These are the descendants of Yitzchak, Avraham's son. Avraham fathered Yitzchak.
The Ohr Hachaim asks, the possuk seems to be changing its focus mid-stream. The possuk tells us that it is going to tell us about the children of Yitzchok, but immediately pivots to Yitzchok’s birth. Why does the possuk do so?
Yitzchok, when he was born, was effeminate in nature. His female side was stronger, and it was impossible for him to give birth as a father. When the Torah begins the story of Yitzchok’s children, it has to immediately explain how the possibility even existed. How could Yitzchok have children when his body was not ready for it?
The answer to this was that Avraham gave birth to Yitzchok. This means that Avraham injected the ability to have children in his son. He gave him a new Neshama, with new characteristics, and now he could have children. This took place at the Akeda, when Yitzchok’s neshama left him and was replaced with another.
The Ohr Hachaim has another explanation. The Parsha teaches us that both Yitzchok and Rivka davened for children. However, Hashem listened to Yitzchok’s tefilla and accepted it. Why is this? The Gemara tells us that the tefillos of a Tzadik who is the son of the Tzadik are accepted on High before that of a Tzadik who is the child of a Rasha.
Avraham was the one who gave Yitzchok the ability to have a child. Because Yitzchok was the son of a Tzadik like Avraham, his tefillos were accepted. The possuk is telling us that Avraham gave birth to Yitzchok’s ability to give birth and produce generations.
Another explanation offered by the Ohr Hachaim is based on the Medrash. The possuk says לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר ה' אֶל בֵית יַעֲקֹּב אֲשֶר פָדָה אֶת אַבְרָהָם - Therefore thus says Hashem, concerning the house of Yaakov, who redeemed Abraham. The Medrash says that Avraham was saved from the fiery kiln in which he was placed by Nimrod, in the merit of Yaakov Avinu. If not for the future Yaakov, Avraham would have been burned in the fire.
The possuk now has a new meaning, a mirror image of the previous explanations. These are the children of Yitzchok. These children of Yitzchok included Yaakov, who was the one who gave Avraham the ability to have children in the first place.
The Ohr Hachaim has yet another explanation for this possuk.
The primary children of a Tzadik are his mitzvos and his good deeds. However, we know very little about Yitzchok and his tests and tribulations. We don’t know how he grew in Avodas Hashem, or about the Mitzvos that he did. Even the one fact that we do know; that he stretched out his neck to be slaughtered on the Mizbeach, is not written clearly in the Torah. Some even say that he was forced into the Akedah.
For this reason, the Torah sees fit to inform us that Yitzchok was not what we would think from a simple reading of the pessukim. The Mitzvos and good deeds of Yitzchok were that which we would expect from someone who was born to Avraham Avinu.
The Ohr Hachaim adds a deeper meaning to the word בן אברהם. The possuk says בן חכם – which does not mean the son of a wise man, but the son who is a wise man. So too was Yitzchok a ‘son who is Avraham’, meaning he was on a worthy level of being considered like Avraham.
This is the reason the possuk begins with an extra וי"ו. And these are the children of Yitzchok. This teaches us that the good deeds of Yitzchok were in addition to that of Avraham and a continuation of them, even though they are not written in the Torah anywhere.
The Ohr Hachaim has more explanations to give us in these pessukim. The Torah is telling us that the only child of Avraham was Yitzchok, no others can merit this great privilege. The title and good deeds of Yitzchok are that he is the only one who is to be called the son of Avraham.
The Ohr Hachaim then adds another twist to his previous explanation. He writes that although we are being told how great Yitzchok was, and how only he was the son of Avraham, he was still not as great as his father. His father gave birth to him and provided him with the ability to draw close to Hashem and reach the level that he reached. However, his father Avraham had no such privilege. He was born into a family that worshipped idols and was far from Hashem. Avraham is considered the one who loves Hashem, a title no other person in history received. He was the first to learn how to serve Hashem on his own, and he taught that to Yitzchok.
Now the possuk reads – and these are the Mitzvos and good deeds of Yitzchok, son of Avraham, who continued in his path. Still, Avraham gave birth to him, and he was not born in the same circumstances as his father.
The Ohr Hachaim then turns the same explanation on its head, offering the exact opposite meaning. Yitzchok was on a greater level than his father, precisely for this reason. He was a Tzadik son of a Tzadik, whereas Avraham was like Rivka – Tzadik son of a Rasha. Even though Chazal tell us that Terach did Teshuva at the end of his life, this was after Avraham was born, and he was born to a Rasha and raised by him. Yitzchok was born to a Tzadik, and raised in his holy home, nothing like his father. His level was greater.
The possuk now reads – And these are the good deeds of Yitzchok, in addition to and superior to those of the previous parsha. Why was his level greater? Because Avraham gave birth to Yitzchok, and he grew up in the holy home of Avraham.
One last explanation offered by the Ohr Hachaim is in the physical realm. Yitzchok had a charmed life, wherever he went he was successful and his enemies sought him out to make treaties with him. Unlike his father’s life, which was filled with discomfort, pain, trouble, and strife, Yitzchok had an easy life. Why were the happenings of Yitzchok’s life so? Because Avraham gave birth to Yitzchok, and his merit helped his son be successful, rich, and happy. Avraham did not have a father whose merit could give him this.
