Meir therefore extolls Yitzchak’s consolidation of his father’s achievements, something that no one else, including Yaakov, seems predisposed to do. Human nature is such that innovators are given the credit, as well they should be, for changing the course of history. However, were they not surrounded by acolytes and followers, their contributions would “evaporate like the dew in the morning sunlight” (an analogy shared with me in private by R. Soloveitchik, regarding the necessity to ground all teaching in as many sources as are available.)

Rahav-Meir writes:

…Without consistency, determination, and depth, it’s impossible to build anything that lasts.

While she advocates the statement in Mechilta D’Rabbi Yishmael 19:5 “Kol HaHatchalot Kashot” (all beginnings are difficult,)

(The source of this statement is the following:

Shemot 19:5 “Now, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples. Indeed, all the earth is Mine,

RaShI

NOW — if you will now take upon yourselves the observance of My Commandments, it will be pleasant to you from now and henceforth, for every beginning is difficult (Mekhilta d’Rabbi Yishmael 19:5.)) 

she also comments:

Yet all continuations are difficult, too, and those who came after the trail-blazers earn much less praise…

Discussion.

During the course of her presentation, Rahav-Meir makes the following comment:

…Yitzchak(’s example) is relevant to 1) the education of our children, 2) to marriage, and 3) to every other area of life…

Concerning a child’s education, it is obvious that switching schools every year is not in the child’s best interests. But one could make the case that a student would be better off studying from the same teacher rather than switching every year, let alone following a departmental system in the upper grades. While it becomes increasingly difficult to find educators well-versed in several, let alone every subject, will the students also be drawn to specialization earlier than they should, favoring the subject of a teacher they consider their “friend” in contrast to other instructors? I recall when a teacher who I had during the summer and didn’t respect, wanted me to participate in his regular class. I was conflicted, askes a Shaila, and was told when it came to learning, one had to be selfish. Hmmmm.

As far as marriage goes, “serial infidelity,” whether by divorce or affair, is not a good way to strengthen marriage vows, neither for the participants, nor their offspring. However, errors are made when people pair off, particularly at younger ages, and sometimes matches have to be dissolved in order to allow an individual to find someone more fitting. Remaining in a loveless marriage for the sake of appearances or children makes no sense; on the other hand, there is something to be said about consistency and devotion. We all know of more-successful and less-successful unions. How incongruities are resolved is an interesting issue, with debate continuing through the present day.

With regard to “every other area of life,” many examples come to mind:

a) learning how to play a new game or sport.

b) adjusting to a new community following a move.

c) incorporating how to use a new technology or media development into one’s life.

d) getting used to the setup in a store in which one has not shopped previously.

e) etc.

In terms of “education” and “marriage,” I see that I discuss continuation, whereas in the third category, I am concerned with dealing with situations that are likely not to have been previously experienced. It is possible that this is a function of how advanced education has fallen into disfavor with the young, and the precipitous rise of single-adult living conditions in the U.S.

But then again, perhaps this is indicative of the rapid changes that our society is undergoing. I remember reading the anthropologist Margaret Mead writing that in the past, in the South Sea Islands, a grandparent could tell a grandchild how that person would spend all of his days. However, with things evolving as rapidly as they have, this is no longer the case, and if anything, today it is the grandchild instructing the grandparent re how to navigate the society that surrounds them.  Anyone who is my age and has struggled with technological advances can readily attest to the truth of her words.

In R. Moshe Kormornick’s first essay for Parashat Toldot (Short Vort: Short and Inspiring Divrei Tora for Every Parasha, Yom Tov and Special Occasion, Adir Press, 2013, pp. 22-4), he cites a question that R. Chaim Sonnenfeld (Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld – Wikipedia) was asked regarding the Parashat HaShavua. In light of the following verse:

Berisha 25:21

Yitzchak pleaded (VaYetar) with HaShem on behalf of his wife (Rivka,) because she was barren; and HaShem Responded (VaYei’aser) to his plea, and his wife Rivka conceived. Continue reading →

In r. David Silverberg’s Sunday 2019 essay for Parashat Toldot (SALT – Parashat Toldot 5780 / 2019 | Yeshivat Har Etzion), he notes that the prayer “VeYitain LeCha,” recited on Motzoai Shabbat at the end of Ma’ariv, begins with the blessing that Yaakov illegally obtained from his father Yitzchak, when Yaakov pretended to be his older twin brother:

Beraishit 27:28-9

28 May God Give you of the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth, abundance of new grain and wine. 29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow to you; be master over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow to you. Cursed be they who curse you, blessed they who bless you. Continue reading →

In his 1995 Sicha for Parashat Toldot, “And Yitzchak Loved Eisav” (Toldot | “And Yitzchak Loved Esav” e| Yeshivat Har Etzion), R. Yehuda Amital speculates why Yitzchak preferred Eisav over his twin brother Eisav.

Interpreting a verse in the Parashat HaShavua:

Beraishit 25:b27

And the boys grew up, and Eisav became a cunning hunter, a man of the field, while Yaakov was a simple man who dwelled in tents. Continue reading →

In r. Jonathan Sacks’ 2008 presentation for Parashat Chayei Sara, ‘’Isaac and Prayer” (Covenant & Conversation | Chayei Sarah | Isaac and Prayer | Rabbi Sacks | הרב זקס ), although the Parasha is devoted in detail to finding a wife for Yitzchak, he only appears at the end of Beraishit 24, in what R. Sacks refers to as “a fitting image”:

Ibid. 64

And Yitzchak went out walking in the field toward evening… Continue reading →

In R. Amnon Bazak’s fourth essay for Parashat Chayei Sara, “ ‘What If the Woman Does Not Consent to Follow Me to This Land?’” (Nekudat Peticha: Iyunim Ketzarim BePeshuta Shel Parashat HaShavua, [revised and expanded], Yediot Acharonot, Rishon LeTziyon, 2018, pp. 56-8), while he at first discusses the major repetitions in Beraishit 24 between what happens in real time, and the account of the servant to Rebecca’s family, he devotes his attention to the differences between the interchange between Avraham and his servant at the beginning of the chapter, and what the servant tells, and doesn’t, tell Rivka’s family about this conversation later on: Continue reading →

In the first part of Sivan Rahav-Meir’s 2000 presentation for Parashat Chayei Sara, “A Big Shidduch Depends on Little Things,” (A Big Shidduch Depends on Little Things – The Weekly Shiur – Parashat Chayei Sarah 5780 ⋆ Sivan Rahav-Meir (sivanrahavmeir.com)) she discusses the comparison of angels and human beings. Usually, the fact that three different angels, instead of a single one, had to be sent to Avraham and Sara, because a single angel can only achieve one mission at a time, while human beings are able to “multitask,” is emphasized. But instead of this being considered an advantage of people over angels, it is viewed as a detriment! Continue reading →