To begin, I would like to give credit for this Dvar Torah to the insightful teachings of one of my Rabbi’s from Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi, Rav Alex Israel.
There are many different types of Melbourne Mizrachi Jews and each one takes a different path, however their foundation is often similar to some extent. Most Melbourne Mizrachi Jews would have grown up attending Bnei Akiva in some way, spending some time away in Israel, and then returning to Australia to deal with the complex task of growing up from adolescence into adulthood. And from here is where we take our different paths. Some won’t adjust easily, feeling a strong sense of Zionism which sends them back to live in Israel. Others slowly drift away from Mizrachi and its hashkafa, integrating with different groups in the community and building a greater sense of social activism and Australian patriotism. And then there are those who return from shnat, begin university, finish university, begin work, get married, have children, send their children to Bnei Akiva, and never leave the stable and safe haven in which they were raised, Melbourne. Obviously in these examples I am generalizing completely – however am I that far from the truth?

As a Bnei Akiva Madrich, born and raised in Australia, I’ve never known another place to call home but Australia. And as a first generation Australian, I believe it is essential to create a solid foundation which thrives on Jewish values and morals in order that my future generations can preserve, sustain, and improve what we call ‘home’. Now questions surface. Is life all about following a pattern which replicates almost identically the path taken by our forefathers? Is it not mundane and meaningless to simply follow in the exact footsteps of our fathers and continue this life cycle inevitably with no alteration?  Some argue, “my father made good decisions, he’s had a good life, why not follow in his path?” When discussing what our lives will be like in the future with my friends, it often bothers me when I picture our lives as static, living in the same places with the same people, and the only thing that has changed is we’ve lost more hair or it has gone grey.  However, the notion of a repetitious life cycle of a stereotypical Melbourne Mizrachi Jew is tremendously important for the preservation of our culture and future, and we can re-affirm this by looking at this week’s parasha, Toldot.

In Parasha Toldot, we are given a greater insight into Yitzhak, one of our three avot (forefathers of Israel). Throughout the Torah, when Yitzhak is mentioned, he is usually not the primary character in the scenario as in the Akeida we’re told HasHem was testing Avraham, not Yitzhak. When we’re told about his relationship with Rivkah, he again is not in the limelight as his wife is brought to him. Yitzhak is never considered the centre of attention, with details of his life only spanning six perakim (chapters) in the Torah, compared to Avraham or Ya’akov who appear across fourteen and twenty-five perakim respectively. Surely Yitzhak is not just a simple second-generation Jew, following in the footsteps of his father, living a predictable life as a farmer, born and raised in Eretz Yisrael? One interpretation suggests he is just that – but do not underestimate the significance of his purpose in life.
According to Rav Steinsaltz who writes a lot about Yitzhak’s personality and life, Yitzhak was the only forefather who was settled. Unlike Avraham, the first generation Jew who had to seek Judaism, and go to Israel, Yitzhak grew up there, and as a farmer cultivated the land, worked the land, and protected it. Avraham’s purpose was to create and build a Jewish foundation, but that foundation would never reach Ya’akov and his successors had it not been for Yitzhak to be the passive and restrained Jew, to carry the poignant task of securing the layers of foundation established by his father. Rav Steinsaltz points out references in the Torah which suggests HasHem assigning Yitzhak this specific task, ensuring the efforts of his sons and successors would amount to wondrous heights. For example, it says in Toldot (26:18), “Yitzchak re-digs Avraham's wells and calls them the identical names that his father called them”, and even from the beginning of the parsha, (26:3) Hashem promises Yitzchak that his offspring will inherit the Land, "and I will establish the oath that I promised Avraham your father”. Certainly there is the idea of respect for one’s parent which Yitzhak displays, however the Torah is teaching us something deeper, significant to those of us who live safe and secure lives in the Melbourne Mizrachi Community.

Here are the words of Rav Steinsaltz, which truly capture the message behind all this: "It is known that the sons of great fathers, talented and significant as they may be in their own right, have to contend with parental glory and from the beginning, feel themselves as inadequate, burdened with lesser or greater degrees of helplessness. …one does not ascribe to the second generation the same glorious qualities that capture the imagination. The sons' task is to hold steady and not to create. Or as the Bible story puts it, they have to dig again the wells that the fathers dug before them and that have become blocked up.”

Yitzhak was not a simple boring man who just followed a life cycle pattern. He had a purpose and a difficult task to preserve and guard his father’s hard work.

With holidays fast approaching, many may be thinking of big ideas such as travelling and what their next year holds, and this week’s parashah teaches us that no matter how mundane and monotonous our lives may seem, whether there is routine and repetition, or excitement and change, we as a generation have a responsibility to dig out the same wells as our forefathers, to help our proceeding generations thrive, and certainly one may change details of that path, (as Yitzhak chose to be a farmer unlike his father who was a Sheppard), however ultimately every Jew, no matter what generation they are, can learn a powerful message from Yitzhak as a second-generation Jew with a difficult but meaningful purpose in life.

By Sonny Beycher - Sonny is a madrich of Year 10