In Mesichta Sanhedrin (19b) the Gemara quotes a possuk from Yeshayah that sheds light on the entire life story of our father Yaakov Avinu. Yeshayah is saying a nevuah, and he introduces it as follows:
So said Hashem to the house of Yaakov, Who redeemed Avraham (29:22). And for now, we’ll study just these opening words.
The plain meaning is, ‘Who is this Hashem that is speaking to the house of Yaakov? It’s the Hashem Who redeemed Avraham.’ That’s the poshut pshat. But the Chachomim gave it a twist to mean something in addition to that, that it was Yaakov who redeemed Avraham. So spoke Hashem to the house of Yaakov. And who is Yaakov? The one who redeemed Avraham.
Now, that would be an interesting story to hear. Yaakov saved Avraham? We never heard such a thing. The truth is, although we're sure there were many, we’re not told in the Torah of any interaction between Yaakov and his zeide Avraham. Especially such a story, where Yaakov saved Avraham from someone, or something, we never heard anything about that. And so the Gemara asks, Where do we find such a case that Yaakov redeemed Avraham? There's no such story in the Torah that we know of.
Redeemed from Distress
So the Gemara tells us what it means. Rav Yehuda says that Yaakov redeemed Avraham Avinu from the distress of raising children.
Now, this maamar requires explanation, and we’ll try now to understand it at least superficially. But even the little bit we’ll speak about now, will provide a new clarity in understanding our sedra and the story of the Avos in general.
And so we’ll begin from Avraham Avinu. Avraham was blessed by Hashem in everything (Bereishis 24:1). It is a remarkable aspect of this great man's history that he was always wealthy. When he came to Eretz Canaan at the command of Hashem, he already had a retinue; besides for admirers who came along with him, he had servants and cattle; he had already acquired a tremendous amount of wealth.
And when he went down to Mitzrayim shortly thereafter, he gained even more. After the episode of Pharaoh seeking to take Sarah, Avraham was sent away with even more wealth. He became a very rich man and as his life progressed so did his wealth. He became very heavy with possessions.
Lives of Leisure
We see the same in the history of his son Yitzchak. Yitzchak was born into the wealth of his father's property, but it increased under his supervision. Whatever Avraham had when he passed away, he gave everything to Yitzchak and Yitzchak increased the property. We know that when he went into agriculture, he found a hundred times as much as others did in their crops. He was extraordinarily successful. He became much wealthier than his father had been, and that's saying a lot. It's a remarkable story.
Now, you can be sure that they didn't do much menial work, these two great men. They had slaves, many servants. That we see again and again in the pessukim that they had people who were willing to do things for them.
And so we see it was the plan of Hakadosh Baruch Hu that the first two fathers of the Jewish nation should spend their lives in affluence, in leisure. It's not an accident. And it's not merely to make them appear better to us, because to the Jewish people, wealth is not the ultimate ideal. Yes, we have wealthy Jews and they’re important for our nation, but we know that there's a higher ideal of the eved Hashem who is willing to forgo all the luxuries of life and to serve Hashem anonymously and in poverty too. We had great men who succeeded in becoming great avdei Hashem in the midst of poverty. And therefore we must understand that there was a purpose that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had in making the first two fathers of our nation extremely wealthy all their lives.
A Life of Struggle
Now, the question is made even stronger when we see that in the case of the grandson and son Yaakov, it wasn’t so. Because we see that at the beginning of his career of independence, when he left home to find a wife, he had nothing. The clothing on his back and a walking stick, that’s all he had.
Yes, he had many years that he spent in the wealthy home of his father, but when he went out on his own, he found himself in totally opposite circumstances. He was flat broke and had to get busy doing menial work. And that’s what we’re told most about Yaakov Avinu, that he toiled in difficult physical labor for many years. For twenty years he slaved for Lavan day and night. Day and night! He describes it in his own words. The heat consumed me by day and the frost at night, and I banished sleep from my eyes (ibid. 31:40).
Now that's a remarkable thing. It's entirely unlike the biographies of his father and his grandfather, and we have to understand: what was the reason that Hakadosh Baruch Hu made things turn out so? In our great history, nothing is accidental. Especially in the lives of the founders of our nation, every detail is fraught with great significance. Every prat that the Torah relates about our forefathers, ma’aseh avos, is a siman l’banim, and therefore something as significant as this must be a symbol of great lessons.
Now, who am I to give interpretations? But we have a right to attempt to understand what was taking place here. Why was there such a big difference between the life stories of Avraham and Yitzchak and the life story of Yaakov Avinu?
