Parsha Toldot תּוֹלְדוֹת

Rashi offers three different reasons to explain Yitzchak becoming blind in his old age. One answer is that his eyes were affected by the smoke of the idolatrous incense offerings of Esav’s wives. Yitzchak had a greater sensitivity to the ill effects of idolatry due to his higher spiritual level having been the offering at the Akeidah. The second answer that Rashi offers is also Akeidah related. At the time of his being bound as a sacrifice the angels wept. The tears that fell from the sky came to land in Yitzchak’s eyes. These two answers are therefore along the same theme of the higher spiritual nature of Yitzchak. The third reason, the most practical of all and the one that is easiest for us to accept, is that Hashem purposely made Yitzchak experience failing eyesight so that Yaakov could perform the ruse and take the blessings from his older brother.

The Ramban is even more practical in his analysis. He wrote that this was a natural development of a person reaching older age. Not everybody is blessed with perfect eyesight to begin with and very frequently we see older people suffering with failing eyesight. The Seforno gives us a different theme. The loss of vision for Yitzchak was a punishment for not restraining Esav. This theme could be developed into a course on the responsibility of a parent in disciplining his offspring. The fact is that we still debate today how a child ends up in life is linked to the parents and the effective or defective method of parenting used in the home. There is a passage in the Talmud that states that how our children turn out can be attributed to Mazel. We recognize that there are many outside influences in the development of our children when they are in the maturing ages of their latter teens. Not everything is in the control of parents. Nevertheless, the Seforno tells us that parents should always live up to the responsibility that they have for bringing children into the world.