The second of the three Patriarchs, son of Abraham, born when his father was 100 and his mother, Sarah 90 years old (Gen. 21:5). The name (Heb. Yitsḥak) is derived from the fact that Sarah laughed (tsaḥaka) when told that she would bear a child at her age (Gen. 18:12). Isaac is the least colorful of the Patriarchs and only a few minor incidents are related of his life. After his older half-brother, Ishmael, attempted to mock Isaac, Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, were banished from Abraham's household (Gen. 21:9ff.), although later, when Abraham died, his sons came together to bury him (Gen. 25:9).
When Isaac was a young man, God instructed Abraham to offer him as a sacrifice (Gen. 19:1-19). Isaac's readiness to permit this is praised by the sages, and his readiness to die for God was the model for countless Jews who preferred martyrdom to violation of Jewish law (see Akedah). Contrary to common portrayals of Isaac as a child, the rabbis reckoned that Isaac was 37 years old at the time of the binding (Gen.R. 56:8). They also taught that the news about the intended sacrifice caused Sarah's death (Pirké de-Rabbi Eliezer 32).
When Isaac was 40 years old, Abraham sent his servant, Eliezer, to his family in Mesopotamia, where Eliezer found Rebekah, whom he brought back to marry Isaac (Gen. 24). As Rebekah had difficulty conceiving, both she and Isaac prayed to God, who granted them twins, Jacob and Esau. Isaac was 60 years old when his sons were born (Gen. 25:19-26).
In his later years, Isaac's eyesight failed him. It was then that Jacob, at the urging of Rebekah, posed as Esau and received Isaac's blessing as the firstborn (Gen. 27). Isaac died at the age of 180 and was buried by Jacob and Esau in the Cave of Machpelah, where his parents had been buried (Gen. 35:27-29).
Isaac was the only one of the Patriarchs not to leave Canaan, and on the one occasion when he tried, he was instructed by God not to do so (Gen. 26:2). Rabbinic tradition gives as the reason the fact that he had almost been sacrificed, and anything or anyone dedicated as a sacrifice may not leave the Land of Israel (Gen. R. 64:3).
According to tradition (based on Gen. 24:63---" Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide"), Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer (Ber. 26b).
The New Encyclopedia of Judaism. Copyright © 1989, 2002 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved.
