Yitzchak ben Avraham Avinu

Yitzchak ben Avraham Avinu (2048—2228 [Hebrew calendar]/1712—1532 BCE) was a great tzadik and prophet, the second of the Patriarchs of the people of Israel.

He was born at midday on 15 Nissan of the year 2048, not far from the city of Gerar, the capital of the Philistine king Avimelech (Bereishit 21:2—3; Rosh Hashanah 10b-11a; Bereishit Rabbah 53:6; Sefer HaYashar; Seder Olam Zuta 1:3; Seder HaDorot).

More than a year before his birth, Ha-Shem told the Patriarch Avraham (see): ‘Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you shall call him Yitzchak. And I will establish My covenant with him forever…’ (Bereishit 17:19). The name Yitzchak comes from the word tzchok (laughter) — in commemoration of the moment when Avraham heard the prophecy of his son's birth and ‘fell on his face and laughed (וַיְצְחָק — va-yitzchak), saying to himself: Shall a child be born to a hundred-year-old man?! Shall ninety-year-old Sarah give birth?!’ (ibid. 17:17, Ramban; Rashi, Bereishit 17:19). And exactly one year before the child's birth, an angel informed his future mother, the prophetess Sarah, of this as well (Bereishit 18:10, Rashi).

According to the kabbalists, a ‘spark of the soul’ of the angel Gavriel was embodied in Yitzchak. At the same time, he was a new incarnation of the soul of Chava, the wife of Adam — the foremother of all humanity (Seder HaDorot). And the infant's face bore a striking resemblance to that of his father, Avraham (Targum Yonatan, Bereishit 25:19; Bava Metzia 87a; Bereishit Rabbah 53:6).

He was the first child to be circumcised, in accordance with the law of the Torah, on the eighth day from birth (Bereishit 21:4). In 2050 /1710 BCE/, on the day the two-year-old Yitzchak was weaned, Avraham held a great feast, to which he invited his teachers Shem (see) and Ever (see), his father Terach, and the Philistine king Avimelech (Bereishit 21:8; Bava Metzia 87a; Sefer HaYashar).

Yitzchak studied with Avraham (Bereishit Rabbah 95:3; Rambam, Laws of Idolatry 1:3). Teaching his son the mitzvot, Avraham would tell him: ‘In the future the Creator will command your descendants to do such and such’ (Ramban, Shemot 15:25, Beit HaAyin).

In 2074 /1686 BCE/ the family moved deeper into the land, setting up camp at the crossing of caravan routes — in a place later called Be'er Sheva. There, for many years, they gave shelter to travelers, provided them with all they needed, and brought them closer to faith in the One G-d (Bereishit 21:33; Bereishit Rabbah 54:6; Seder HaDorot).

However, Yitzchak did not merely replicate his father's path of service, which was based on kindness (chesed). Yitzchak's primary attribute became strength (gevurah): his path of service required an uncompromising overcoming of negative character traits and desires. He treated himself with a measure of judgment that allowed for no leniency or indulgence whatsoever — not even from the Creator (Zohar 1, 137b; Michtav MeEliyahu vol. 2 p. 208, vol. 5 p. 58).

Tradition tells that once, in the month of Tishrei of the year 2085 /1676 BCE/, Yitzchak's older brother Yishmael reproached him: ‘I am greater in serving the Creator than you are — for I was circumcised at the age of thirteen, consciously enduring the pain in order to fulfill G-d's will and our father's command. But you were circumcised at eight days old, when you understood nothing.’ ‘There is nothing to boast of in that!’ Yitzchak replied. ‘Even if G-d were to command our father to offer me up entirely as a sacrifice, I would gladly fulfill His will.’ And immediately the Creator said to Avraham: ‘Take your son, your only one, whom you love — Yitzchak — and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of’ (Bereishit 22:2; Sanhedrin 89b; Sefer HaYashar, Vayera). That same day Avraham told Sarah that the next day he would take Yitzchak to study at the yeshiva of his teachers, Shem and Ever. At dawn, father and son set out, taking with them also Yishmael and Avraham's closest disciple, Eliezer. Avraham warned his companions that along the way they would ascend one of the mountains in the land of Moriah to offer a sacrifice to the Creator there (Bereishit 22:3; Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 31; Sefer HaYashar).

Along the way, a handsome young man approached Yitzchak and asked him the purpose of their journey. ‘I am going to study the wisdom of the Torah,’ Yitzchak replied. ‘In this life, or after death?’ the stranger asked pointedly. And he revealed to Yitzchak that his father had deceived him: in truth, Avraham intended to slaughter him and offer him as a sacrifice. ‘I am ready for this,’ Yitzchak answered. ‘Do not listen to him, do not obey him,’ the stranger continued to urge, ‘for he is old and has lost his mind. For years he fasted and prayed for G-d to grant him a son, and now he intends to slaughter you! Guard your life — it is the greatest treasure.’ ‘Whatever may be,’ Yitzchak answered, ‘I will not disobey the commandments of my Creator or the instructions of my father.’ And when he repeated the young man's words to Avraham, his father warned him: ‘My son, do not listen to him and do not obey him, for this is Satan, who seeks to turn us away from fulfilling the commandments of the Almighty’ (Tanchuma, Vayera 22; Sefer HaYashar; Bereishit Rabbah 56:4).

On the third day of the journey, the tenth of Tishrei in the year 2085, on Yom Kippur, Avraham saw a cloud above one of the mountains, as if attached to its summit, and understood that this was the Shechinah (the Divine Presence). He asked Yitzchak whether he too saw this manifestation of the Shechinah. It turned out that only the two of them could see the cloud — neither Yishmael nor Eliezer noticed it (Bereishit 22:4; Tanchuma, Vayera 23; Bereishit Rabbah 56:2; Yagel Libeinu).

From there, Avraham and Yitzchak approached Mount Moriah alone, the two of them: the son carried the wood prepared for the burnt offering, while the father carried the knife for the slaughter and a torch to kindle the fire on the altar. Along the way Yitzchak asked: ‘We are carrying fire and wood — but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ ‘My son,’ Avraham answered him, ‘G-d has chosen you as the offering’ (Bereishit 22:5—8; Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 31; Tanchuma, Vayera 23; Sefer HaYashar).

Yitzchak believed unconditionally in the truth of the prophecy his father had received. He said: ‘Father, do all that G-d has commanded you, joyfully and with a calm heart’ (Sanhedrin 89b; Sefer HaYashar).

On the mountain, Avraham and Yitzchak rebuilt the ancient altar upon which Adam and Noach (see) had once offered sacrifices: Yitzchak handed the stones, and his father set them in place. Their hearts were filled with joy that they were fulfilling the Creator's will together — Avraham was like a father building a wedding canopy for his son, while Yitzchak felt as if he were building a wedding canopy for himself. Then, in the afternoon, when his father was about to lay him upon the wood on the altar, Yitzchak asked: ‘Please, father, bind me as tightly as you can. For I am still young, and perhaps out of fear of the knife my body will convulse — lest the shechitah you perform on me become invalid, and your offering not be accepted.’ And seeing that Avraham was weeping out of pity and love for him, Yitzchak, holding back his own tears, said: ‘Father, hurry, carry out G-d's will regarding me — do everything just as He has commanded you’ (Bereishit 22:9; Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 31; Bereishit Rabbah 56:8; Sefer HaYashar; Yalkut Shimoni, Vayera 101; Zohar 1, 164b).

At the moment when the blade of the knife touched Yitzchak's throat, his soul left his body — he saw the Shechinah (the Divine Presence) above the altar, along with the highest angels, hidden from Avraham's eyes. Only when one of the angels conveyed the Almighty's command to Avraham — ‘Do not lay your hand upon the lad…’ (Bereishit 22:12) — did Yitzchak's soul return to his body, and he experienced a resurrection from the dead. After Avraham untied the ropes, Yitzchak rose again to his feet and recited the blessing: ‘Blessed are You, G-d, who revives the dead’ (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 31; Targum Yonatan, Bereishit 22:10; Bereishit Rabbah 65:10). The kabbalistic work the Zohar states that his soul returned to him transformed and rectified: ‘instead of the soul of this world, the soul of the World to Come entered him’ (Zohar 1, 60a).

At the hour of his binding upon the altar, Yitzchak reached the spiritual level of Adam on the day of his creation. He came to grasp that no reality exists in the world other than the absolute unity of the Creator, and that measured against this sole true reality, an individual human life is relative and illusory (Michtav MeEliyahu vol. 5, pp. 123, 434; Mima'amakim, Bereishit p. 144). And although Yitzchak's sacrifice was not carried through to completion, it was counted by the Almighty as though it had been fully performed (Bereishit Rabbah 55:5).

When Yitzchak returned with Avraham to Be'er Sheva, he no longer found his mother alive: Sarah, driven by an anxious foreboding, had set out to search for them and died on the way, in the city of Chevron. Avraham and Yitzchak buried her in the Cave of Machpelah, near Chevron (Bereishit 23:2, 19; Sefer HaYashar). After the days of mourning had passed, Yitzchak went to the yeshiva of Shem and Ever to study the ways of serving the Almighty, and spent about three years there (Sefer HaYashar; Bereishit Rabbah 56:11; Seder HaDorot).

In 2088 /1672 BCE/, at the age of forty, Yitzchak returned to his father's house. He married the young Rivkah, granddaughter of Avraham's brother Nachor — the bride arrived from the land of Charan together with Avraham's disciple Eliezer, who had been sent to bring her (Bereishit 24:2—67, 25:20; Seder HaDorot). According to one version, Rivkah was fourteen years old at the time (Tosafot, Yevamot 61b); according to another, ten (Sefer HaYashar); and according to a third, even three years old (Seder Olam Rabbah 1; Sofrim 21:9; Zohar 1, 136b). Rivkah closely resembled Sarah, and when Yitzchak brought her into the tent where his mother had once lived, the Shechinah returned to that tent: the candle that Rivkah lit before Shabbat burned all week, until the following Shabbat (Zohar 1, 133a).

It turned out, however, that both Yitzchak and his wife were unable to have children, and for twenty years of marriage they remained childless (Targum Yonatan, Bereishit 25:21; Yevamot 64a, Rashi). In 2107 /1653 BCE/ Yitzchak and Rivkah went to Mount Moriah, to the place where Yitzchak had been bound upon the altar, and prayed there for children — and their prayer was answered (Bereishit 25:21; Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 32; Sefer HaYashar; Seder HaDorot). Rivkah soon conceived, but the pregnancy proved very difficult. When she went to the yeshiva of Shem and Ever to seek their counsel and guidance, they revealed to her that in her womb were the forefathers of two nations, who would struggle with each other for dominion over the world, and that in the end ‘the elder shall serve the younger’ (Bereishit 25:23; Bereishit Rabbah 63:6—7).

In 2108 /1652 BCE/ Yitzchak and Rivkah had twin sons born to them: the one who emerged first was named Esav, and the second, Yaakov (from the word akev — heel), because at birth he was holding on to his older brother's heel (Bereishit 25:24—26; Derech Eretz Zuta 4:4; Seder HaDorot). As children the twins were difficult to tell apart, and together they learned from their father and grandfather the ways of serving the Creator (Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 4; Bereishit Rabbah 63:10; Zohar 1, 138b). Yet Yitzchak felt a special love for his older son, with whom he sensed an exceptional spiritual kinship (Bereishit 25:28; Zohar 1, 137b). This spiritual preference also affected Yitzchak's practical relationship with his two sons: he was strict in guiding and disciplining Yaakov, while he never reproached Esav for anything — and of this our Sages said: ‘If a father does not discipline his son, the son will ultimately turn to a path of evil and come to hate his father’ (Shemot Rabbah 1:1)

From the age of thirteen, the paths of Yitzchak's sons diverged: in 2121 /1639 BCE/ Yaakov went to study at the yeshiva of Shem and Ever, while Esav began spending most of his day in the wilderness, at the crossroads, where he robbed travelers and, if they resisted, killed them. But to his father, Esav explained that he went off to desolate places for intensive prayer (Bereishit 25:27; Bereishit Rabbah 63:10; Zohar 1, 139a). To win Yitzchak's love, Esav constantly discussed intricate halachic questions with him — asking, for example, whether tithes needed to be separated from salt or from water — and Yitzchak was delighted and amazed at how scrupulous and precise his elder son was in fulfilling the mitzvot (Tanchuma, Toldot 8; Otzar Ishei HaTanach, Yitzchak).

At the same time, Esav certainly could not truly deceive Yitzchak, who possessed the discernment of a prophet. But in accordance with his own path of service to the Creator, Yitzchak believed that the harder it is for a person to overcome his evil inclination, the greater the sanctification of G-d's Name achieved by success — and so his special love for Esav, aimed at drawing him closer to the Creator, represented for Yitzchak the highest form of service. Moreover, after his binding upon the altar, Yitzchak possessed such perfect spiritual purity that he simply did not see evil in other people — including Esav — recognizing in everyone only their very best qualities (Michtav MeEliyahu 5, pp. 59, 123, 405).

In the month of Tishrei of the year 2123 /1637 BCE/, Yitzchak's father Avraham passed away (Bereishit 25:7—8; Rosh Hashanah 10b; Seder HaDorot). Yitzchak inherited not only all of his father's possessions, but also his principal treasure: the right to the Land of Israel (Sanhedrin 91a).

Yitzchak and his older brother Yishmael buried their father in the Cave of Machpelah, next to Sarah (Bereishit 25:9—10; Zohar 3, 164a). The day of the burial became a turning point for Yitzchak's own sons: on that day Esav committed murder and adultery and inclined toward idolatry, and then sold Yaakov his birthright, which entailed special obligations in the service of the Creator (Bereishit 25:29—34; Bava Batra 16b; Bereishit Rabbah 63:12—13).

That same year, 2123, shortly after Avraham's death, a severe famine began in the land of Canaan, and Yitzchak intended to wait it out in Egypt, as his parents had once done. But along the way the Creator revealed Himself to him for the first time and commanded him to remain in the holy land, which in the future would be given to his descendants as their inheritance (Bereishit 26:1—5, Rashi; Seder HaDorot). The midrash explains that after Yitzchak had been bound upon the altar, he was no longer permitted to leave the boundaries of the holy land, just as a sacrificial animal that has been placed on the altar may not be removed from the Temple courtyard (Bereishit Rabbah 64:3, Etz Yosef).

Following the Creator's command, Yitzchak settled for this period in Gerar, ruled by Avimelech, son of the previous Philistine king who had made a covenant with Avraham. Yitzchak and Rivkah lived near the king's palace and enjoyed his special protection: by the king's order, they were dressed in royal garments and paraded through the streets of the city, with a proclamation: ‘Whoever touches this man or his wife shall die.’ During this period Yitzchak became extraordinarily wealthy: he reaped abundant harvests in the fields of Gerar, and his flocks multiplied rapidly. His wealth surpassed even that of King Avimelech (Bereishit 26:6—14; Bereishit Rabbah 64:6—7; Sefer HaYashar).

After the period of crop failure and famine in Canaan came to an end, Yitzchak returned to Be'er Sheva (Bereishit 26:23), and later settled in Chevron (Sefer HaYashar; Seder HaDorot). He chose a permanent place for prayer in a field near the Cave of Machpelah, where his parents were buried — he felt the presence of the Shechinah (the Divine Presence) there (Zohar 2, 39b). Yitzchak generally prayed in the late afternoon, and it was at this time that his descendants through Yaakov instituted the Mincha prayer (Berachot 26b).

In 2126 /1634 BCE/ Yitzchak again sent Yaakov to the yeshiva of Shem and Ever, while Esav remained with his father (Sefer HaYashar; Seder HaDorot). In 2148 /1612 BCE/, at the age of forty, Esav married Yehudit and Basmat, who were from the Canaanite tribe of the Hittites (Bereishit 26:34; Seder HaDorot). Seeking to retain his father's favor, Esav hypocritically emphasized that he was imitating him in every way, since Yitzchak too had married at the age of forty (Bereishit Rabbah 65:1). Esav's family settled near Yitzchak's tent, and his Canaanite wives continued to burn incense to their tribal idols, causing Yitzchak and Rivkah sharp emotional pain (Bereishit 26:35; Seder HaDorot). During this period, because of the constant presence of these idolatresses, Yitzchak lost the spirit of prophecy (ruach hakodesh) (Tanchuma, Toldot 8; Bereishit Rabbah 65:4, Etz Yosef).

In his old age Yitzchak's eyes grew extremely weak (Bereishit 27:1). The midrash explains that he had reached so high a level of service that he himself asked the Creator for suffering, in order to atone for all the transgressions — including unintentional ones — that he had committed during his lifetime. He wished to stand before the Creator at the hour of his death fully purified. And so the Almighty granted him blindness. Blindness also spared him from people's scorn: when Yitzchak appeared in the street, people who knew well of Esav's misdeeds would say, ‘Here comes the father of that wicked man!’ But now, because of his blindness, he almost never left his house (Bereishit Rabbah 65:9—10, Etz Yosef).

And throughout all these years Esav touchingly cared for his father — this was the one mitzvah he fulfilled sincerely and with all his heart. In the entire history of the world there was no one who showed his father such respect and honor as Esav did (Devarim Rabbah 1:15; Zohar 1, 146b).

In 2158 /1602 BCE/, after thirty-two years of continuous study with Shem and Ever, Yaakov also returned to Yitzchak (Sefer HaYashar).

• On 14 Nissan of the year 2171 /1589 BCE/, Yitzchak, who was already 123 years old, sensing that death was near, blessed his sons. He originally intended to give his primary blessing — which conferred the right to the Land of Canaan — to his elder son Esav. But Rivkah persuaded Yaakov to take advantage of his father's blindness, pass himself off as Esav, and receive the blessing in his place. And so it happened. Although Yitzchak sensed that something was amiss, when he asked, ‘Who are you, my son?’ Yaakov confidently answered, ‘I am Esav, your firstborn.’ And even when Yitzchak felt his son's hands, he still did not detect the deception, since Rivkah had thoughtfully covered Yaakov's hands with the skins of young goats, making them as hairy as Esav's. Then Yitzchak exclaimed in bewilderment, ‘The voice is the voice of Yaakov, but the hands are the hands of Esav!’ and asked once more, ‘Is it you, my son Esav?!’ Having received an affirmative answer, Yitzchak pronounced his blessing: ‘…Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brother… Cursed be he who curses you, and blessed be he who blesses you’ (Bereishit 27:1—29, Ramban 4; Targum Yonatan 27:1; Seder HaDorot).

It was hidden from Yitzchak who stood before him, so that he would bless Yaakov unknowingly — as if not on his own initiative, but from G-d. And since Yitzchak wished to give Esav what Heaven had intended for the other son, the Creator arranged events so that Yaakov would receive his portion and Esav his own (Zohar 1, 139a, 143b). For it was only in this way that Yaakov could receive his father's primary blessing given willingly and with a full heart (Ramban, Bereishit 30:33).

As soon as Yaakov left the room, the real Esav came in to Yitzchak. Discovering the deception, Yitzchak ‘trembled in great terror’ (Bereishit 27:30-33). According to the midrash, he was seized by even greater terror than at the hour when he had been bound upon the altar (Bereishit Rabbah 67:2). The shock he experienced was connected, above all, to his realization that his beloved son Esav had forever lost this blessing, and with it the right to the holy land and a special closeness to G-d (Ramban, Bereishit 30:33). Yet, perceiving prophetically that this blessing could pass to no one but Yaakov and his descendants, Yitzchak confirmed: ‘Indeed, he (i.e., Yaakov) shall be blessed!’ (Bereishit 27:33, Ramban).

Then Yitzchak blessed Esav as well: ‘…By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restive, you shall break his yoke from off your neck’ (Bereishit 27:30-40). As the midrash explains, the meaning of this blessing was as follows: Esav's strength would depend on Yaakov's merits, and if Yaakov or his descendants cast off the yoke of Torah and mitzvot, then Esav would gain power over them (Bereishit Rabbah 67:7). On a deeper level of understanding, even the blessing ‘By your sword you shall live’ was given to Esav, in essence, only for Yaakov's sake — so that Esav's descendants would serve as a ‘chastising rod,’ bringing Yaakov's wayward descendants back to their Jewishness and to the Torah (Michtav MeEliyahu vol. 4, p. 38).

That same day Yaakov fled from Esav's wrath to the house of his teacher Ever, while Esav, offended at his father and mother, whom he believed had deceived him, went off to the land of Seir, the homeland of his wives — though six months later he did return to his father in Chevron (Sefer HaYashar). Fourteen years later, in the year 2185 /1575/ BCE, Yaakov too returned home, but Yitzchak soon sent him off to Charan to find himself a bride from his mother Rivkah's family (Bereishit 28:1; Sefer HaYashar; Seder HaDorot).

In 2206 /1554 BCE/, a messenger arrived from Yaakov, who had returned to the land of Canaan with his two wives and children, telling Yitzchak that near the city of Shechem his family had fallen into danger — Canaanite kings from seven surrounding cities had gathered to destroy the unwelcome newcomers. Yitzchak then armed all his servants and sent them to his son's aid. At the same time, he prayed that the Creator would instill fear in the kings' hearts, so that they would abandon their plan. And so it happened: at their council of war, the Canaanite kings, recalling how Yitzchak's father Avraham had defeated the mighty army of Nimrod and his allies, said, ‘The Jews are few, but G-d is with them,’ and in fear they turned their forces away from Yaakov's camp (Sefer HaYashar).

In 2207 /1553 BCE/, Yitzchak's wife Rivkah died at a ripe old age (Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 4; Sefer HaYashar; Seder HaDorot). Yitzchak and Esav buried her in the Cave of Machpelah (Eruvin 53a; Sefer HaYashar; Zohar 3, 164a).

Shortly afterward, Yaakov and his family settled near his father, in Chevron. Of his twelve grandsons — the sons of Yaakov — Yitzchak grew closest to eight-year-old Yosef: the boy took care of him, while Yitzchak taught him the ways of serving the Creator. And when, in 2213 /1547 BCE/, news came of Yosef's disappearance — his brothers supposing that wild animals had torn him apart in the wilderness — Yitzchak mourned him bitterly (Seder Olam Rabbah 2; Seder HaDorot).

The Patriarch Yitzchak completed his earthly journey in Chevron in 2228 /1532 BCE/, at the age of 180 (Bereishit 35:27—28; Seder Olam Rabbah 2; Seder HaDorot). Before his death he blessed the eleven sons of Yaakov, as well as the sons of Esav (Seder HaDorot).

Yaakov and Esav buried their father in the Cave of Machpelah, next to Avraham. Many kings of Canaan took part in the funeral procession (Bereishit 35:29; Eruvin 53a; Sefer HaYashar; Zohar 3, 164a).

Like his father Avraham, Yitzchak is counted among the six greatest tzadikim who died a special death that masters of the hidden wisdom call ‘the kiss of the Shechinah’ — the bodies of those who die such a death are not subject to decay (Bava Batra 17a, Rashi).

The Patriarch Yitzchak continued the rectification of the world that Avraham had begun. For because of the sins of the twenty generations who lived before Avraham, the Shechinah had withdrawn from the earth to the seventh level of the Heavens. But then Avraham and his descendants changed the course of history: in Avraham's merit the Shechinah descended from the seventh level to the sixth, in Yitzchak's merit to the fifth, and so on, until it once again found its dwelling place in the lower world (Bereishit Rabbah 19:7, Etz Yosef).

It is above all the merits of the Patriarch Yitzchak that will protect his descendants, the people of Israel, throughout history. The Jerusalem Talmud states that in all future generations G-d will see before Him the offering of Yitzchak, so that year after year, in the merit of his selfless sacrifice, He will grant forgiveness to his descendants and save them from calamity (Yerushalmi, Ta'anit 2:4; Tanchuma, Vayera 23). The outstanding master of the hidden wisdom, the Maharal of Prague, explains that it was precisely Yitzchak's self-sacrifice that gave atoning power to the sacrifices offered in the Temple — every offering was a reminder of how Yitzchak allowed himself to be bound and placed upon the altar (Derech Chaim 1:2, Vetheda).

At the same time, the Patriarch Yitzchak's self-sacrifice for the sake of G-d became an inherent trait of his descendants. When a Jew dies for being Jewish, he in a sense completes Yitzchak's sacrifice. ‘For when Avraham raised his son upon the altar, only their intentions were tested, but the sacrifice itself was not actually carried through, since the angel told Avraham, “Do not lay your hand upon the lad…” — wrote Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira, the Rebbe of Piaseczno, in 5701 /1940/, while in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. — But ever since then, whenever a Jew is killed at the hands of foreigners, even without the Jew's own intention to sacrifice himself, an offering takes place, and this, as it were, completes Yitzchak's sacrifice, for there [in the Akeidah] there was desire and intention, while here there is the completed act’ (Eish Kodesh, Sukkot 5701; Mima'amakim, Bereishit p. 132).

According to the historical understanding of our Sages, the main thread running through all of subsequent human history has been the confrontation between the descendants of Yitzchak's two sons, Yaakov and Esav. And, in the vivid imagery of the midrash, in the World to Come Yitzchak's face will be covered with the blush of shame on account of Esav (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:13).

By mutual agreement between the brothers, all of Yitzchak's possessions passed to Esav, while Yaakov received as his inheritance the right to the land of Canaan, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates. Having taken all of his father's property, Esav settled permanently in the land of Seir (Bereishit 36:6—8; Sefer HaYashar). In merit for Esav's yielding the land of Canaan to his brother Yaakov, he was given dominion over a hundred lands, from Seir to Rome (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38) — meaning that it was indeed Esav's descendants who ruled ancient Rome, and they destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and exiled Yaakov's descendants from the holy land (Ramban, Bereishit 36:43).

But according to the Torah's prophecy, at the end of days ‘Edom [the nation descended from Esav] shall be dispossessed, Seir, his enemies, shall be dispossessed, while Israel is triumphant… and dominion shall be Yaakov's…’ (Bamidbar 24:18—19). And then, with the coming of Mashiach the king, Yitzchak's blessing to Yaakov will be fulfilled: ‘…Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you,’ as it is written (Tehillim 72:11): ‘All kings shall bow down to him, all nations shall serve him’ (Zohar 1, 143a). The Maharal of Prague notes that the people of Israel will merit the final redemption above all in the merit of Yitzchak, who wholly offered himself up to G-d, as well as in the merit of those tzadikim of Israel who, in every generation, have sacrificed themselves in order to remain faithful to G-d and His Torah (Netzach Yisrael 13).

As masters of the hidden wisdom point out, the subsequent incarnation of Yitzchak's soul was the kohen Pinchas (see), son of Elazar (see) and grandson of Aharon (see). A ‘spark’ of Yitzchak's soul was also present in the prophet Yonah (see) (Seder HaDorot).