Torah Insights
"VAYITCHAK-VATITZCHAK" - Two Sides of the Same Coin
On the Jewish New Year, two Biblical personalities are mentioned prominently in our prayers as models and examples. We make reference to our matriarch Sarah and Isaac, our patriarch. We beseech God to have mercy on us during the Penitential season, just as God showed mercy on Isaac. We beseech and ask that God remember us for good similar to the mercy he showed for our matriarch Sarah and enabled her to conceive a child. This is the central Torah reading on the first day of Rosh HaShanah.
In Bereishit, chapters 17 and 18, God reveals to Abraham and Sarah that they will bear a son and that his name shall be Yitzchak. In chapter 17, verse 17, we are told "Vayitzchak Avraham." The classical commentaries interpret this to mean that Abraham was happy and filled with joy. However, in chapter 18, verse 12, we read "vatitzchak Sarah," and here we are told that Sarah was not happy but mocking; she was in a state of disbelief.
How can the same verb be given two antithetical, different interpretations?
Whenever there is a difficulty in understanding the meaning of a word in the Biblical text, classical commentaries always look for the use of the same word in another Biblical context in order to glean further understanding of the word's interpretation. Why here do we offer two opposing interpretations to the same word?
(Indeed, support for this approach might come from chapter 19, verse 14, "vayihee chimtzachek;" chapter 21, verse 9, "vataireh Sarah et ben Hagar .... metzachek;" and chapter 26, verse 8, " "vehinay Yitzchak metzachek." In each context the verb "tzechok" has a unique meaning. Of necessity, each context demands a different approach. So why not give different interpretations in chapters 17 and 18?)
Additionally, there is a tradition in the Midrash that Sarah was a greater prophetess than Abraham. If so, how can one assume that Sarah would not have the same degree of faith in the word of God when hearing that she was to give birth to Yitzchak?
The obvious answer is that God criticizes Sarah for her action in chapter 18, verse 13, but did not criticize Abraham in chapter 17, verse 19 "lamah zeh tzachakah Sarah?"; God merely repeated his revelation by saying, "Aval Sarah .... yoledet lecha ben." Targum is the first commentary to make the distinction in under-standing the meaning of the word "yitzchak." To my knowledge, all classical commentaries follow suit.
A simpler understanding of our two texts can be given. But, one must first acknowledge that the verb "tzchok" and its use in our cited verses "yitzchak-vatitzchak" contain both the elements of joy and happiness as well as the elements of disbelief and mocking. One may experience both emotions, simultaneously, at the same time.
When God appears to Abraham in chapter 17, it is probably Abraham's most impressive vision. In fact, it is the final revelation in which God promises him that in the future he will become a great nation and that this nation will inherit the land of Israel. He is told he will have a son together with Sarah. Not only is he happy, but there is an element of questioning. To hide this element of lack of faith, he falls on his face as if to hide. (When humans feel embarrassed by their lack of faith in God or having violated the laws of God, they hide. We find that Adam and Eve tried to hide in the Garden of Eden. We see denial on the part of Cain when questioned about the whereabouts of his brother Abel.) This is a very human reaction – Abraham falls on his face and laughs because he too is afraid that God will see his laughter. If it was purely joy, why is there a need to hide? So, maybe Abraham had 80% belief and only 20% doubt.
God cannot interrupt this final (see below), fantastic revelation to Abraham by admonishing him now. It is inappropriate (not menschlik-kite) to criticize or "put someone down" precisely at the moment when they are at the pinnacle of a religious experience. Instead, God waits for the opportune time, waits to admonish both Abraham and Sarah later in chapter 18, "lamah zeh tzachakah Sarah?" Abraham must be reminded that just three days earlier, he also questioned the veracity of God's promise.
In chapter 18, Sarah overhears three strangers telling Abraham that she will give birth to a son in a year's time. Surely Sarah knew of God's promise to Abraham three days earlier (as well as countless times beforehand). Would not Abraham have shared the vision he had in "brit bein habetarim" with her? Sarah must have known of God's assurances. Now when she hears the news from three arabs "off the street," she has every right to think: "I heard the news from Abraham that God himself announced my pregnancy (and also that day her menstrual cycle returned, reinforcing God's promise), why do I need three wanderers with dirt from idolatry on their shoes, to tell me the news? Does it not seem logical that Abraham would have shared the experience of perhaps his greatest revelations with his beloved wife? Sarah already knew that God had promised them a child in but one year. Yes, she can laugh and mock them and at the same time feel joy and happiness of the impending conception and birth of Yitzchak. So, maybe Sarah had 40% belief and 60% doubt.
God, in a sense punishes both Abraham and Sarah. Henceforth, whenever they call out the name "Yitzchak," they will be reminded of the moment in each of their lives when they questioned, doubted God's promise. This will occur when Abraham calls Yitzchak to review his lessons learned that day in yeshivah or when Sarah calls out to Yitzchak to set the Sabbath table or visit an ailing neighbor. At the same time, whenever they call out the name of their son, they are also reminded of the happiness he brought them.
Abraham was also punished in that God no longer reveals himself to Abraham in a "prophetic vision." Yes, God engages Abraham in a discussion over the destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah. Yes, God appears to Abraham to take Yitzchak to Mt. Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice. Yes, God reassures him that Yitzchak will be his heir in chapter 21. But, no longer does God appear to Abraham to reassure him, to promise him that Abraham is to give birth to the Chosen People and that the land of Israel will belong to his descendants. From the age of 100 until 175, no major revelation is shown to him. Abraham has already moved from "center stage" in the Biblical narrative concerning the Chosen People.
The Rashbam makes an interesting point in his commentary on the "Akedah." God put Abraham through this final test as punishment for his having signed a peace treaty with Avimelech, a ruler over part of the land of Israel. Following this line of thought, one might also say that Abraham was given this final trial as a punishment for having had some doubt about God's promise that he and Sarah would have a son; that he may have shown some disbelief in God's promise that Yitzchak would be born.
One final point: Our tradition tells us that not all prophecies were revealed in order that they be told. This means that there were revelations given to prophets that were not recorded and were meant not to be transmitted. Maybe Abraham was not to reveal the news to Sarah! A prophecy recorded in the Bible was meant to be transmitted. We find in the Prophets that the wife of Manoach, and not Manoach, had a vision that she would give birth to Shimshon. She did tell her husband of the revelation. Moreover, Abraham was told in the "brit bein habetarim" to perform circumcision. He had been married to Sarah for more than fifty years, maybe seventy years - how can he now modify his body through a surgical procedure without notifying his wife? It would violate their wedding contract, and possibly Sarah could annul the marriage without her giving consent to this important bodily change. If a leper betrothed a woman without informing her of his malady, the kiddushin/ketubah is annulled. Abraham must have told Sarah of the recent revelation: the what and why of God's promise to him.
from UPDATE, September 2006
by Rabbi Bennett M. Rackman