In this week’s Parshah, we come across a story about Isaac passing off his wife as his sister, just like his father did. There are in fact three such stories in Genesis: one with Abraham and Pharaoh, one with Abraham and Avimelech and our story, concerning Isaac and Avimelech. This preponderance of stories with a similar theme, caused biblical critics to postulate that we have, in fact, the same story told in different versions by three different authors. Like much of what comes under the rubric of biblical criticism, however, this thesis doesn’t really survive detailed examination. Firstly, the three stories, while containing a similar theme, have different preludes, varying story lines and dissimilar final resolutions. This is especially true of the two stories concerning Avimelech and Abraham and Isaac respectively. Furthermore, the incident related in this week’s Parshah is meant to be seen and can only be properly understood, in reference to their earlier story concerning Abraham and Sarah. Isaac, like his father, resorts to the risky ruse of passing off his wife as his sister. Unlike Sarah, however, Rebecca is not taken by the king. Rather Avimelech sees Isaac and Rebecca acting in a more than fraternal manner and draws his own conclusions. He then rebukes Isaac for his deception and places the couple under royal protection. Unlike in the time of Abraham, no Divine intervention is necessary. All this is only comprehensible in reference to the earlier incident with Sarah. It is not by chance that Avimelech uncovers the couples secret. Mindful of the problems he had with Abraham, he is keeping an eye on them. And when his suspicions are confirmed he accuses Isaac of endangering the safety of the kingdom and places him under royal protection, precisely because he knows from bitter experience the consequences of a mistake in this area. He has already been burnt once and is not going there again. Avimelech’s reaction is that of someone that knows of the story with Abraham and Sarah, not an independent character in another version of the same story, as the biblical critics would have us believe. An examination of this story thus teaches us to be wary of glib assertions based on superficial readings of the text. While biblical critics have raised interesting questions, many of their answers do not stand up to closer study. Indeed so many of their theories have been disproved, they may even have conclude that Moses wrote the Torah after all.

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 Sidra Statistics

Parshat Toldot

·         has 106 verses ;

·         is the 6th in Genesis, 6th in the Torah

·         9th longest in Genesis, 31st longest in the Torah

·         has no mitzvot.