Isaac: A Psychological Perspective

Who was Isaac? What kind of person was he? What made him tick? Readers of narrative naturally depict and imagine in the mind’s eye the events and the characters. Even for the most revered of biblical figures, the textual emphasis on their human frailness and fallibility encourages such mental meandering and gives the characters integrity and credibility. This article discusses the personality of Isaac and its development as it emerges from the reading of the biblical text and midrashim on the text.

In the Book of Genesis, Abraham comes over as a pioneer; for example, in his immediate response to the command ‘Lech lecha’ (12:14). He is a man of leadership qualities; for example, in his suggestion to his nephew Lot that they settle in different areas in order to prevent conflicts between their shepherds (13:8). He is a man of courage and initiative; for example, in his rescue of Lot (14:16). He is ready to fight for his principles, and with great self-confidence; for example, his willingness to argue with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (18:23).

Jacob, his grandson, is of different temperament, yet also a fighter. As a young man, far from home, with impressive resourcefulness he builds up a successful and prosperous sheep farm alongside a large family. He triumphs over the obstacles in his way, winning the birthright and gaining the better of his brother and subsequently, also of his father-in law Laban.

In contrast to Abraham and Jacob, Isaac comes across as far less dynamic. Rather, he is depicted as a somewhat naïve and hesitant man, interested in a quiet life. He is rarely the main player in the narrative. In the Akeda story, Abraham plays the lead role and is active, while Isaac takes a much more passive role. In his personal life, Rebekah leaves her home to come to Isaac’s, and she is portrayed as the one who “pulls the strings” within the family. For example, it is she who orchestrates Jacob’s receiving the blessing of the firstborn instead of Esau, and then sends him off to her family in Haran. It is also revealing to compare the different behavior of Abraham and Isaac in fairly similar situations, as they temporarily leave their homes because of

famine. While Abraham decides ahead of time to say that his wife is his sister (Gen. 12:11), the text does not mention any initial intention in the case of Isaac, who says that his wife is his sister only when asked (26:7). That is to say, in contrast to both his father and his wife, Isaac tends to respond to situations but does not initiate them. While he was indeed successful and prospered through digging wells (26:18-33), the general impression is that his life is constricted and inward-looking and that he has relatively little contact with the environment around him. (In later biblical books, the images of Abraham and Jacob are evoked as sources of inspiration and figures of historical importance more frequently than Isaac, who is invariably mentioned only together with Abraham and Jacob.)1

How can Isaac’s introverted nature and relative passivity be understood? A logical explanation is that his personality is a direct consequence of an unimaginable trauma; being almost sacrificed. It is understandable that such an experience would be accompanied by tremendous fear, helplessness and confusion, particularly when the act was perpetrated by the person who was supposed to provide protection and care, his father. It can also be understood that following such an experience, a person may become inward-looking, hesitant or passive. The clinical picture of someone who has been through a traumatic experience often includes passivity, fearfulness and social withdrawal.2 However, a psychological reading of the biblical text, together with some of the midrashim on the Akeda, suggest that the underpinnings of Isaac’s personality are more complex, stemming from a period in his life pre-dating the Akeda. The main thesis that I would like to propose refers to the essence of the relationship between Isaac and his mother, Sarah. The midrashim quoted can be seen as illuminating and sharpening the more straightforward or contextual meaning of the Genesis text.

There are a number of midrashim that focus on Sarah’s reaction to the Akeda. In Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer3

there is the famous midrash (quoted by Rashi)4

that links the Akeda with Sarah’s death, due to the textual proximity of the two accounts (vv. 22, 23). But there are also a number of midrashim which give expression to Abraham’s fear about Sarah’s reaction to separation from her son Isaac even before she hears about the Akeda. For example, on And Abraham opened his eyes and saw the place afar off (22:4), Midrash Tanchuma5

recounts:

. . . Abraham said, what shall I do? If I reveal it to Sarah - women are light-headed over small matters so even more so with serious matters. And if I don’t reveal it to her and steal him away from her when she is not looking, she will kill herself. What did he do? He told Sarah, bring us some food and drink that we may celebrate . . . this boy has not had an education, there is a place a small distance away where boys are educated . . . I will take him and educate him there.

Indeed, the midrashim suggest a number of different versions as to the explanation that Abraham gives to Sarah for taking Isaac away with him. For example, in one of them:6

And when God said to him: Offer him up as a sacrifice to me, Abraham came home [and said to] Sarah, until when will your son Isaac remain in your bosom, when he is thirty-seven years old, you have not let him leave for the study house nor to the teacher’s house, so prepare some provision for the way that he and I may go to the Great Beit Midrash.

This midrash also gives expression to the idea that it is time for Isaac to leave his mother’s apron strings and move over to his father’s domain. Sarah’s reaction to the leave-taking appears in another quite stunning midrash in Sefer HaYashar:7

Don’t take my son far from me and don’t stay away long for my

soul is strongly bound to his . . . And Sarah took Isaac her son and slept with him on that night and kissed him and hugged him and

stayed with him until the morning. And she said to him, my son,

how can my soul part from you and she kissed him and hugged him

again and cried with him . . . And she dressed Isaac her son and put a turban on his head and placed a jewel in his cap.

In this midrash an evocative picture of an intensive and even intimate relationship between mother and son is presented. I will not discuss the question of the age of Isaac at the time of the Akeda, about which there are different opinions. However, the tone of these midrashim is powerful whether Isaac was 17 or 37. His relationship with Sarah as described is intense, overwhelming and extreme.

Here we can see where a plain reading of the text and midrashic elaboration meet. Abraham is a man of many interests, involved in different causes, and

he must have spent much time away from home. On the other hand, Sarah seems to have had one major interest in life: to be a mother. But she was barren and unable to have children, and so her dream was not realized. What is more, after her handmaiden Hagar provided her husband with a son, Ishmael, her distress over not having children of her own, just increased. Only at the age of 90, after she must have lost any hope of bearing children, does the miracle occur and she becomes pregnant and gives birth to Isaac. Under these circumstances, it is reasonable to assume that Isaac would have totally filled the remainder of Sarah’s life and that she would have been utterly devoted to him – maybe even in an obsessive way, as suggested by some of the midrashim. Her traumatic distress at the thought of being parted from her son can also be well understood, for without him, what does she have to live for? This would also provide the context for those midrashim which hint that Isaac remained with his mother for too long.

But where does Isaac fit into the picture? The biblical text itself does not explicitly discuss Isaac’s feelings about his mother, but his great pain following his mother’s death is indirectly implied in the context of his marrying Rebekah. We are told that after he: took Rebekah to Sarah’s tent . . . he was comforted . . . for his mother (24:67). Implicit in this verse is the sense of deep and on-going grieving. As his mother’s only child, and with a father busy with worldly concerns, it is understandable how attached Isaac would have felt to his mother. Another possible explanation for Isaac’s closeness to his mother, that could be understood from the text, is the threat that must have hovered in the atmosphere as he was growing up: children may be banished – as was his half-brother, Ishmael.

This theme is elaborated upon in the midrashim. On the few occasions that Isaac speaks in the Akeda midrashim, it is often his mother that he talks of, and in some of them she is his sole concern. On the one hand, it would seem natural that Isaac would yearn for his mother during this terrifying experience of being prepared as a sacrifice. But the intensity of the language used in the midrash is striking. For example, moments before his imminent death, And Abraham stretched out his hand and took his knife to slay his son (22:10), Midrash Tanchuma has Isaac mainly worry about his mother’s welfare:8 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay [his son]. He said to him, Father, do not tell my mother of this when she

is standing near a pit or when she is standing on the roof, for fear that she will make herself fall and die.

Another midrash puts into Isaac’s mouth a rather macabre if creative piece of advice for his mother to console herself with, following his death:9 . . . And take my ashes and bring them to Sarah my mother and place them in a box in her room and whenever she comes in to her room

she will be reminded of Isaac her son, in tears.

The picture that emerges from these texts is of a strong, symbiotic, and mutually dependent relationship between Isaac and Sarah.

In normal development, children reach the age where they want to leave their parents’ home as part of the process of separation from them, increased autonomy and consolidation of their own individual identity. But this did not occur with Isaac, at least according to the elaborations of the midrashim. Rather, he is depicted as someone who feels better staying close to his mother. In Isaac’s nuclear family, Sarah is far more emotionally invested in Isaac than in Abraham her husband, and Isaac has an emotional relationship with his mother that seems to overshadow any relationship with his father. In today’s idiom, one would call Isaac a “mama’s boy” – who shows no interest in leaving her and joining the world of the men.

In conclusion, my thesis is that Isaac’s personality, introverted, quiet, minimalist in his relationships and pursuits – in sharp contrast to both his father and his son – is not only a product of the trauma of the Akeda, but is primarily a result of the close, intensive and exclusive relationship that he enjoyed with his mother from childhood through to adulthood. It could be argued that the crisis of trust and fear of abandonment by his father that Isaac would have felt concerning the Akeda would have been even more threatening in the light of this relationship with his mother.

Of course, the thesis presented here represents just one possible reading of the biblical text. It is clear that the various midrashim, written at different times, in different places and in various contexts, are not of singular authority. Nevertheless, they appear to illuminate a commonsense interpretation of the peshat that provides a psychological understanding of Isaac’s personality that is both credible and tenable.

NOTES

1. For example, see Isaiah 41:8, 51:2, Psalms 105:4-7. While Jacob is cited on numerous occasions throughout the Prophets and Writings, in the majority of cases “Jacob” or the “house of Jacob” is used to symbolize the future generations of the children of Israel. However, this symbolism itself is indicative of the forcefulness of Jacob’s personality. Isaac is invariably mentioned together with Abraham and Jacob, e.g., Joshua 24:2-4, Psalms 105:9-10. 2. See for example, Judith Lewis Herman Trauma and Recovery chapter 6, (New York: Basic Books, 1992).

2. Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer, 32.

4.Rashi on Genesis 23, v. 2.

5. Midrash Tanchuma, (Printed Version), Parshat Vayera, Chapter 22. 6. From Midrash Zo Hi Shne’emar Beruach Hakodesh (Genizah Fragments). Taken from Jacob Mann The Bible as Read and Preached in the Old Synagogue, Hebrew Section, Vol. 1 (New York: Ktav, 1971) p. 65.

6. Sefer HaYashar, Parshat Vayera. According to J. Dan, Sefer HaYashar was composed in Naples at the start of the 16th Century. See: H. L. Strack and Gunter Sternberger, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996) p. 339. 8. Midrash Tanchuma, Parshat Vayera, Chapter 22.

7. Midrash Vayosha. Cited in Jellinek, Bet Hamidrash, Vol, 1. pp. 35-37. According to Strack and Sternberger, Midrash Vayosha was probably composed at the end of the 11th Century. Contributions of $25.00 and over are U.S. tax deductible when paid to P.E.F. Israel Endowment Fund, Inc., 317 Madison Ave., Suite 607, New York, N.Y. 10017

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