Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ Before I forget, I gave a long Dvar Torah/shiur at lunch on Shabbat about the key question in last week's parsha (Toledot): why did Yitzchak want to give Esav a bracha of supremacy?

A key source for my answer is this shiur by Rav Dror Brama

torahmitzion.org/learn/great-tr…

2/ His main point is Yitzchak wanted Esav to avoid the fate of Yishmael. I want to quickly add key support to this idea.

I asked my kids what was the worst day of Yitzchak's life?

My clue/proof is knowing where Y chose to live when we meet him at the end of Chayei Sara.

3/ They suggested the worst day of Yitzchak's life was the Akeidah (the binding of Isaac) or the death of his mother. Good guesses.

I believe the worst day was the expulsion of Yishmael. This was his older brother, almost sent to his death, because of HIM. The guilt was painful.

4/ If Yitzchak's worst day was the Akeidah, he would live in Moriah (the place of 'seeing'), if the death of his mother, then live in Hevron (to be near her grave). Or even live in Be'er Sheva, with Avraham.

Instead, he lived in Be'er Lechai Ro'i.

Huh?
sefaria.org/Genesis.24.62?…

5/ Note, I believe I learned this vort from Rabbi David Silber of Drisha: why live in this place?

This was the oasis/well in the desert where Hagar fled to when ejected the first time from Avraham's house. It was a place of revelation and rescue.
sefaria.org/Genesis.16.14?…

6/ Be'er Lechai Ro'i means "the well of life and vision" and this was more important to Yitzchak than "Hashem Yira'eh" aka Har Moriah aka Jerusalem, a word that combines "Shalem" (peace/completeness) with "Yeru" (vision/seeing/revelation)
sefaria.org/Genesis.22.14?…

7/ When Hagar and Yishmael are expelled by Avraham, they wander in the desert, and Rav Medan claims they end up at the same well - but Hagar is so distraught, she can't find it. They both are near to death. It's horrible.

etzion.org.il/en/banishment-…

8/ Yitzchak, either through investigation or prophecy, learns about the fate of his older brother. Imagine the guilt! He was so young when his brother - 14 years senior - is sent off to die in the desert by his beloved (but how?!) mother & father (who held a knife on him)

9/ Yitzchak chooses to live in the spot of revelation and salvation not of his own life - Moriah - but of his step-mother (it's complicated) and half-brother. A nowhere location that's never mentioned again in Tanakh.

Yitzchak lives there because of the worst day of his life.

10/ This analysis backs up the idea from Rav Brama that Yitzchak was so traumatized by the guilt - and the shattering ethical revulsion - he feels about the expulsion of Yishmael, that he's committed to 'saving' Esav

11/ There's much more to say on this (I have pages & pages of divrei Torah on this) but I wanted to quickly go through this point and to link to the relevant citations. I also want to reject, a bit, Rav Medan's attempt to whitewash Hagar's treatment. Yitzchak agrees with me, heh

12/ @threadreaderapp please unroll.

@threader_app please compile.