Toldot : Of Blindness and Blessings

1
CALEV BEN DOR
Toldot Of Blindness and Blessings
25 11 And it came to pass after the death of
Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son and
Isaac dwelt with Beer-lechai-roi. 12 Now these
are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son,
whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bore
to Abraham. 13 And these are the names of the
sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to
their generations the first-born of Ishmael,
Nebiyot and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam19 And
these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's
son Abraham begot Isaac.
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2634 And when Esau was 40, he took to wife
Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and
Basmat the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 And
they were a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and
Rebekah. 271 And it came to pass, that when
Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he
could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and
said unto him 'My son' and he said unto him
'Here am I.' 2 And he said 'Behold now, I am
old, I know not the day of my death. 3 Now
therefore take, I pray thee, your weapons, your
quiver and bow, and go out to the field, and
bring me venison 4 and make me savoury food,
like I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat
that my soul may bless you before I die.'
and his eyes were dim from seeing. R Eleazar Ben
Azariah taught From seeing the evil deeds of
wicked Esau. For the Holy One Blessed be He said
Shall Isaac go out into the marketplace and hear
people say This is that scoundrels father? I
shall therefore dim Isaacs eyes so that he will
stay home. Another opinion from that seeing
from the effect of what he saw at his binding.
When out father Abraham bound his son upon the
altar, the ministering angels wept and tears
dropped from their eyes into Isaacs eyes,
leaving their mark upon them. Another option
from that seeing at the time of the binding.
Because when Avraham bound his son Isaac on the
altar, he raised his eyes into the heavens and
saw the Shechinah Why did his eyes grow dim? To
allow Yaacov to take the Brachot (Rashi
Bereshit Rabbah 65.10)
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2
The Blindness of Father and Son
Blindness is a blurred sense of seeing. In
contemporary times, blindness describes those
things a person doesnt see because they are
difficult for him to bring to the surface of his
consciousness. In an allegorical sense, one could
say that blindness is a state of mind accessible
to everyone some type of blurring of senses
that serves as a defence mechanism or a way of
resolving difficult emotional situations. Yitzcha
ks blindness always seemed to be a metaphorical
blindness of spirit, one which the onset of old
age turns into physical blindness. This is
because in a certain way, Yitzchak feels Yaacov's
deception and his blindness is more than anything
an expression of the recognizable phenomenon of a
father torn between his two children and unable
to choose between them. He chose Esav and gives
Yaacov, and ultimately also blesses Esav, and his
blurred vision is an embellishment for the
dimming of the soul, one that allows him to swap
the accepted Either / Or in the status of
inheritance with the 'Gam VeGam,' both this one
and that one, an approach that is a practical and
emotional solution of many fathers. In this
context, it's important to remember that Yitzchak
reaches this disturbing status after the weight
of his experience at the Akeidah the great
blind experience of his father Avraham.
Yitzchak already paid the full price of having a
father who decided to take the either / or
approach, who cruelly preferred the love of God
over the life of his beloved son. In fact, the
greatest blindness was that of Avraham. His
blindness was so great, that even though the
story completely hides it, it slowly shoots out
towards us from within the pages. Avrahams
blindness is characteristic of the great
innovators whose own story is always intertwined
with some kind of big demanding personal
sacrifice. My grandparents were pioneers and were
part of a huge revolution. They left their home,
parents, family and country forever pushed
away all their sub conscious yearnings and tears
and completely gave themselves over to the
Zionist project. Their blindness was recognizable
in many ways (and today seems to be something
necessary and desirable that should be greatly
admired). They closed their eyes to the needs
of their children, their parents, the world of
their childhood, their language, their cultural
roots and their private needs. Yitzchak, in
contrast, reminds me of my generation, the 3rd
generation of pioneers. A generation constantly
attentive and sensitive to the array of voices,
one not prepared or qualified to build one thing
greater than the foundation. A human, paternal,
sensitive decision whose blindness is a tool that
serves that basic resolve of gam, vegam, vegam
vegam I love and cherish Avraham and Yitzchak
and their different blindness's and legacies. I
belong to the generation of Yitzchak, and it's
thus possible to deduce what can be expected from
my generation and in particular what can not be
expected. Will there ever be a generation that
succeeds in merging the two, one that will be
both revolutionary innovators yet also attentive
to the array of voices. I think such a
combination is still very very necessary. (Shai
Zarchi)