{"id":37913,"date":"2018-08-15T13:52:53","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T10:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=37913"},"modified":"2022-03-09T23:04:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T21:04:31","slug":"striving-to-see-and-be-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/striving-to-see-and-be-seen\/","title":{"rendered":"Striving to See and Be Seen"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[485],"acf":{"old_id":"37913","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"25","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Isaac tries to be different from his own parents - does he succeed?","content":"

Isaac is a character who goes back to the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

When waiting to meet his wife for the first time, he does not wait at home, but at the place called \u201c<\/span>Beer Lehai Roi<\/span><\/em>\u201d the \u201cwell of the ever-living seer\u201d(Genesis 24:62). \u00a0This is a place that says something about who Isaac is and who he identifies with. Ironically of course, Isaac ends his life with \u201ceyes weakened from seeing\u201d(Gen 27:1) the exact opposite of the vigor we are told Moses retains at the end of his life when his\u201d eyes are not weakened\u201d(Deut 34:7)<\/span><\/p>\n

What is it that Isaac is hoping and praying for at this well about his wife and their relationship? (The concept <\/span>mincha, <\/span><\/em>the afternoon prayer, comes from this example, \u00a0according to the Talmud, Brachot 26b). Simply, that he will be seen.<\/span><\/p>\n

After all, the place <\/span>Beer Lehai Roi<\/span><\/i> is named by someone who despite being mistreated by humans is seen by God. Hagar names the place when she says \u00a0that \u201calso I have looked after him that sees me\u201d (or: \u201chave I not gone on seeing after He saw me!\u201d Gen 16:13).<\/span><\/p>\n

Why then does Isaac go back to this place, the third and last time it is mentioned in the Torah now, after the death of his father Abraham?<\/span><\/p>\n

The midrash suggests that when Isaac was at <\/span>Beer Lehai Roi <\/span><\/i>in chapter 24 he was trying to fetch Hagar back to reconcile with his father Abraham (Genesis Rabbah). In essence, Isaac was identifying with Hagar then, and interestingly, after his father\u2019s death in this same verse, we are told that \u201cGod blessed Isaac and Isaac settled at <\/span>Beer Lehai Roi<\/span><\/i>\u201d (25:11). Perhaps after feeling very much unseen by his own father Abraham, Isaac preferred to symbolically align himself with the also mistreated member of the household, Hagar, by going there.<\/span><\/p>\n

So why then does the son who usurped Hagar\u2019s own firstborn son, the one who inherited the mantle of all that is Abraham\u2019s, choose to go there now?<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaac is trying to re-do the past, to bless his older son with a blessing appropriate to Esau. \u00a0Isaac\u2019s plan is not successful in averting strife between the brothers, yet Isaac does attempt to do things differently than his parents did. <\/span><\/p>\n

Isaac\u2019s dwelling at a place of seeing is an attempt to supersede the human limitations that rivalry creates in interpersonal interactions.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Striving to See and Be Seen","main_caption":"Isaac\u2019s dwelling at a place of seeing is an attempt to supersede the human limitations that rivalry creates in interpersonal interactions","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Isaac tries to be different from his own parents - does he succeed?","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"old_create_date":"","links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37913"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102826,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37913\/revisions\/102826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}