By Rabbi Moshe Pogrow
After Avraham and Yitzchak met the challenge of the Akeida, and accomplished their exalted mission, they returned to their attendants, and all of them—Avraham, Yitzchak, and with them the young men—went yachdav, together, to Be’er Sheva.
This is typical of the spirit that began in Avraham and Yitzchak. If it was any other nation, someone who had been so close to G-d and so elevated above all earthly concerns would have been so full of themselves and of the Divine that they would no longer have taken any interest in ordinary people.
In any other society, such closeness to G-d, even if only imagined, would cause such arrogance that those who experienced it would look down on all other men as mere mortals and avoid contact with them.
But not so the example set by Avraham and Yitzchak. Just after performing the most exalted deed a person can perform, they return to the attendants they had left at the foot of Har Hamoriah, and go yachdav, together with them. They do not consider themselves superior to the others.
Although our clothes are man-made, we thank Hashem for creating the raw materials to make them – wool, flax (linen), cotton, etc. We remember that it is Hashem who has given us the wisdom to produce this clothing, and the money to buy it.
Animals do not have the instinct to clothe themselves; they are equipped with the fur, skin, or feathers needed for their environment. Mankind needs clothes for protection as well as tznius. This bracha is a thank you for something often taken for granted.
Adapted from Emunah in the Classroom
To a descendant of Avraham, no man is better than another because of his vocation, and there is no distinction between himself and a humble servant. The higher his own spiritual level, the less likely is he to feel superior to others, and the less he is conscious of his own greatness.
Rightly do Chazal debate as to which is the greatest middah: chassidus or anavah (Avodah Zara 20b). After all, humility is the only virtue that a person can possess only unconsciously. Once a person becomes aware that he is an anav, he ceases to be one. Instead, he is filled with the worst kind of pride, saying to himself: I have every right to be conceited, and yet I am not!
Avraham and Yitzchak, on the other hand, returned from the heights of Har Hamoriah and rejoined the others as though they had done nothing extraordinary: vayashav Avraham el naarav, vayakumu vayelchu yachdav.
Based on the commentary of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt”l on Chumash, with permission from the publisher.
