Fear Itself

Rabbi Melanie Aron

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Rebecca, this morning you have expanded our understanding of the well known Biblical story of the favoritism in Isaac and Rebekah’s family. You provided some interesting rabbinic commentaries, from Rabbi David Kimchi and Rabbi Yitzhak Abravanel, offering their opinions as to why Isaac, the great patriarch, would fall into such a negative pattern of behavior. I would like to expand our understanding of this portion in another way, by focusing on the moment when Esau returns with the food he had prepared, and we are told in verse 33,”And Isaac trembled an exceedingly great trembling.”

The Talmud states that the fear that Isaac experienced at that moment was greater even than the fear he had felt as a young man, when his father Abraham took him up Mount Moriah and bound him on the altar as a sacrifice. Later rabbis are shocked by this statement. How can one compare the fear of that moment, when his very life seemed in danger, to the fear of this moment. They offer several explanations.

What was Isaac thinking at that moment as he trembled? He is realizing that Jacob could not have pulled off this deceit by himself and that his wife Rebekah must have been involved. Why is this so hurtful? Isaac is the only one of our Patriarchs who had only one wife. We were told in last week’s portion that Isaac loved Rebekah. In this week’s portion, we have a touching picture of the two of them, cavorting with pleasure and tenderness, such that the King of Gerar accidentally witnessing them, is sure they are husband and wife. Isaac is realizing that there was some deficiency in their relationship, that in this matter, Rebekah could not talk to him, but has to act behind his back. He is feeling betrayed and also guilty for the way he has shut off conversation on this matter.

Another rabbi, says that Isaac’s great trembling was not about his relationship with Rebekah but was about his fears for his sons. At that moment, he realized that there would always be hatred between the two of them. He fears that Esau will never forgive his brother. He himself has seen family split apart, as when his beloved older brother Ishmael and Ishmael’s mother Hagar, are cast out of his household. He and Ishmael reconcile, and come together to bury their father Abraham, but at that moment, Isaac fears that this will never happen for his sons.

Finally Rabbi Chayim Shmuelevitz, the Rosh Yeshivah of Mir, a Chassidic rabbi, offers a third insight. At that moment, he says, Isaac realized that Jacob was the right son to receive the blessing, and that “all the years he thought Esau was more deserving, he was in error. The anxiety experienced in the awareness of his error was a powerfully painful emotion.” Psychologist today are aware of how painful it is to realize that one is wrong, and how resistant we are, as a result, to perceiving information that would cause us to reach that conclusion.

As a young man Isaac somehow stood up to the trial of the Akedah, of his being bound on Mt. Moriah, and overcome the fear of his own physical destruction. We have some evidence that he overcame the emotional fears of this later moment of his life as well. Recognizing his mistake over the years in his treatment of his youngest son, he calls Jacob into his tent, and gives him a third blessing, which some commentators see as the real blessing, without any need for disguise or trickery. Isaac and Rebekah live on together for many years, so we have circumstantial evidence that they were able to heal this major rift in their relationship. Finally I would like to believe that Isaac is somehow able to help Esau accept the events of that day. We know that 21 years later when Jacob and Esau finally meet again, Esau embraces his brother with love, and with the realization that he has enough and does not need to resent what his brother has been given. Perhaps Isaac ( along with time) played a role in his coming to that acceptance.

In the dark years of the depression, President Roosevelt taught our country that there is “Nothing to fear but fear itself.” Perhaps from this portion we can conclude, that there is much to learn, when we probe the reasons for our fears.