כז:ב | 27:2
ויאמר הנה נא זקנתי לא ידעתי יום מותי
He said, “Behold now, I have grown old; I do not know the day of my death.”
Yitzchak was 123 years old when he summoned his son Eisav and said, “Behold now, I have grown old; I do not know the day of my death.” He instructed Eisav to prepare a meal for him, so that he could bless him before he died.
What was the occasion that inspired Yitzchak’s words? Rashi explains:
If a person is approaching the age at which his parents died, he should worry five years beforehand and five years after‑wards. Yitzchak was 123 years old. He thought, “Perhaps I will live to my mother’s age; she died at 127. I am thus within five years of her age.” He therefore said, “I do not know the day of my death: I may reach my mother’s age, or perhaps my father’s.”
At that point Yitzchak was five years younger than his mother had been at her passing, and there was still a good chance that he would live another 50 years or more, as his father had. (In fact, he ultimately lived to the age of 180, five years longer than his father did.) Moreover, his mother’s pass‑ing at the age of 127 had been due to unnatural causes,⁷ so it was safe to assume that he would live longer than she did. Yet Yitzchak began concerning himself with his end‑of‑life affairs at the age of 123, the youngest age—according to his calculations—when it was likely for him to die.
This degree of caution was not out of character for Yitzchak, whose dominant personality trait was gevurah—discipline and restraint.⁸ He therefore viewed every aspect of life from a cautious and moderate perspective.
Nevertheless, despite Yitzchak’s nature of discipline and moderation, the blessings that he bestowed (ultimately, upon Yaakov) were the most rich and extensive blessings given in the Torah, from the “dew of the heaven” to “the fat of the earth.”
Yitzchak’s paradoxical behavior teaches us—his descen‑dants and spiritual heirs—that even if we are extremely dis‑ciplined and hard on ourselves, this cannot have any bearing on the way we relate to and give to others. Our relationship with our fellow Jew must always be one of affection and be‑nevolence, generously sharing “from the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth.”
7. See Rashi, Bereishis 23:2. —Likkutei Sichos, vol. 15, p. 220
8. See Zohar 3:4a (Raaya Meheimna).