Toldot: Isaac’s lessons about inheriting a business and passing it on

Before our founder stepped back, we mapped every relationship they held. Only some survived the departure.

Torah interpretations through the Bridge6 leadership model
Parashat Toldot · Genesis 25:23, 26:1-33 and 27:1 to 28:4

This Shabbat we read Parashat Toldot, another portion thick with meaning and relevance for partnerships, family businesses, and leadership. Toldot is perhaps most famous for the stew and the stolen blessing, but I am more interested in how Isaac handles inherited behaviors and partnerships, and how he deals with succession. Isaac comes up against many of the situations his father faced, a famine, a trip to Gerar, a wife introduced as a sister, interactions with Abimelech, a dispute over wells, and an oath at Beersheba.

In Vayera, we already dealt with Abimelech and Beersheba but now we have a similar story with Abraham’s son, Isaac, and the lessons are not the same. This situational repetition intrigues me, especially because although we are revisiting stories, we are drawing different conclusions.

In Toldot, famine comes to Canaan again but God tells Isaac to stay put, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land that I point out to you. Reside in this land, and I will be with you and bless you” (Genesis 26:2-3). Abraham ha-Ivri is the one who crosses over, but Isaac, the second generation, stays to tend the promised land and reaps “a hundredfold the same year” (Genesis 26:12).

Isaac goes to Gerar, to Abimelech, perhaps the same Abimelech from Vayera, perhaps a descendant, and stays there. Like his father and for the same reasons of mistrust, Isaac plays the wife is actually my sister trick. Abimelech discovers the deception and is incensed: “What have you done to us!” (Genesis 26:10). Repeating the behavior of his father is also an inheritance but of habit, not of physical assets. Isaac grows so rich that the Philistines envy him and stop up the wells Abraham’s servants had dug. Abimelech tells him to leave: “you have become far too big for us” (Genesis 26:16). Isaac moves on, digs his father’s wells again and gives them the same names his father used (Genesis 26:18), a renewal of the founder’s work and a mark of respect.

After Abraham’s death (Genesis 26:18), the wells were stopped up, implying that the partnership formed at Beersheba didn’t survive the founder. As Isaac moves on, two more wells come under dispute from the herdsmen of Gerar. The first he names Esek, contention, the second Sitnah, enmity, but the third one escapes argument and is named Rehoboth, room: “Now at last GOD has granted us ample space” (Genesis 26:20-22).

After Isaac pays his respects at Beersheba, the place of the original agreement, Abimelech returns with his councilor and general. Isaac, again in the manner of his father, speaks first and puts the grievance on the table: “Why have you come to me, seeing that you have been hostile to me and have driven me away from you?” (Genesis 26:27). Abimelech replies: “We now see plainly that GOD has been with you” (Genesis 26:28) and then offers his version of the story, “we have not molested you but have always dealt kindly with you and sent you away in peace” (Genesis 26:29). Isaac doesn’t argue. They feast, exchange oaths, and part “in peace” (Genesis 26:30-31). The same day his servants find water at Beersheba again (Genesis 26:32-33). The lesson here is that relationships need to be renewed by each generation, and here the price is letting Abimelech save face with his own version of the story.

In an organization where I was in a leadership role, the founder was still present when they began to step back. The leadership team, the founder included, did a comprehensive audit of all the important relationships the founder was holding, and of the ones that had lapsed, and held a strategy session on how to keep the important connections and revive the lapsed ones. The process was well received, and it was also hard for the founder, who had mixed feelings about giving away relationships they had cultivated and about talking through the ones that had gone astray. This was brave and responsible of the founder.

What came out of it was a clear view of which of the founder’s relationships mattered to the business, and some ideas for reviving relationships that had not been a priority for the founder but could be useful. After the founder left, we built good relationships with contacts that had never worked for the founder. One was with a client the founder had not connected with, who became a solid partner. But some relationships didn’t survive the founder’s exit. For example, a funder who had a more personal relationship with the founder didn’t stay with us.

While Isaac handled the external relationships well, he wasn’t able to do the same internally. With Abimelech, Isaac puts his cards on the table with the relevant stakeholders. But at home, he conducts an exclusive, bilateral meeting with Esau to bestow his only blessing. A secret succession plan. Rebekah was not on board with this plan. Before her sons were born, she alone was told that “the older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). What Isaac doesn’t know is that Rebekah overhears him, “Rebekah had been listening” (Genesis 27:5), and pulls a fast one on him to get her preferred successor, Jacob, into the spot for Isaac’s blessing. Rebekah removes Isaac’s agency by using her own and takes on the responsibility for what may come, “Your curse, my son, be upon me!” (Genesis 27:13). Isaac and Rebekah never discuss the succession.

As Isaac is being deceived by Jacob, he remarks that something seems wrong. “The voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau” (Genesis 27:22). Isaac asks a second time, “Are you really my son Esau?” (Genesis 27:24), but offers the blessing in spite of his uncertainty. This is what I call Presence: being awake to the room, including yourself, and able to act on what you notice before you can fully explain why. Isaac had the awareness, but he didn’t act on it.

When the deception is revealed by Esau’s arrival, Isaac’s response is to let the blessing stand, “now he must remain blessed!” (Genesis 27:33). It is also revealed that Isaac’s succession was built for only one son. “Have you but one blessing?” Esau cries (Genesis 27:38). Before Jacob goes away to his mother’s people to find a wife, Isaac blesses him again, this time knowingly, with “the blessing of Abraham” (Genesis 28:3-4). Isaac here decides to own the result and support the future of the family with this last blessing. This is a fascinating lesson, perhaps also a tacit acknowledgment of the sense of Rebekah’s choice.

Looking back at the agreements in Toldot, we can see that Isaac’s renegotiation with Abimelech was successful because of the transparency about the grievance. The succession at home failed because of secrecy. These are two different approaches by the same man. The conversation we had with our founder in the room was the conversation that Isaac never had with his family. This situation speaks to two pillars of the model: Regeneration – how what one generation builds is passed on; and Fluency – the ability to read and communicate across difference, including across a marriage.

If your founder, CEO, or even department head stepped away tomorrow, which relationships would leave too?

Leadership lessons from Toldot

1. Successors don’t only inherit assets, but behaviors and habits as well. Isaac got Abraham’s wells, but he also got his fallback in Gerar and his way of negotiating.
2. Make sure to map a founder’s or leader’s relationships before they leave, with them in the room. The oath between Abraham and Abimelech didn’t survive Abraham’s death (Genesis 26:15-18). The audit we performed at my organization ensured we knew which relationships mattered before our founder exited.
3. Not every relationship transfers to a successor, and some will thrive that never did before. The first two wells, Esek and Sitnah, were given up, but the third, Rehoboth, was new and successful ground. After our founder exited, some relationships ended and others blossomed.
4. Before renewing agreements, name the sticking points and disagreements. Just like his father, Isaac spoke the hard truths first (Genesis 26:27).
5. Succession plans made in secret beget counter-plans made in secret. Isaac spoke to Esau alone, but Rebekah heard and acted with a different intention (Genesis 27:4-5).
6. Trust yourself and the voice telling you something is off. “The voice is the voice of Jacob” (Genesis 27:22).
7. A leader can own an outcome they didn’t choose. “Now he must remain blessed!” (Genesis 27:33).