Yitzchak/0

Yitzchak

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Religious Identity

Akeidat Yitzchak

What role did Yitzchak play during the Akeidah? Was he a willing participant or an unwilling victim?  Was the trial not just as much (if not more) of a test for him as it was for Avraham?  These questions are intricately related to another set of unknowns in the text.  How old was Yitzchak during the event? Was he aware of the plan all along, or only at the last minute?

• Unknowing, unwilling victim – Ibn Ezra presents Yitzchak as a youth, aged 13 or so during the episode, and suggests that he was unaware of the plan, and forced to be sacrificed against his will.¹
• Ambivalent –
• Aware and willing participant –
• Initiator –

Israel

Avot and Mitzvot Did Yitzchak keep all the mitzvot? The issue has been hotly debated for generations. On one hand, Yitzchak lived centuries before the Torah was given and many of its laws would be meaningless to him, suggesting that he did not keep them. On the other hand, it seems paradoxical to conceive of the founder of a religion not observing even its most basic commandments. This leads to a variety of approaches to the question. For a full discussion of the issue, see Avot and Mitzvot.

Unique Traits

• Businessman
• Agriculturist
• Holy

Family Life

Relationship with Avraham How, if at all, was Yitzchak's relationship with Avraham affected by the Akeidah?

Marriage

• Finding a Wife – Bereshit 24 expounds at length about the search for an appropriate wife for Yitzchak. Somewhat surprisingly, Yitzchak is absent from almost the entire episode. Avraham sends his servant, rather than Yitzchak himself, to find the appropriate woman from Aram Naharayim.  Why does not Yitzchak himself go?
• Communication Gap?

Favoring Esav

Possible Flaws

Passivity?

Blessing Esav

¹ The fact that he needed to be bound might support the possibility that he was stuggling.