It is said about Yitzchak that in the future, people will say specifically about him, “For you are our father.” The essence of Yitzchak is awe and self-nullification—qualities that will characterize the time of the Redemption, when all will feel the ultimate self-nullification before G-d.
For this reason, several aspects of Yitzchak’s life paralleled the future era. Indeed, about all three Patriarchs it is said that G-d let them “taste a foretaste of the World to Come.” Yet, in their case, it was only a taste of that pleasure, while Yitzchak embodied the future in his entire being and way of life. The Zohar teaches that at the moment of the Akedah, his soul left him and was replaced by a soul from the World to Come.
Beyond Time
Another unique detail about Yitzchak: It is written in various sources that after the Akedah, he spent two years in Gan Eden. During those two years, Yitzchak existed beyond the bounds of time—therefore, those years are not counted in the total of his life.
When Esav was born, Yitzchak was actually sixty-two years old (as can be deduced from the timeline of Avraham’s life, which was shortened by five years so that he would not witness Esav’s departure to a corrupt way of life).
Yet, the Torah states that Yitzchak was sixty years old—because those two years in Gan Eden are not included in his earthly lifespan. Having lived in Gan Eden, he transcended time.
This represents an extraordinary spiritual ascent. Sometimes, a person may rise beyond the limits of time, but when they return to the reality of the world and the boundaries of time, the traces of time are still apparent in them. Yitzchak, however, reached such a transcendent level that the time he spent beyond time truly did not count at all within his earthly life.
The Pleasantness of G-d
Our Sages teach: “Only three are called Patriarchs.” So too, the spiritual qualities of the Patriarchs exist within the soul of every Jew. Therefore, this quality of rising beyond the boundaries of the material world also exists in each one of us.
A Jew is asked to embody the verse, “One [thing] I ask of G-d... to see the pleasantness of G-d.” The Jew may claim: “But I am connected to a physical body, to an animal soul, in this physical world. How can I detach myself from worldly pleasures and reach a state of delighting in the “pleasantness of G-d”? That is something for the future world, or for Gan Eden—but how can it be possible now?”
Every Jew Can
We are told that this power is given to us by “the G-d of Yitzchak.” Every Jew has the ability to contemplate and reflect upon concepts connected to the Redemption and Gan Eden.
One can come to realize that all the pleasures of this world are incomparable to the delights of Gan Eden. And if that is so—how can one trade the main pleasure for its mere residue?
Yitzchak grants every Jew the strength to rise above all the pleasures of this world and to direct their focus toward what truly matters.
The path to achieving this is also through Yitzchak’s defining trait—self-nullification to G-d, expressed through kabalat ol (accepting the yoke of Heaven).
May we soon merit the revelation of Yitzchak complete level—in the true and complete Redemption—when it will be said to Yitzchak: “For you are our father.”
(the Rebbe, Likutei Sichot, vol. 1)
