Parsha Corner: Toldos – Mesorah vs. Tradition

Yitzchok was living in Eretz Yisroel and there was a famine in the land.
The Rashbam, explaining the passuk, tells us that Yitzchok decided to travel to Mitzrayim to find a refuge because that is where his father Avraham traveled during a famine.

It seems from the Rashbam that although there were other locations nearby that weren’t affected by the famine, Yitzchok nevertheless chose Mitzrayim because that was the mesorah he got from his father.

Later in the parsha the Torah tells us that when Yitzchok was living in Philistine, he re-dug the wells that Avraham had built when he was living there and gave them the same names that Avraham had given them.

The Rabbeinu Bachaye explains that although changing their names wouldn’t have been prohibited, keeping them was a merit because he was keeping the mesorah he got from his father.

Even later in the parsha the Torah tells us that when Eisav turned forty he got married. Rashi explains that Eisav chose to marry at 40 because that was how old Yitzchok, his father, was when he got married.

Although the reason Yitzchok chose to wait until forty was because he was learning and waiting for Rifka to be born he nevertheless waited until forty because that was the mesorah he got from his father.

But here is what you are probably wondering:
“This seems so brainless! Just because that’s what your father did, and you are in a similar situation doesn’t mean that you must do it the same way?! Furthermore, in Eisav’s case we know that the circumstances were very different?! If so, why does the Torah praise and extol these decisions?!

The Balei Mussar explain that the concept of mesorah is very different from what we would call a simple tradition. The purest form of connection to Hashem and His Torah comes about only through a high level of humility, devotion and relationship to the Gedolim of your time. Those Gedolim excelled in connecting with the Gedolim of their time, and those, theirs, all the way back to Avraham Avinu. When this formula is followed, which was definitely the case by Yitzchok but not as obviously stated by Eisav, it is very natural that one would want to mimic or copy their Rebbe as an expression of love, or as a way of deepening their connection to their Rebbe.

So yes, “copying”, in and of itself is brainless, but in the right context it can really help a person stay true and fortified to what they were taught.

Have a wonderful Shabbos!
Rabbi Anton

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