Adina Blaustein: Hi, welcome to Into the Verse. I'm Adina Blaustein, and I'm joined today by my colleague Beth Lesch. Beth, welcome.

Beth Lesch: Thanks so much, Adina. I'm really happy to be here.

Why is Isaac One of the Patriarchs?

Adina: I'm glad. The last few parshiot have really given so much space to discuss Avraham, so many great stories about his family and his struggles. And the upcoming parshiot give tons of space to describe Yaakov and his journeys and his family and his children as well.

Beth: But Yitzchak gets the short shrift.

Adina: Yes, if you're talking about…well, what about our patriarch Yitzchak? It's pretty much Parshat Toldot, which is what…?

Beth: Just blink; blink and it's gone. Sneeze and it's gone.

Adina: Yeah, exactly. And it's not that Parshat Toldot isn't a good story, don't get me wrong. It's, like, a gripping story, yeah — except it's just not about Yitzchak, right? The great stories in Parshat Toldot are about Yaakov and Eisav.

Beth: Right? Yitzchak is the aging father who gets deceived. He's definitely not the protagonist.

Adina: But there's one story in Toldot where he does seem to be the protagonist, and that's where he's in Grar, in the land of the Plishtim, digging those wells.

Beth: Mm-Hmm.

Adina: But when we talk about what it means to be a patriarch, think about the stories of Avraham and his heroism and his struggles, and think about Yaakov as well and the challenges that he overcomes in his life. And then I'm looking at Yitzchak and the story of the wells, and that's all I kind of have to go on. And I'm kind of left with the question of, why is he a patriarch exactly? What is his heroism? What is…what makes Yitzchak so great?

Beth: Hmm. I think that that's a very fair point, but both what makes him so great…and also, can I get a sense of his character? Can I get a handle on who he is?

Adina: So to answer that, I'd like to do what we always do, which is look at the text.

Beth: We’re going to Google it! Oh, right. That other thing that we always do. Okay, we're going to look at the text.

Isaac Prays for a Child

Adina: Yeah. So I started by opening up the first few verses of Parashat Toldot, and come with me to the beginning of Parashat Toldot in Genesis 25, verse 19.

וְאֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת יִצְחָק בֶּן־אַבְרָהָם — This is the story, the generations of Yitzchak, son of Avraham, אַבְרָהָם הוֹלִיד אֶת־יִצְחָק — Avraham had given birth to Yitzchak, וַיְהִי יִצְחָק בֶּן־אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה בְּקַחְתּוֹ אֶת־רִבְקָה בַּת־בְּתוּאֵל הָאֲרַמִּי — Yitzchak was 40 years old when he married Rivka, the son of Betuel the Aramean, מִפַּדַּן אֲרָם.

Beth: Mazal tov!

Adina: Yeah. אֲחוֹת לָבָן הָאֲרַמִּי לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה. Okay, so we're told that Yitzchak is 40 years old when he gets married to Rivka, and we're reminded of Rivka's lineage. Nothing terribly earth-shattering here.

And then you read one more pasuk,and you see that Yitzchak and Rivka deal with an incredible challenge, not unlike the one that Yitzchak's own father dealt with, and also not unlike what Yaakov deals with in the next generation.

Pasuk chaf-alef, verse 21: וַיֶּעְתַּר יִצְחָק לַיקוָה לְנֹכַח אִשְׁתּוֹ — Yitzchak prays to God on behalf of his wife, כִּי עֲקָרָה הִוא — because she is dealing with infertility, she is an עֲקָרָה.

וַיֵּעָתֶר לוֹ יְקוָה — And God responds to that prayer, וַתַּהַר רִבְקָה אִשְׁתּוֹ — and Rivka conceives and becomes pregnant.

And the subsequent story is the story where Yitzchak seems to be almost an afterthought. The birth and the growth of the twins, Yaakov and Eisav.

So here's what I noticed. I looked at this word, וַיֶּעְתַּר יִצְחָק — Yitzchak prays to God. And this verse seems to be hitting that word pretty hard. Because…

Beth: Yeah, because it shows up twice in the verse in slightly different forms. It's kind of cool. That was catching my eye just now as you were reading it. 

Adina: So that word seemed interesting to me. It seemed like the repetition was highlighting, “Look at this more.”

Beth: Not just the repetition, but it's a very unusual word.

Adina: Yes. I was expecting, like, vayitpalell, which is a word that appears lots of times. That's the generic word for “he prayed.”

I did a concordance search, and there were lots of entries. It appears a bunch of times in Shemot (Exodus), but there was one entry that had the exact same formulation of וַיֶּעְתַּר that just caught my eye, and that was in the Book of Judges.

The Start of the Samson Story

What surprised me, or what, like, just intrigued me about that entry in the Book of Judges is, it was in Judges chapter 13, which is the story of Shimshon, that hero who is possessed with lots of strength and who does one incredibly heroic feat after another. And I remembered something else about the Shimshon story that made me think I needed to look at it more.

I want to see if you're going to see what I saw and to validate me that I'm not crazy. Pull up Judges chapter 13, why don't you, and let's take a look at the story of Shimshon's birth.

Beth: So, Adina, I know that the story of Shimshon, it's not in the Chumash, it's not in the Five Books of Torah, it's not one of the stories that we read every year. People don't know it as well. Can you just give us some context about what's going on here?

Adina: So, the broader context of the Book of Judges, the Book of Sefer Shoftim, is after Yehoshua has led the people to the Land of Israel. He's portioned out every tribal piece of land. They have some period of peace and good times, but very quickly they become vulnerable to the surrounding enemies. And these tribes, all in their own nachalot, in their own portions of land, can't seem to band together.

God sends enemies to attack them as punishment, and a leader arises, tries to create some cohesion amongst the tribes to band together. And unfortunately, it's like a repetitive cycle in the book. And Shimshon, Samson, is one of those individuals, a leader who God sends to help out the Israelites. And let's take a look at the story of his birth.

So Beth, why don't you read verse 1 of Judges chapter 13, the story of Shimshon?

Beth: Okay. וַיֹּסִיפוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לַעֲשׂוֹת הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי יְקוָה — So the children of Israel continued to do that which was evil in the eyes of God, וַיִּתְּנֵם יְקוָה בְּיַד־פְּלִשְׁתִּים אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה — and God handed them over to the hands of the Plishtim, left them at the mercy of the Plishtim militarily for 40 years.

Adina: Great. Keep going.

Beth: וַיְהִי אִישׁ אֶחָד מִצׇּרְעָה מִמִּשְׁפַּחַת הַדָּנִי וּשְׁמוֹ מָנוֹחַ — So there was one man from Tzora, from a Danite family. His name was Manoach. וְאִשְׁתּוֹ עֲקָרָה וְלֹא יָלָדָה — His wife was barren. There's that word again that we saw in the Yitzchak verse. 

Adina: Exactly. I'm going to pause you here because here's what happened to me. I was looking through the concordance entries to try to understand that word וַיֶּעְתַּר used in the context of Yitzchak praying to God on behalf of Rivka, and then I saw that word appear in the Shimshon story.

Beth: עֲקָרָה, yeah.

Adina: And I was like, wait a second, right? Shimshon's mother is an עֲקָרָה, and Rivka's an עֲקָרָה.

Beth: Hmm. Maybe you're on to something.

Adina: Yeah. By the way, did you notice something about the context of the Shimshon story in verse 1?

Beth: Hmm. Let me think. אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה — Forty years

Adina: Yeah. What a bizarre detail that both stories have that context. Just so you know, Yitzchak was 40 years old when he married Rivka. Just so you know, the Plishtim have been harassing the Israelites for 40 years.

So, 40 years, the עֲקָרָה, the fact that וַיֶּעְתַּר, there's a man who's going to pray to God in both stories.

Prenatal Instructions for a Barren Prophetess

And so I kept on reading these verses, and let's see what else we can find. So come with me to verse 3, the continuation. What do these…what do Shimshon's parents…what happens to them dealing with this situation of infertility?

Beth: וַיֵּרָא מַלְאַךְ־יְקוָה אֶל־הָאִשָּׁה — A messenger, or an angel of God appeared to the woman, וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ — and he said to her, הִנֵּה־נָא אַתְּ־עֲקָרָה וְלֹא יָלַדְתְּ וְהָרִית וְיָלַדְתְּ בֵּן — Behold, right now you are barren and you haven't been able to bear a child, but you will become pregnant and you will bear a child.

Adina: So that prophecy that Shimshon's mother receives reminded me of the prophecy that Rivka receives in Toldot. In Toldot, Rivka, after she conceives, is experiencing something very difficult, a very difficult symptom. Unclear exactly what it is. In verse 22, in Toldot, chapter 25.

Adina: וַיִּתְרֹצְצוּ הַבָּנִים בְּקִרְבָּהּ — The children, literally, are, like, running around in her womb. She probably fears that she's going to miscarry. וַתֹּאמֶר אִם־כֵּן לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי — Why is this happening to me? וַתֵּלֶךְ לִדְרֹשׁ אֶת־יְקוָה — And so she goes to seek counsel from the Divine. Unclear…does she have an angel intercede? Does she find a navi (prophet)?

And she receives a prophecy: וַיֹּאמֶר יְקוָה לָהּ — God says to her, שְׁנֵי גוֹיִם בְּבִטְנֵךְ — There are two nations in your womb, and these two nations in your womb will be locked in a lifelong struggle. And obviously this foreshadows the many narratives that follow about Yaakov and Eisav and the struggles between them, the rivalry between them.

Now, compare to the prophecy that Shimshon's mother receives. So just on the most simplistic level, the angel tells her: וְהָרִית וְיָלַדְתְּ בֵּן.

Beth: The prophecy is, “You're going to become pregnant; you're going to bear a son.”

Adina: Exactly. So although Rivka was told, “You're going to have two children,” but the prophecy here is, “You will have a child,” right? Rivka presumably was afraid that she wasn't going to have a child because otherwise, why is she experiencing this terrible symptom of וַיִּתְרֹצְצוּ הַבָּנִים בְּקִרְבָּהּ, the children are running at each other in the womb? So the prophecy itself is, “You will give birth to a child.”

The next thing I noticed about the prophecy is, who gets the prophecy in each scenario?

Beth: Oh, interesting; so, it's the woman in both cases.

Adina: And in fact, that becomes, like, kind of like a plot point in both stories, right? Unclear. Does Rivka tell Yitzchak the prophecy? Do the children themselves know about the prophecy? And Manoach's wife, or Shimshon's mother, right, this anonymous woman, she gets the prophecy. Manoach doesn't seem to believe her.

And that's when he וַיֶּעְתַּר, that's when he prays. “Oh, let me see the angel for myself.” So, interesting that it's the woman who gets the prophecy in both situations.

Beth: Interesting. I am…I just want, I want to…as we go, I want to sort of register my respectful skepticism. When you're showing me the Shimshon story, I was expecting…I was expecting the prophecy to be a little bit more parallel to what we see by Yaakov and Eisav. Thematically, yeah, like, the big picture is the same. A lot of the details aren't, but that's just one of the points that you've shown me so far. I mean, the other parallels are, if not having fully persuaded me yet, have definitely gotten me intrigued.

Adina: Sure. The space where you are was exactly where I was, where I said to myself, well, okay, there's a story about an עֲקָרָה, a woman dealing with infertility. There are multiple stories in Tanach where a woman deals with infertility, and those stories kind of have flavors that are similar. Is there anything really tying together these two stories in a way that would suggest that somehow we need these stories to understand each other, or that Tanach is encoding a message in these two stories?

So come with me a few more verses, because I think we're going to see that there are clues that are tying these two stories together, I think, a bit more.

So take a look in verse four, in Sefer Shoftim. Here's the instructions that the angel tells her: וְעַתָּה הִשָּׁמְרִי נָא וְאַל־תִּשְׁתִּי יַיִן וְשֵׁכָר — You need to watch yourself. Don't drink any wine or alcohol. וְאַל־תֹּאכְלִי כׇּל־טָמֵא — Don't eat any impure foods. And the explanation for that, in verse five: כִּי הִנָּךְ הָרָה וְיֹלַדְתְּ בֵּן — You're going to become pregnant and have a child. וּמוֹרָה לֹא־יַעֲלֶה עַל־רֹאשׁוֹ — He should never get a haircut. כִּי־נְזִיר אֱלֹקים יִהְיֶה הַנַּעַר מִן־הַבָּטֶן — He's going to be a nazir to God from the time that he's born, וְהוּא יָחֵל לְהוֹשִׁיעַ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִיַּד פְּלִשְׁתִּים — and he is going to be the savior of Israel from the hands of the Plishtim.

So those are her prenatal instructions.

Beth: It starts out like a lot of other women's prenatal instructions. “Be careful, don't drink wine, go easy on the sushi…and then don't ever cut his hair because he's going to be a Nazirite to God.” Yeah, it definitely becomes a bit distinct by the time it gets to the end.

Adina: Okay. “You're going to have a hairy child.”

Beth: Mm-hmm.

Adina: Where my mind was going was the hairy child.

Beth: Eisav?

Adina: Yeah. Well, presumably Rivka had a terrible pregnancy. Otherwise I don’t think she would have sought Divine counsel. But she also has a hairy child.

Eisav's birth is…he's described as כֻּלּוֹ כְּאַדֶּרֶת שֵׂעָר, basically covered with hair. That's his distinct feature, and Shimshon's distinct feature is going to be, if he's never getting a haircut, he's also going to be a very hairy child. So that seemed parallel as well. It was fascinating to me.

And there's one more thing that also struck me. Look at the job description that Shimshon is going to have. So we're told: כִּי־נְזִיר אֱלֹקים יִהְיֶה הַנַּעַר מִן־הַבָּטֶן וְהוּא יָחֵל לְהוֹשִׁיעַ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִיַּד פְּלִשְׁתִּים — From the womb…

Beth: בָּטֶן!

Adina: Yes! Where, what does that remind you of?

Beth: That was part of…yeah, so that was part of the prophecy to Rivka. Hashem said: שְׁנֵי גוֹיִם בְּבִטְנֵךְ — There are two nations in your, literally, in your stomach, but, you know, in your womb. But it's used the same way by Shimshon. Interesting.

Adina:  And the point that the prophet is trying to tell her is שְׁנֵי גוֹיִם בְּבִטְנֵךְ, there are two nations in your womb; and וּלְאֹם מִלְאֹם יֶאֱמָץ, they're going to be locked in some type of struggle.

Shimshon is a נְזִיר אֱלֹהִים…מִן־הַבָּטֶן וְהוּא יָחֵל לְהוֹשִׁיעַ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִיַּד פְּלִשְׁתִּים, and his grand journey, his grand destiny is going to be to be locked in a struggle on behalf of Israel against the Plishtim. So that also seemed to evoke, somehow…Shimshon is like the two twins, Yaakov and Esav, in the mother's womb, who seems to be somehow like a Rivka-, you know, -type personality.

And put that together with the fact that the other things we've seen: The context of 40 years; the fact that Shimshon's mother, right, as we said, is an עֲקָרָה; the fact that the prophecy is told only to the woman about the pregnancy; the fact that it's a hairy baby; the fact that from the בָּטֶן, from the time of the womb, this child or these children are going to be somehow as part of this national struggle.

Coupled with the fact that the thing that kind of sparked this all for me is the fact that we have a man turning to God, praying, וַיֶּעְתַּר, said to me, I wonder if there's something here. There must be some way that the Shimshon story is perhaps a commentary on Parashat Toldot, and that inspired me and motivated me to keep reading.

Beth: Yeah, I'm tickled.

Fast Forward to the End of the Story

Adina: I'm glad that it's not just me. Here's what happened though. I kept on reading both stories and the parallels just kind of seemed to dry up. 

Beth: There's an “and then…” coming.

Adina: Yes! Thank goodness.

Beth: Phew, okay.

Adina: I kept reading, though, and something fascinating happened, which is I couldn't find anything in the middle of their stories, in the middle of Toldot or in the middle of Shimshon's career when he's doing all these heroic feats. But then when I turn to the end, that's where the parallels seem to be coming back en masse, right? In full force.

So I'm hoping you can jump with me to the end of Toldot and the end of Shimshon's story. And let me show you what I found.

Beth: Of course I can!

Adina: So let's fast forward Shimshon's incredibly exciting career. After he grows up and his incredible strength reveals itself to him and to his parents and to all the Plishtim, he basically sets out to do what the angel seemed to have told his mom he was going to do. He starts killing lots of Plishtim.

And ultimately, it is women who seem to be his weakness and the cause of his downfall. He gets married to a woman named Delilah, and the Plishtim basically use her and bribe her to get at Shimshon's secret.

So Delilah pressures him and pressures him, and finally he gives in. He tells her that his strength comes from the fact that he's an כִּי־נְזִיר אֱלֹקים, this ascetic man of God. She lulls him to sleep, cuts his hair, calls the Plishtim over, they capture him, and he is in the hands of the Plishtim, no longer that incredible savior of Israel.

So let's pick up reading this part of the story; Judges, chapter 16, verse 21. Beth, why don't you start reading?

Beth: Sure. וַיֹּאחֲזוּהוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים וַיְנַקְּרוּ אֶת־עֵינָיו — The Plishtim, they seized him, they gouged out his eyes, וַיּוֹרִידוּ אוֹתוֹ עַזָּתָה — They brought him down to Azza, וַיַּאַסְרוּהוּ בַּנְחֻשְׁתַּיִם — They bound him up in some kind of bronze harness; you know, handcuffs.

Two Blind Yitzchaks

Adina: So he's blinded and he's captured in the hands of the Plishtim. Here's what started occurring to me as I kept on reading.

So, verse 22, his hair starts growing back and the Plishtim…I'll summarize the next few verses. The Plishtim basically are so excited that they have Shimshon now, with his eyes gouged out, as their slave, basically as their grotesque pet, that they decide to make a party and celebrate the fact that they've finally captured Shimshon who had been spending the last few chapters just basically killing Plishtim. And so they have this huge party, and verse 25…I think here's a good place to pick up.

וַיְהִי כְּטוֹב לִבָּם — So they get all drunk, וַיֹּאמְרוּ קִרְאוּ לְשִׁמְשׁוֹן וִישַׂחֶק־לָנוּ — Hey, let's call Shimshon and have him, I guess, play for us. So, וַיִּקְרְאוּ לְשִׁמְשׁוֹן מִבֵּית הָאֲסוּרִים — and so they haul Shimshon out of jail, וַיְצַחֵק לִפְנֵיהֶם — And he…

Beth: Hmm.

Adina: Oh, you said, “Hmm.” What did you notice?

Beth: Did I say that out loud? I said “hmm” because you said וַיְצַחֵק, which looks an awful lot like, and shares root letters with, the name Yitzchak.

Adina: Precisely. So they call Shimshon out of jail to וִישַׂחֶק־לָנוּ, with a שׂ; let him play for them. And then the same verse and it says that Shimshon was Shun was וַיְצַחֵק לִפְנֵיהֶם. He was their jester. And I just want to pause for a moment — this is a horrible image, right? But that is what he's doing for them. But he's blind. He's being מצַחֵק לִפְנֵיהֶם.

Beth: Blind Yitzchak.

Adina: Yeah, that's the end of Parshat Toldot.

Beth: That’s interesting.

Adina: In Genesis chapter 27, when Yitzchak is blind…and he's a blind Yitzchak. Okay, I was intrigued. We’ve got to keep reading, okay, because what happened next really just floored me. So they have Shimshon, who's their jester. Read verse 26.

Beth: Okay. וַיֹּאמֶר שִׁמְשׁוֹן אֶל־הַנַּעַר הַמַּחֲזִיק בְּיָדוֹ — Shimshon said to the lad, the young boy whose job it was to be pulling him around, הַנִּיחָה אוֹתִי וַהֲמִישֵׁנִי — Leave me alone and let me touch, אֶת־הָעַמֻּדִים — the pillars, אֲשֶׁר הַבַּיִת נָכוֹן עֲלֵיהֶם — that serve as the foundation for this building, וְאֶשָּׁעֵן עֲלֵיהֶם — and I'm going to lean upon them.

So, yeah, that's really interesting. This language of  “Let me touch them” is what we find back in the Toldot story. There's some touching there as well.

Adina: That's exactly what I noticed. When Yaakov is dressed up as Eisav, he approaches Yitzchak, and Yitzchak obviously suspects that something is up. And so he says to Yaakov: גְּשָׁה־נָּא וַאֲמֻשְׁךָ בְּנִי — Come closer so I can feel you. הַאַתָּה זֶה בְּנִי עֵשָׂו אִם־לֹא — Is this really my son Eisav or not (Genesis 27:21)?

And then, verse 22: וַיִּגַּשׁ יַעֲקֹב אֶל־יִצְחָק אָבִיו — Yaakov approaches a bit closer to his father, וַיְמֻשֵּׁהוּ — and Yitzchak kind of felt; “Is this really who I know my son is?” because he's blind.

And Shimshon is blind. So we've got a blind man who is מצַחֵק, Shimshon is וַיְצַחֵק in front of the Plishtim, who asks, “Let me הֲמִישֵׁנִי, I would like to feel these pillars.”

That seemed to be a tug between these two stories; basically telling you, like, read these two stories side by side. These stories will teach you about each other. Shimshon somehow is a Yitzchak, and Yitzchak, somehow, is meant to be read with Shimshon's story in mind.

So what does that mean? What does it mean to say that Shimshon has some Yitzchak-esque qualities and Yitzchak has some Shimshon-esque qualities? Like, what in the world does that mean?

Beth: Yeah, that is really, really provocative, and my mind is already racing in a lot of different directions with, just, potential speculations.

Adina: So we've seen so far that the beginning of Shimshon's story and the beginning of Parshat Toldot line up. Somehow, Shimshon's birth, the mother being an עֲקָרָה, the praying to God with that language of וַיֶּעְתַּר, the prophecy of the child in your בָּטֶן, the child in your womb; somehow that's connected to the beginning of Parshat Toldot, to the beginning of the birth of Yaakov and Eisav. And then we saw how, the end, Shimshon, seems to be this blind Yitzchak begging to feel the walls. הֲמִישֵׁנִי אֶת־הָעַמֻּדִים — Let me feel the walls.

So then, what seemed to be only natural was to go back to that part that had been few of details and parallels before, and read them again with this new light and new eyes; trying to see if, now that I know the end of the story seems suggestive of a Shimshon-Yitzchak parallel, what can I learn from the middle?

And that's what I'd like to do, which is consider...

Beth: The stuff that we skipped over, the Shimshon story details that we skipped over, but also the wells story, the stuff in the middle of the Yitzchak narrative.

Samson and the Philistines

Adina: Yes, exactly. Okay, so let's go back to the middle of Shimshon’s story and read it a bit more closely. And after doing so, we'll compare and contrast to Yitzchak’s story in Toldot. So, Shimson’s career as a professional hero of Israel, right — what a great job description — begins in Judges, chapter 14. He basically asks his parents, he met this girl from the Plishtim and he'd like to marry her.

Parents are very understandably a bit surprised. Like, “Don't you want to marry a nice Jewish girl?” They don't realize that this is all part of Shimshon's plan to have a pretext for beginning to attack the Plishtim. So he does marry this woman from the Plishtim. Shortly after, he seems to abandon her, and then he comes back a bit later to try to resume their relationship.

But when he shows up, his father-in-law basically turns to him and says…and this is in Judges, chapter 15, verse 2: אָמֹר אָמַרְתִּי כִּי־שָׂנֹא שְׂנֵאתָהּ — I thought you hated her, since you abandoned her, after all. וָאֶתְּנֶנָּה לְמֵרֵעֶךָ — And so I gave her to one of your friends. הֲלֹא אֲחוֹתָהּ הַקְּטַנָּה טוֹבָה מִמֶּנָּה — But she has a much prettier younger sister. תְּהִי־נָא לְךָ תַּחְתֶּיהָ — Why don't you marry her instead?

And Shimshon's reaction to his father-in-law basically saying, “Swap your wife out first for her sister,” is to say, נִקֵּיתִי הַפַּעַם מִפְּלִשְׁתִּים כִּי־עֹשֶׂה אֲנִי עִמָּם רָעָה — The Plishtim can have no claim on me. Literally, “I'm clean for any harm I shall do to them.”

And so Shimshon then uses this reaction of his father-in-law, basically giving his wife to somebody else, to set fire to the Plishti storehouses of grain and their vineyards and their olive trees. And what follows is basically a chain where Shimon creates a pretext and uses it as an opportunity to get revenge, destroy Plishti property, and kill Plishtim. 

So Shimshon now has a bit of a reputation. And after all of this, he travels near the Judeans, and they're not exactly too happy that he's in their midst.

Beth: It seems like war follows him wherever he goes, and they're not too fond of the conflict opening up in their backyard.

Adina: Exactly, and they even turn to Shimshon and they say: מַה־זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ לָּנוּ — Like, what have you done to us? Why are you here? The Plishtim are just going to attack us now. And Shimshon's response is almost like his catchphrase: כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ לִי כֵּן עָשִׂיתִי לָהֶם, right? What they do to me, I do to them. And that's Shimshon's response, right? If they're going to attack me, I'm going to attack them.

But he does make a shevuah, this sworn treaty with the Judeans. And he allows himself to be tied up by the Judeans, and he pretends to allow himself to be captured by the Plishtim. And once inside the Plishti camp, he's able to kill thousands of them.

And this cycle basically cements a pattern that we've seen in how Shimshon has been dealing with the Plishtim; which is, he creates a pretext to be able to perpetuate a cycle where he can attack more Plishtim. They respond, he can attack more, kill more, and thus we have the Shimshon story is a pattern of what he himself says is nekama, revenge against the Plishtim. And that's Shimshon's story.

Beth: And you're going to…we're going to see how, somehow, that part of what you just said are mirrored in the Yitzchak story in the part of Toldos that we skipped over? I'm on the edge of my seat.

Isaac and the Philistines

Adina: Once I took a look at this story and then re-read Genesis chapter 26, that story of the wells, that story where we're desperately looking for “This is the story about Yitzchak, our forefather, our patriarch,” I started reading that story in Toldot, in Genesis chapter 26, and that story started to really seem to evoke some similarities and some differences with Shimshon's career.

So take a look at Genesis, chapter 26, verse 1.

Beth: Okay. וַיְהִי רָעָב בָּאָרֶץ מִלְּבַד הָרָעָב הָרִאשׁוֹן — There was a famine in the land, apart from the earlier famine, אֲשֶׁר הָיָה בִּימֵי אַבְרָהָם — that struck in the days of Avraham, וַיֵּלֶךְ יִצְחָק אֶל־אֲבִימֶלֶךְ מֶלֶךְ־פְּלִשְׁתִּים גְּרָרָה —  So Yitzchak leaves, Eretz Yisrael, and where does he go? He goes to Grar, to Avimelech, who is the king of the…dun dun dun! The Plishtim. So this is a Yitzchak-Plishtim drama.

Adina: And there aren't that many stories in Tanach where the Plishtim are the antagonists. So that really intrigued me. In the story of Genesis 26, as events unfold, Yitzchak arrives in Grar, in the land of the Plishtim, and he presents Rivka as his sister instead of his wife. He basically lies to the people in Grar about her identity.

But once he is מצַחֵק with Rivka, basically a public display of affection, and Avimelech the king notices this, Avimelech turns to Yitzchak, in verse 10, and he says this accusation or this…

Beth: An expression of anger and woundedness.

Adina: I think so, yeah. So why don't you read what he says?

Beth: Okay. So he says: מַה־זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ לָּנוּ — What have you done to us? Which sounds...is that word for word? I mean, that sounds an awful lot like what the Judeans said to Shimshon when he set up in their camp.

Adina: It's exactly the same phrase; מַה־זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ לָּנוּ, word for word, and it's not a terribly common phrase in Tanach. It appears three or four times, and two of these are here. 

And once I noticed that phrase, I noticed something else which is how the conflict between these two parties begins in each story. In Shimshon's story, it's this marriage with this woman from the Plishtim that is his pretext for beginning the cycle of nekama, the cycle of revenge against the Plishtim. He marries that woman, abandons her, comes back to find that her father, right, his father-in-law has married her off to one of his friends and basically says, “Take her sister instead.”

And he's like, “What do you mean? Now I have a chance where I can attack the Plishtim and no one can accuse me of being unfair because I'm the wounded party.” So the father-in-law suggesting, “Hey, swap out your wife for her sister,” is what starts it off.

Beth: Hmm, which is not so...Okay, I mean, so yeah, that's…there's something there. Yitzchak, when he goes down to Grar, he “swaps out his wife for his sister,” so to speak. He says, “Don't,” you know, “don't play the role of my wife. Play the role of my sister.”

Adina: Yeah, he swaps out his wife for his sister. And it started occurring to me that it serves kind of the same narrative function in each. Just like the antagonism began between Shimshon and the Plishtim when he faces this scenario where he's told “Just swap out your wife for the sister,” the antagonism between Yitzchak and the Plishtim also probably began when he shows up and says “This is my sister,” and it's discovered that she is, in fact, his wife.

I mean, the Plishtim presumably felt very betrayed, wounded, annoyed that Yitzchak would try to pull that on them and be so… and lie to them, basically, about what's going on. And that seems to begin…that seems to plant a seed of tension, I think, in…of kinah, of jealousy. So similar to nakamah, to revenge.

And so look at what happens, in verse 12 in Genesis 26:

וַיִּזְרַע יִצְחָק בָּאָרֶץ הַהִוא וַיִּמְצָא בַּשָּׁנָה הַהִוא מֵאָה שְׁעָרִים וַיְבָרְכֵהוּ יְקוָה — He suddenly becomes incredibly wealthy. Verse 13: וַיִּגְדַּל הָאִישׁ וַיֵּלֶךְ הָלוֹךְ וְגָדֵל עַד כִּי־גָדַל מְאֹד — And he becomes great, very great, so great; and the reaction is, from the Plishtim, is a sense of jealousy. And this jealousy is expressed in verse 14. So why don't you read that verse for us?

Beth: וַיְהִי־לוֹ מִקְנֵה־צֹאן וּמִקְנֵה בָקָר — So he had acquired a lot of sheep, a lot of cattle, וַעֲבֻדָּה רַבָּה — and an extensive staff, וַיְקַנְאוּ אֹתוֹ פְּלִשְׁתִּים — and the Plishtim were jealous of him.

Adina: And then the expression of that jealousy is action, that verse 15 describes: וְכׇל־הַבְּאֵרֹת אֲשֶׁר חָפְרוּ עַבְדֵי אָבִיו בִּימֵי אַבְרָהָם אָבִיו סִתְּמוּם פְּלִשְׁתִּים וַיְמַלְאוּם עָפָר. The jealousy takes expression in this act of vandalism, really, where they basically stop up all of the wells that Yitzchak's father had done when he was in the land of the Plishtim.

So you have kinah, jealousy, taking expression in an act of vandalism, which kind of reminded me of Shimshon's story as well; that you have the cycle of nekama, the cycle of revenge. He begins with vandalism as well, right? He burns the Plishti storehouses.

So, there seemed to be a paradigm, for me, setting up where it almost seems to be that you have some similarities, a similar story. Man in the lands of the Plishtim, who are his antagonists; a cycle of nekama, a cycle of kinah, a cycle of vengeance on the one and a cycle of jealousy on the other; seemed to be kind of the seed planted for that started in this kind of, you know, “This isn't my wife, this is my sister,” you know, “take your sister instead of the wife.” And it seemed to be similar.

Beth: Wow, Adina, I want to tell you where my mind is at right now. Like, there are so many similarities that you've pointed out to me. Even more that, just as you were reading, were, you know, going “Ping ping ping!” in my brain. Like, that theme, that word, that word; you know, there's a lot…there's just a lot going on here.

I don't, and I'm excited to have you take my hand and lead me to how we can start to make sense of these, how we can start to get a story here and get an argument here, because that's what I'm really craving right now.

How the Stories Played Out Differently 

Adina: I'm so relieved that you feel the same way I did when I first had that experience of seeing all of these words just pop out, and there's so much more that we haven't discussed just in the interest of time. We can't go through everything.

But here’s where I went to next. Once seeing how the parallels just seem to force you to read these two stories side by side. The differences between how Yitzchak deals with the Plishtim and how Shimshon dealt with the Plishtim started to really be thrown into sharp relief. Because in the ensuing verses, the way Yitzchak deals with this conflict with the Plishtim is so different than what Shimshon did. In Shimshon's case, every act was the pretext for another cycle of revenge and violence.

Beth: We don't see that kind of spiral with Yitzchak.

Adina: Exactly.

Beth: There are acts of envy and acts of revenge, but they don't spiral out.

Adina: Because what does Yitzchak do to prevent that?

Beth: Yitzchak leaves.

Adina: Exactly. וַיֵּלֶךְ מִשָּׁם…וַיָּשׇׁב…וַיֶּט (Genesis 25:17, 18, 25). He moves and moves. He digs new wells, and in doing so, in moving from place to place and in digging new wells, he's basically de-escalating conflict.

Beth: That's right. That's right. Yeah. Right. If I were to put it in modern terms, it's like someone is starting up with him and he could say, “I have to take it to the next level. I have to defend my honor. I have to show them that they can't mess with me.” But instead, he says, “No, I actually have the power to just end the conflict. I can just…I can put it out. I can put out the fire. I'm just going to take myself out of the fight.”

Adina: Exactly. And so he basically prevents a situation that starts out with kinah, jealousy, from becoming a situation that Shimshon was dealing with, which is, it's full of nekama. It's revenge and revenge and revenge, and a body count, basically, of Plishtim.

You can reflect back on Yitzchak's various moves to different locations and the wells that he's dug. He's basically been able to share his wealth with the Plishtim, share his bounty with them, because in every location, they basically have a new well. And he has successfully, in a sense, shown them that they can share the land, and they can live in peace.

At the end of chapter 26, the Plishtim travel with Avimelech to Yitzchak and they make shevuah, they make a treaty. And this time it's so different than the shevuah that Shimshon had made with with the Judeans in his story. Shimon said to the Judeans, “כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ לִי כֵּן ,עָשִׂיתִי לָהֶם” right? “What they do to me, I do to them.” But when you look at the terms of the treaty that Yitzchak makes with the Plishtim…look at verse 29 in Genesis.

Beth: They say: אִם־תַּעֲשֵׂה עִמָּנוּ רָעָה — You shouldn't do anything bad to us, כַּאֲשֶׁר לֹא נְגַעֲנוּךָ — in the same way that we have not struck you, we have not done any harm to you. וְכַאֲשֶׁר עָשִׂינוּ עִמְּךָ רַק־טוֹב — And just like we've only done good with you, וַנְּשַׁלֵּחֲךָ — and we've sent you away,  בְּשָׁלוֹם — in peace. אַתָּה עַתָּה בְּרוּךְ יְקוָה — So you, now, are a blessed one of God. So just as you're not going to do anything bad to us, just as we have always done right by you.

Adina: And this also echoes the shevuah that Shimshon made with the Judeans right before they hand him over to the Plishtim, right, except the terms are so different, right? Shimshon said כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ לִי כֵּן עָשִׂיתִי לָהֶם, right? “They do bad to me, I do bad to them.” This treaty is: כַאֲשֶׁר עָשִׂינוּ עִמְּךָ רַק־טוֹב — We're going to do good to each other.

Beth: It seems like it's actually…it's the same principle, which is, “I'm going to return whatever is done to me.” But in one case, there's a noticing of good, and the good is the thing that spirals; and in the other case, it's the bad that spirals.

Adina: It's such a human quality of, what comes to mind, mitzvah goreret mitzvah v'aveira goreret aveira. One good thing leads to another, one bad thing leads to another. In a sense, our reactions and our emotions are part of these cycles.

Beth: Yes, or, on a lighter note, as my sleep consultant friend says, “Bad sleep begets more bad sleep.”

Adina: But then there's the positive, which is the expression of Yitzchak's treaty with the Plishtim, right? He was somehow able to stop a cycle of kinah, a cycle of jealousy, and reverse it into becoming a cycle of good.

Finding Isaac’s Greatness

Beth: Yeah. Adina, this is great. You…I have a lot to say. You opened up this conversation by asking the question, “What is Yitzchak's greatness,” right? And I think I'm really starting to get a glimmer of what that might be; of Yitzchak as the peacemaker, Yitzchak as a person who musters the strength to not escalate.

Adina: Yeah. You know, the title that Shimshon is often given is Shimshon HaGibor, Shimshon the Hero, the…

Beth: The “strong guy.”

Adina: And the middah, the quality often associated with Yitzchak is gevurah, which is “strength.”

Beth: Mm-hmm. I love that.

Adina: Right? And the…I just think there's something there, that in looking at Yitzchak's story through the lens of the Shimshon story, suddenly, qualities that, at the beginning, I kind of thought, like, well, Yitzchak's kind of passive, maybe even he's kind of a wimp, right? Nothing could be further from the truth.

Adina: You see, this true gevura, this true restraint, has nothing to do with being strong, physically strong. But it has everything to do with this emotional strength and this psychological strength that he displays in this chapter and his ability to not only de-escalate a conflict developing in a relationship, but to improve that relationship.

How many people can be able to not just, you know, stop a conflict from happening, but to then not have a grudge and to turn the relationship around? It really is incredible, and I think it really shows the legacy of Yitzchak as a patriarch, just alongside Avraham and Yaakov.

Beth: I'm excited about what you've shown me, this new insight into Yitzchak and, like, the…it's funny, the scholar in me is just as excited nerding out about all of these myriad parallels, intertextual parallels, that you found, as the mother and wife and human in me is excited by the kind of human interest implications of what these stories are telling us.

So thank you for pleasing both parts of me.

Adina: Thanks, Beth. Thanks for partnering with me on this.

Credits

This episode was recorded by me, Adina Blaustein, together with Beth Lesch.

This episode was produced by Evan Weiner.

Our audio editor is Hillary Guttman.

Our production manager is Adina Blaustein.

Our senior editor is Ari Levisohn. 

Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll see you next week.