Israel At War 5785: Toldot – Abraham and Isaac, Gevurah and Chesed

Isaac could not have been more different from his father, Abraham.

Where Abraham was forceful, Isaac was passive. The Torah recounts many conversations between Abraham and Hashem. Abraham is an active participant in dialogue, even arguing with G-d over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. But the Torah records not one conversation Isaac had with G-d.

Abraham focused laser-like on his G-d-given mission to the exclusion of other considerations. At times, this could make him insensitive to the needs of those around him. When Sarah was barren, he said to Hashem “…what will You give me, and I go childless…Since You have granted me no offspring…” (Genesis 15:2, 3).

But Isaac, also childless, prayed not for his but for his wife’s sake, putting her needs before his own: “And Isaac entreated Hashem on behalf of his wife…” (Genesis 25:21).

At G-d’s command, Abraham first cast out Ishmael, then hastened to sacrifice Isaac. But Isaac, even though he was not happy with Esau’s choice to marry Hittite women, loved him so much that he planned to give him his blessing. When it was revealed that he had mistakenly given it to Jacob, he felt Esau’s rage and hurt. While Isaac could not reassign the original blessing, he came up with one for Esau.

Abraham showed little flexibility in the face of circumstance. He flatly refused to send Isaac back to the land of his family for a wife, insisting that he remain in the land promised his descendants by G-d, even though his servant suggested a kinswoman might not agree leave her home. But Isaac did not hesitate to send Jacob away from Canaan to Paddan-Aram to find a wife.

The Jewish mystical philosophy called Kabbalah posits ten sefirot, or emanations, that correspond to the qualities of G-d. Most of the sefirot are arranged as paired opposites, two of which are gevurah, or strength, and chesed, kindness. It would seem that Abraham represented gevurah while Isaac represented chesed. Kabbalah holds that the paired opposites are both needed for order and harmony. If one side of the pair dominates, destruction is the result.

Strength untempered by mercy results in cruelty. But mercy without backbone permits cruelty to run rampant. Evidently patriarchs representing both qualities were necessary to the birth of the Jewish people.

The greatest challenge the leaders of reborn Israel have always had is balancing strength and kindness. Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974, famously said, “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.” She also said: “A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.”

But in the current war, the balance between strength and kindness is not only about how we treat our enemies. Israel has walked a fine line, attempting to protect civilians while raining destruction on Hamas and Hezbollah, facilitating humanitarian aid while fighting an existential war. But Israel must also balance destroying Hamas with the fate of many hostages. The Israeli public has been crying out to its leaders with conflicting messages. Some urge freeing the hostages at any price, even that of releasing thousands of terrorists. Others say this would not only render the deaths of soldiers in vain, but guarantee more massacres and hostages in the future.

Never in the country’s history has the balance between kindness and strength been so fraught with difficult choices. Jacob was sent to Paddan-Aram to escape his brother’s wrath. In the balance was the future of the Jewish people, with one brother marrying Hittites and the other perhaps fated to never return to the Promised Land. How would the promise now be fulfilled? The way forward was shrouded in darkness and uncertainty, as Israel’s way forward is now. We know how our ancestors’ story turned out. What we don’t know is how this current tale will end. But the knowledge that G-d’s plan was ultimately fulfilled can give us faith today in an unknown future. May Israel’s leaders be guided by both gevurah and chesed in this trial and those to come.