If anyone has any ideas, feel free to let me know!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Who was Ya'akov's Father?
In a comment to a previous post, I was talking about how HaShem repeats his promise that he gave to Avraham to Yitzchak and Yaakov. When He gives it to Ya'akov, He says he already gave it to "Avraham his father and to Yitzchak." Why would it say that Avraham was his father but say nothing about Yitzchak? If it had said Avraham your father and Yitzchak your father, there might at least have been something to talk about. It does things like that a lot in the torah. But why would the torah say that Avraham was Ya'akov's father and say nothing about Yiztchak? What is it trying to say? During the lives of Moshe Rabeinu and Aharon HaCohen, the torah says that Moshe was the father of Aharon's four sons because he taught them torah. While Aharon was their biological father, Moshe was their spiritual one. Was it that was with Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov? I don't think it would be, but that would be one reason. Could it also be that between Ya'akov and Eisav, Yitzchak took Eisav's side? That dosn't make sense either, but that's pretty much all I can come up with.
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This may not be very deep, but it could be that it doesn't say anything about Yitzchak because it isn't necessary. It says "Avraham his father" and then you know Yitzchak is next and can infer from the context that Yaakov is next in line. So it may not really be a matter of anything complicated, but simply that the words are unnecessary, because as we all know the Torah doesn't use unneeded words.
ReplyDeleteOk, but if we know that Yitzchak is his father, then we should know that Avraham is his grandfather as well, because we know that Avraham is Yitzchak's father. If we needed the word father in there at all, why not put it before Yitzchak but after Avraham? And if we already know Ya'akov's relationship with them, why put the father part in there at all?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is arranged this way to show us that Avraham was the closest to G-d, and on the highest level. We know that Yitzchak was a holy person as well, though, but he did not nave the same tie to G-d as Avraham did, so the words "your father" are left out. Perhaps this is even saying that Yaakov should strive to be more like Avraham than like Yitzchak, because he was closer to Hashem.
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