“See, I place before you the land; go take possession of the land which Hashem promised to your forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov to give to them and to their children after them.” (Devarim 1:8)
Rashi comments on the seemingly redundant verbiage. If the posuk said, “your forefathers,” why did it need to then call them by name? Rashi’s explanation is that each of them on their own could have earned the land through his own merits. If so, then why mention, “your forefathers”?
The Sifri gives a beautiful parable about a King who gifted one of his subjects a parcel of land. The fellow went and planted an orchard, which he left to his son. The son, too, improved the land, planting a vineyard, and he left the now doubly-improved plot to his son. The grandson, as well, aimed to leave the land better than when it had come to him. The people in this parable were Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, who each improved the land upon which he dwelled, and that would one day go to their children, the Nation of Israel.
The Ohr HaChaim points out that the word “see” in this verse is singular, but the word for “before you” is plural. When looking at the land, each person can see the same thing, but how each individual will acquire it will be unique, based on his or her own nature and way of thinking. Based on this, perhaps we can explain why the Patriarchs are mentioned in two different ways.
Yes, they are our forefathers, those who would bequeath their legacies and the Promised Land to their children. But they are also individuals, who strived to live up to their own individual potential, regardless of whether anyone would follow after them.
Each of us should see ourselves both as a part of the greater corpus of Israel, part of a living and united nation, as well as an island unto himself, who must achieve great things without relying on others to do it for him. Then, too, we must consider the future, and leave our children a better world than we found.
