My name is Isaac. You think you know me, but you really don't. I
am stuck in between two generations, constantly overshadowed by my father
Abraham and my son Jacob. If you ask anyone to name the nation that eventually
came from my family, they either refer to them as "the offspring of
Abraham" or, more commonly, "the children of Israel" (Jacob’s
adopted name). You never hear anyone refer to this nation by my name: Isaac. It's
not that my name isn't mentioned in the Bible. My name actually appears 108
times, yet, virtually all of the stories where my name is mentioned and where I
am involved as a character are told from someone else's point of view,
completely ignoring my perspective.
When I was just a little boy, I was out playing with my
half-brother Ishmael. The next thing I know, my mother throws him and his
mother Hagar out of our house. To this day, I have no idea why this happened,
and nobody ever asked me how I felt about losing my half-brother who I was
playing with. The next and only other time I saw Ishmael was when we together
buried our father Abraham.
Not long after I lost my half-brother, there came what many of
you call the "big test." You have certainly heard about the most
famous of stories that contains my name, "The Binding of Isaac." The
irony of having my name in the title of this story is that the story isn't
really about me at all. It's all about my father: "After these events, God
tested Abraham." Not once throughout this "big test of faith" is
my voice ever heard, except when I asked my father why he forgot the
sacrificial lamb. His answer: "God will provide." So there I was,
bound on an altar, the fire burning and my father's knife to my throat. Yet
when it's all over and God's angel saves my life, only my father emerges as a
heroic figure. Not once do we hear how I -- Isaac -- felt throughout this
ordeal. In case you're wondering, I'll start by asking if you ever noticed that
after the ropes were loosened from my hands and feet, there is never again
recorded in the Torah one single conversation between my father and me. Let's
add to this that when we came home, we found that my mother died from the shock
of hearing what my father had done. So perhaps from your perspective, this
story crowned my father the "ultimate hero of faith." As for me, my
relationship with my father was ruined, I lost my mother and I spent the rest
of my life traumatized. Not quite an "all's well that ends well."
My father's last act on earth was to send his servant to arrange
my marriage. Funny, nobody asked me if I wanted to get married, and if I did,
you’d think I might have a say in who I would marry? I ask this question because,
yes, I did love my wife Rebecca, but I have a hard time getting over how she
went behind my back and convinced my son Jacob to deceive me. I favored Esau,
and I have my own reasons for that. But once again, my feelings were not taken
into account, and what should have been "Isaac Blessing His Sons"
became "Jacob Deceiving Isaac." My own blessing to my kids became the
matter of a sibling rivalry and a sneaky plot by my wife. Once again, I had no
say in the matter.
Please don't get me wrong. I am not writing all of this in order
to invite your pity, because there is one story recorded about me for which I
will forever be proud. It is the one and only story in the Torah that is all
about me. As you know, both my father and son were faced with severe famines in
Canaan, and as a result, both of them left Canaan and “went down to Egypt.” I,
too, was faced with a "famine in the land," but I did not leave. I
chose to fight it out and stay in Canaan…and I dug wells. I think being bound
with a knife to my throat on Mount Moriah actually gave me something I would
call “the survivor’s instinct.” I became a survivor, and despite the trauma I
experienced, I learned to tough things out. I am the only one in my family to
never leave our Promised Land.
Throughout our history, my family's descendants have been mistreated,
traumatized and deceived (just like me), yet somehow, we always survived. We
always insisted, either physically or metaphorically, on "staying in the
land and digging wells," despite "the famine." So perhaps our
people refer to themselves by the names of my father and son, but their inner
character and strength as tough survivors comes from me, Isaac. It is my story
-- the story of a survivor -- that is really our collective story.
So, I may not have much a voice in all of this, but my gut
instinct tells me I have lots to do with why we are still here.
It was nice speaking with you, and sorry this talk is just a few
thousand years late. Funny, something deep inside of me said that even if I
waited this long to speak up, my people would still be around to hear me.
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