Unveiling the real Isaac
Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. But to Abraham’s concubines’ children he gave gifts ….(Gen 25:6)
The problem arising from this verse smacks us in the face. If Abraham gave “all that he had” to Isaac, what did he have left for his children not born from Sarah?
To attempt to answer this question, let us go back a few verses to the denouement of Eliezer’s wife-finding mission in our Sidra. Isaac was just coming from a place called Be’er laChai Ro’i when Rivka first set eyes on him.
Our mental picture of Isaac derived from the vignettes featuring him that we see in the Torah is that of a man whose destiny is fashioned not by his own actions but by those of others. On the wrong end of malevolent fraternal bullying in his youth, a passive accomplice to his own near-martyrdom at the Akeda, an unwitting victim of Philistine envy of his G-D-given largesse in Gerar, helpless in the face of a plot to change the course of his paternal blessings, Isaac appears the epitome of passivity, a quiet, introspective soul sandwiched generationally in between two dynamic giants
However, an extraordinary Midrash (cited by Rashi) relating to his visit to Be’er laChai Ro’i may cause us to revisit this evaluation of our ‘passive’ forefather, Isaac.
The Midrash seeks to uncover the answer to an obvious question: What was Isaac doing in Be’er laChai Ro’i? After all, he had absolutely no inkling that he would meet his bashert just at that location!
The answer becomes clearer when we recall the origin of its name. When Hagar first flees from her mistress Sarah she encounters an angel at a wellspring who promises her a son whom she is to call Ishmael “for G-D has heard your prayer” (Gen 16:11). Spiritually exalted by the vision, Hagar declares “You, G-D are a G-D Who sees me!” (v.13). Hagar is entranced by the sudden epiphany that G-D is not just accessible in certain ‘sacred domains’ such as in the house of Abraham and Sarah but is there constantly. Therefore, continues the Torah, the name of the place was called (in tribute to Hagar) Be’er LaChai Ro’i – “the wellspring of the Living One who constantly sees me” (v.14).
From there it is but a short step for the Midrash to elucidate the reason for Isaac’s appearance at this spot. He was there looking for its most celebrated resident and “founder” – Hagar herself!.
Why should Isaac be looking for his stepmother, the mother of his childhood nemesis Ishmael? The Midrash gives the most unexpected yet most logical answer. Isaac wished to bring Hagar back to his widowed father Abraham in order that they should reunite!
By all accounts, this was a generous and selfless filial gesture. Isaac senses Abraham’s loneliness following Sarah’s passing and goes to find the woman who was the mother of the tormentor of his youth, but also his half-brother and possible rival for his father’s inheritance.
There is more. Isaac must have known that if Abraham remarried, there was a likelihood that more children would be born. Were this to happen, this could potentially decimate the inheritance! We all know of cases (unfortunately it is the norm) where children selfishly oppose their parent remarrying following widowhood because it will affect the size of their yerusha..
Not Isaac! The patriarch whom we already knew as the exemplar of the trait of gevura, strength, willpower and self-mastery but only in a passive sense, is now unveiled as driven, determined to secure his father’s happiness in his old age even to his own potential detriment.
As a result, the bond of love between Abraham and Isaac would assuredly have deepened even further in the former’s final years. And, having ‘paid off’ the children of the concubines with gifts he had received from others and from which he wished to receive no benefit (Rashi), Abraham “left all that he had” – all that was truly his – to Isaac, his worthy heir.