And these are the generations of Yitzchok the son of Avraham; Avraham begot Yitzchok. (Breishis 25:19)
My wife and I went to the Carlebach Shul in Manhattan a few years ago for a Shabbaton. It was Parshas Toldos. Shabbos morning the reader of the Torah was late in coming and so the Rabbi was stalling for time by peppering the crowd with brief but interesting Torah thoughts. It was not quite a speech and it was spontaneous so I was looking in a Sefer and listening with half an ear. Then he asked a question that tickled my interest slightly.
How come Parshas Toldos is called, “Toldos”? It should rightfully be called “Yitzchok”. The Parsha begins, “Eleh Toldos Yitzchok… These are the generations of Yitzchok…”. After all, Parshas Noach begins the same way, “Eleh Toldos Noach… These are the generations of Noach” and the Parsha is titled “Noach”. So, either both should be Toldos or one should be Noach and the other should be Yitzchok. Why then is one Noach and the other one Toldos!?
Then the Rabbi dropped a diamond, not a dime, but a diamond! My eyes were opened to a very valuable insight. Noach was a grand historical personality. “These are the generations of Noach, Noach…”, but Noach produced Noach, alone! That’s a great accomplishment. He is titled perfect Tzadik in his time. He was a man, the man of that generation, of his time. So, he is the focus of that Parsha and it is therefore appropriate to call it after him, Noach!
When it comes to the Avos, Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov the story is different. They may be fascinating personalities and it is terribly interesting to learn about them and from them but it’s not about them. They didn’t live for themselves. They were walking in wet cement and paving the way for us, for all future generations. It’s not about them! It’s about Toldos! Good Jewish parents don’t live for themselves. They, we live for Toldos. WOW! This has big implications for both Avos and Toldos!
More than 44 years ago, I remember hearing directly from Rabbi Simcha Wasserman the following question and answer. His words become more relevant and meaningful to me as time goes by. He had a way of taking giant ideas and reducing them to the simplest parables. He asked rhetorically with his sweet Yiddish accent, “Let’s say somebody invents a synthetic potato. It smells, tastes, looks like, and feels, like a real potato. How are you going to know the difference between a synthetic potato and a real potato?”
He answered, “Very simple! Put it in the ground! If it produces another potato then it was a real potato. If it doesn’t, then it was a synthetic potato.” Obviously, he was not talking about potatoes but about authentic and artificial Torah. Torah is a Tree of Life! It generates more and more Torah.
At the other end of the spectrum, every generation lives for the next. Now here we are the generation that all the AVOS and IMAHOS have been living for. That places us in a very important and responsible position. How do we know whether we are truly worthy of all this or not!?
One Erev Shabbos I was driving my youngest son back to his high school. I was playing for him some music that I like and hoping he could appreciate what real talented musicians could do and how poetry is more than forcing lyrics to rhyme. He asked me if he could play a song for me. I was skeptical. He told me that his Rebbe has this on his phone. I wondered how he knew which songs were on his Rebbe’s phone, but I also knew that his Rebbe is an ADAM GADOL, a great person, so I opened up my ear and heart to listen. It was a song from 8th Day entitled, “Avraham”.
I was tickled a little by the genre but one refrain there knocked me out. The first time I heard it I started to cry. I had to pull over to the side of the road until I recovered. The words are, “Avraham, are we the children that you dreamed of? Are we that shining star that you saw at night?” What a beautiful and powerful way to examine and reflect upon ourselves, through the eyes of Avraham Avinu. We have since included this song in our Pesach Seder, a sort of 5th question! “Avraham, is this what you had in mind?” If the answer is, “NO!” then we owe it to the generations, the Avos that preceded us, to up our game. Even if it’s “YES!”, surely, we can find ways to make it even better.