There is a Possuk in this week’s Parsha that says: וָאֵרָא אֶל־אַבְרָהָם אֶל־יִצְחָק וְאֶל־יַעֲקֹב “I appeared to Avrohom, to Yitzchok, and to Yaakov.” In ‘Torah Ohr’ (The Chassidishe Parsha) the Alter Rebbe brings two ways of understanding this word ‘Vo’eira’: Either in the past tense, that ‘He appeared’ to the Ovos, or in the future-continuous tense that ‘He will continue to appear’, a state which is continually available at every time in every place for every Jew.
And the Alter Rebbe expounds, through the prism of a saying from the Talmud: אֵין קוֹרִ ין אָבוֹת אֶלָא לִשְלוֹשָה, אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקֹב “One may only call three people Patriarchs; Avrohom, Yitzchok, and Yaakov.” The reason why these three are called ‘Ovos’ is because they bequeath their qualities to all their descendants for all generations, each descendant according to his capacity.
[This means that all the aspects of being the ‘Ovos’ are bequeathed hereditarily to all their descendants till the last of the generations. This is because the law of inheritance is that the inheritor inherits everything; irrespective of one’s personal status. Just being an inheritor, qualifies one to inherit everything].
By contrast the qualities of the other Tzaddikim in our ancestry like Reuven, Shimon and Levi [whereby each one has his own unique style of serving HaShem, as is explained elsewhere, and the same applies to Yissochor and Zevulun as is also explained elsewhere and similarly with all the ‘Shevotim’ that] there will be some people who will not have any of these qualities at all; [this being because the ‘Shevotim’ only bequeath their qualities to their descendants who are born into their own tribes, and therefore the ‘Shevotim’ are not called ‘Ovos’, because not all of their ‘Avodah’ qualities are relevant to all Yidden.] whereas the ‘Avodah’ qualities of the ‘Ovos’ must be appropriate for all Jews, they are the root and source for all Jewish souls.
It can be said that this idea is also alluded to in RaShi’s commentary at the beginning of our Parsha, where RaShi quotes the word of the Possuk “Vo’eira” – I appeared- and says “El Ho’Ovos” - to the Patriarchs, which seemingly is redundant.
(On the level of ‘Peshat’, one can say that RaShi’s intention here is to highlight the common denominator of Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov).
However, at a deeper level, RaShi’s intention here is to allude to this concept being extended to all the B’nei Yisroel on account of the fact that Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov (who were privileged to be at a level of ‘Vo’eira’ – I appeared) are the ‘Ovos’ of all Yisroel and thus bequeath to them this privilege.
