From:                                   JoshHoff@aol.com

Sent:                                    Friday, November 28, 2008 5:59 AM

To:                                        JoshHoff@aol.com

Subject:                                Netvort:parshas Toldos,5769

 

                                                   Life Begins at Forty
                        By Rabbi Joshua ( generationally known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

 

In honor of my cousins,Michael and Sarita ( nee Shapira) Moss, on the occasion of their fortieth wedding anniversary, which occurs today, Friday, November 28. May they enjoy many more years together in happiness and good health. 

 


This week's parsha begins by telling us," These are the generations of Yitzchak,son of Avraham; Avraham , begat Yitzhak. And Yitzchak was forty years old when he took Rivkah daughter of Besuel the Aramean of Padan-aram sister of Lavan the Aramean  as a wife for himself (Bereishis,25:19-20).Several questions arise in trying to understand these two verses,First,why does the Torah add the seemingly redundant statement that "Avraham begat Yitzchak,' after it just referred to Yitzcahk as the son of Avraham? Second,why doesn't the Torah immediately tell us who Yitzchak's children were after the first verse, rather than interrupting with mentioning his marriage  to Rivkah, and then the couples'  inability, for many years, to have children,and their prayers to God to remedy that situation,until,finally,in verses 24 and 25, it does finally mention the birth of Yakov and Eisav? Finally,why does the Torah tell us that Yakov was forty years old when he married Yitzchak? Why is that information important?.Rashi, Ramban,and other classical commentators deal with some or all of these questions, each commentator accounting for the various difficulties with a number of different factors. However,I would like to apply one central idea that we mentioned in last week's message to answer all of the questions by explaining them as reflecting  one basic underlying factor.

 


We mentioned last week Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik's idea that the patriarchs and matriarchs acted as teams, and,for that reason,after the death of Sarah,the Torah tells us very little about Avraham's life,beyond his arrangement,through his servant Eliezer,of the marriage of Yitzchak, even though he lived for almost sixty more years after Sarah's death..The Ramban says that the patriarchs were active in developing the collective character of the Jewish nation,and we explained,on that basis that,according to Rabbi Soloveitchik,they only did so in conjunction with their wives.Thus,when Avraham married Keturah after Sarah's death,the children born to them were not included in he ranks of the Jewish nation,and Avraham eventually sent them away to the land of the east,as the Torah tells us( Bereishis,25:6). Because Avraham understood that,in order to continue the process of the development of the collective character of the nation Yitzchak would need to marry Avraham charged Eliezer with finding him a wife. Based on this notion,we can now answer the questions we asked on the opening verses of parshas Toldos.

 


The Torah repeats the fact that Avraham begat Yitzchak,it seems,in order to emphasize the role that both of them played in developing the collective nature of the Jewish nation. Avraham,we are told, begat Yitzchak,passed over that mission to him once Sarah died, In order for Yitzchak to carry on that work,however,he needed to get married,and,therefore,the Torah immediately tells us that he was forty when he married Rivkah,because that is when his life as a link in the chain of the development of the collective character of the Jewish nation,in conjunction with his wife,really began,The Torah then tells us of the difficulty that the couple had in giving birth to children,because that played a role in their emerging relationship, and the ultimate manner in which the blessings would be  given over to Yakov, which in turn determined the manner in which Yakov married his two wives,with whom he would carry on the development of the nation into the next generation..Thus,a sensitivity to the role that the patriarchs and matriarchs played,as teams,in the development of the collective character of the Jewish nation can help us understand the opening verses of this week's parsha,as well as the events that the Torah goes on to relate. 

 

Netvort archives are temporarily available at http://www.yucs.org/heights/torah/bysubject/


  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

  To subscribe to Netvort, send a message with subject line subscribe, to Netvort@aol.com. To unsubscribe, send message with subject line unsubscribe, to the same address.


.




Life should be easier. So should your homepage. Try the NEW AOL.com.