Bostoner Torah Insights: Bostoner ‘Chassidus’ in Hebrew and English: Parshas Toldos – 2 Kislev 5786
Bostoner Torah Insights - Yerushalayim
Bostoner Torah Insights
Bostoner ‘Chassidus’ in English
Parshas Toldos – 2 Kislev 5786
Bostoner Rebbe shlit”a – Yerushalayim
Secretariat Email: bosto...@gmail.com
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Yitzchak and Rivkah instruct Yaakov to leave home and go to Charan to find a wife. Yet instead of traveling straight to his destination, the Torah tells us that Yaakov first detoured to the Yeshiva of Shem v’Ever and remained there for fourteen years. The obvious question is: if he was under direct orders from his parents, why didn’t he go immediately to Charan?
To answer this, we look back to the Nisayon of the Akeidah. Rashi explains that when Avraham returned from Har HaMoriah, he began to worry: “If Yitzchak had actually been slaughtered, I would have had no descendants. Maybe I should have married him off earlier to one of the daughters of Aner, Eshkol, or Mamrei.” At that moment Hashem informed him that Rivkah had been born. The simple understanding of this Midrash quoted by Rashi is that Avraham regretted not arranging Yitzchak’s marriage sooner.
The Imrei Emes explains — and this approach came to me as well — that Avraham’s concern ran deeper. He feared that Yitzchak’s lack of children might have been the reason Hashem ultimately did not allow Avraham to go through with the Akeidah. Avraham knew Hashem had promised that Klal Yisrael would come through Yitzchak; perhaps, he thought, if Yitzchak already had children, the promise could still be fulfilled even if Yitzchak were brought as a korban. Maybe Yitzchak’s unmarried status was what prevented the fulfillment of Hashem’s will at the Akeidah. Hashem therefore reassured Avraham that he passed the test of the Akeidah and that it had nothing to do with Yitzchak’s unmarried status, because Yitzchak’s destined wife, Rivkah, had only just been born. It was not that Yitzchak was somehow unfit for the Akeidah — rather Hashem had His own reasons to test Avraham and Yitzchak in this way.
At the end of Parshas Chayei Sarah, the Torah records Yishmael’s lifespan using a structure identical to the way it describes Sarah Imeinu’s years—with three mentions of the word ‘Shana’ (years). Yet Chazal do not derive from Yishmael what they derive from Sarah, namely that all her years were equally good. The Abarbanel explains that the Torah’s detailed language in Yishmael’s case is not extra at all—it serves one specific purpose: from these dates Chazal derive that Yaakov spent fourteen years learning in the Yeshiva of Shem v’Ever. Since the wording is needed for that calculation, it cannot serve any additional Drasha, unlike by Sarah, where the extra words are available to teach a deeper lesson.
This brings us back to our original question. Why did Yaakov delay fourteen years before going to find a wife, seemingly against his parents' instructions? Yaakov understood from the Mesorah of his father and grandfather that one cannot rush the process of finding a spouse. Just as Yitzchak could not have married earlier because Rivkah had not yet been born, Yaakov sensed that the time was not yet ripe for him either. Only after completing fourteen years of preparation and growth did he head toward Charan—at the exact moment his destined mate would be ready.
May all who are searching for their true Zivug find success soon, and may Hashem once again take Klal Yisrael as His beloved Zivug, bringing the Geulah and the coming of Moshiach, speedily in our days.