מלבד הרעב הראשון, “in addition to the first famine, etc.” Nachmanides, basing himself on the word הראשון, “the first ever,” speculates that the famine in Avraham’s time may have been the first famine on record in antiquity. If not, why was there a need to once more refer to a famine, which, at this time, does not interest the reader at all? It is possible that the reason that the Torah does refer to the previous famine is that people in Yitzchok’s generation still recalled the famine which had occurred some 70-80 years earlier, and they recalled that Avraham had moved to Egypt at the time on account of that famine. They also remembered that Avraham had become a very wealthy man during his stay in Egypt, and had even retained all that newly acquired wealth despite his confrontation with the Pharaoh of Egypt. It was natural then to expect that like father like son, Yitzchok too, would move to Egypt to await the end of the famine there. This is why G’d told him not to leave the Holy Land, or, more specifically, not to move to Egypt. G’d added that He would extend His blessing to him. He renewed the oath He had sworn to Avraham at the time. Rashi explains the reason why Yitzchok was not to descend to Egypt being the fact that someone who had been a burnt offering on the altar on the Holy Mount Moriah is not to demean himself by leaving the Holy Land. Other commentators feel that G’d stopped Yitzchok from traveling to Egypt because in the Heavenly Court the decree that the Jewish people would be enslaved in Egypt had already been promulgated, so that if he had traveled there he could not have left until the end of that period of enslavement. Nachmanides writes that G’d’s directive to Yitzchok was also a סימן, a historical preview of what the Jewish people would experience when the time came, i.e. that any move to Egypt was a move to eventual exile, and that Yitzchok’s sojourn in the part of the Holy Land occupied by the Philistines under Avimelech was not considered as part of that exile. The very fact that our patriarchs resided in that land is proof that it is ancestral land and will forever remain part of the Holy Land promised to Avraham by G’d. The fact remains that in spite of Avimelech having been a partner of Avraham in a non-aggression pact extending for 3 generations, this did not prevent him or his son from expelling Yitzchok. Eventually,.Avimelech personally, did not harm Yitzchok seeing he had sworn an oath of friendship to Avraham; His subjects, however, did what they could to make life miserable for Yitzchok. The Jewish exile experience in Babylonia is compared to Yitzchok’s experience in the land of the Philistines, welcome turning into hatred and even the destruction of our Temple by the Babylonians. This was followed by another change of heart, this time by the Persians. [Rabbi Chavell traces the Ramban’s historical analysis by quoting both from the Book of Ezra and the Book of Daniel. Ed.] At any rate, the Philistines remembered that G’d had protected Avraham against outrages done by both the Egyptians and the previous Avimelch, so that they were careful not to harass him too much.

שכון בארץ אשר אומר אליך, “reside in the land which I will tell you about.” Nachmanides explains that the negative “do not go down to Egypt,” was not followed immediately by a directive to settle in Gerar, but that the words “reside in the land which I will tell you,” were a sort of hint that in due course G’d would give more specific instructions. In this respect Yitzchok’s experience paralleled that of his father, who also traveled through different parts of the Holy Land in order to have already established a presence there when the time would come for G’d’s promise to give the entire land to his descendants to be fulfilled. It goes without saying that Yitzchok complied with G’d’s directive until G’d eventually told him to settle in Gerar.

והקימותי את השבועה אשר נשבעתי לאברהם אביך, “so that I can fulfill the oath I have sworn to your father Avraham.” There is, of course, no need for G’d to give an assurance that He will not renege on His oath. Besides, Avraham did not have any other seed which would qualify for the promise of G’d to give the land to Yitzchok’s offspring to create doubt to whom G’d would give the land. After all, only he was in a covenantal relationship with G’d. When it came to G’d repeating His promise to Yaakov, in due course, this was necessary in order to make clear that Esau, though included in the promise: “your seed will be known through Yitzchok” did not automatically exclude Esau. The meaning of והקימותי את השבועה וגו' therefore is that G’d swears a separate oath to Yitzchok concerning who He will give the land of Israel to. When we read in Exodus 33,1 Numbers 32 11, and Deuteronomy 34,4 the formulaאשר נשבעתי לאברהם, ליצחק, וליעקב, we would be hard pressed to find where exactly G’d swore such an oath to Yitzchok, if not in our verse here. It is also possible that the reason why Yitzchok was added to be a beneficiary of G’d’s oath was in order to confer upon him also the blessing which G’d had bestowed at the beginning of chapter 12, i.e. that just as Avraham was to be a blessing for the nations, so his son Yitzchok’s very existence would do the same for the nations of the earth. G’d had promised that the nations of the earth would be blessed through Avraham’s seed; now the same blessing was in effect for the seed of Yitzchok.. Accordingly, the meaning of the entire verse would be: “I will keep My oath to Avraham your father through you. The same promise was repeated in due course to Yaakov when the time was ripe for that.

עקב אשר שמע אברהם בקולי וישמר משמרתי, “as a result of Avraham heeding My instructions and observing My directives.” Rashi understands the word בקולי as referring to such instructions as offering his son as a sacrifice, whereas the word משמרתי is supposed to refer to rules governing incest with blood relations of the second tier of relatives, and such rules as adding a few minutes to the Sabbath before it actually begins, and similar Rabbinic prohibitions ensuring the sanctity of the Sabbath will not be violated inadvertently, i.e. שבות. Nachmanides queries this, writing that if it were correct, then, if indeed Avraham kept not only the 613 commandments but also Rabbinic regulations, how could Yaakov have been allowed to marry two sisters while both were alive? How could he have erected a מצבה, seeing that the Torah prohibits the erecting of such monuments? How could Amram have married his aunt Yocheved the daughter of Levi? If the fathers and grandfathers of these people had already adopted these Rabbinic rules, surely their children and grandchildren would have been obligated to observe them also? After all G’d specifically revealed certain aspects of His manner of meting out justice “in order that Avraham teach his descendants to emulate the ways of the Lord!?” (Genesis 18,19) One could answer that the word משמרתי refers to the 7 Noachide commandments, laws to which all of mankind is committed. and that the additional words חקות, refer to the prohibition of crossbreeding, and the word מצוותי to finer points of the law, as well as the word תורתי referring to the establishment of courts, the banning of idolatry, etc. The fact is that according to our sages, the wagons Joseph sent to transport his father on his journey to Egypt, were to symbolically remind his father that he had not forgotten the law of עגלה ערופה, the last lesson his father had instructed him in before his fateful journey to Shechem. (compare Deuteronomy 21,1-9) It is clear from what our sages have described that they all agreed that Avraham observed the Sabbath meticulously with all its details, as he had divined G’d’s intention through his holy spirit. However, he did so as something voluntary; He therefore observed these commandments revealed in the Torah later only while he was on Holy Soil, in the land of Israel. The statement that someone kept all the mitzvoth such as Joseph in Egypt, is most likely to be understood as Joseph observing the Sabbath, and thus observing the whole Torah, as in the parlance of our sages Sabbath observance is equivalent to observance of the entire Torah. From the perspective of the plain meaning of the text, the peshat, the word משמרתי refers to basic belief in the sole Creator, something that drove him to preach monotheism publicly, and to decry all forms of idolatry. He was the first “evangelist” preaching G’d’s attributes since Chanoch, emphasizing the benevolent nature of G’d, and His love for His creatures. The word מצותי refers to Avraham’s suppressing his own feelings when carrying out G’d’s command to offer his only son Yitzchok as a total burnt offering to this G’d.. He expelled his maidservant Hagar against his own better judgment, in order to comply with G’d’s orders. The word חוקותי refers to his emulating G’d’s attributes, being hospitable, charitable, etc, to the deserving and the not so deserving. Finally, the word תורותי, refers to his performing circumcision on himself and all members of his household, and teaching this rite as a condition of calling oneself a true descendant of Avraham.

ויאמר אחותי היא, He said: “she is my sister.” The local people did not enquire as to the maternity and paternity of the children (Esau and Yaakov.) They might have been children from a former wife, for instance.

והנה יצחק מצחק את רבקה אשתו, “and lo, Yitzchok was fondling his wife Rivkah.” Even though, according to Jewish law, marital relations between husband and wife during daylight hours are forbidden, and there is no reason to assume that Yitzchok’s house was in darkness at the time, seeing that Avimelech could see what was going on. One may resolve the problem by saying that when a saintly and learned person such as Yitzchok wraps himself in his Tallit at the time, it is as if he was wrapping himself in darkness, so that he may indulge in marital relations in such conditions. However, this does not answer the question how he could indulge at a time when famine was raging, and we have a long standing rule that in conditions of famine marital relations are to be shunned. Possibly, the fact that he, personally, was not suffering famine, and no other Jew was suffering from famine at that time either, this consideration would suffice to waive the rule not to sleep with his wife during famine.

ויהי לו מקנה צאן ובקר, ועדה רבה, “and he had acquired masses of sheep, cattle and servants.” The reason the Torah does not mention Yitzchok as having accumulated silver and gold, is that in that country wealth was not measured in terms of money, but in terms of herds and flocks. When Yitzchok possessed more than the king, the matter became embarrassing for the king to host a commoner richer than himself. This is why he expelled Yitzchok, being careful to word that expulsion in a courteous manner.

וימצאו שם באר מים חיים, “they found a well of spring water in that region.” The reason the Torah stresses the origin of this water is that the shepherds of the region had accused Yitzchok’s shepherds of diminishing their own water supply by letting their sheep drink from the water of the נחל, the local stream. The water found by Yitzchok’s shepherds did not originate in that stream, but represented a new and additional water supply. Yitzchok’s herds and flocks did not need to use the locally available sources of water.

ויקרא שם הבאר עשק, “He named the well in question “strife.’” Nachmanides writes that the reason why the Torah devotes so much space to relating these incidents although at first glance they do not appear to contain any new kind of information, is, that although these verses do not contain new information on the surface, they do hint at hidden mystical connections. Torah is described in the parlance of the prophets as מקור מים חיים, “the source of truly life-giving water.” With the building of the Temples by Yitzchok’s descendants, the Torah became ever more firmly established among the nation, and though several Temples were subject to eventual destruction, the time will come when a permanent Temple will be erected, no longer subject to dispute and destruction, and at a time when G’d will expand the inheritance of the Jewish people, just as at Rechovot, Yitzchok felt that he had achieved the ability to expand.

אל תירא, “do not fear!” G’d reassures Yitzchok that his expulsion was not the beginning of a downturn in his fortunes, As proof, immediately thereafter it is Avimelech who begs Yitzchok to observe the treaty obligations his father had entered into with the (previous) Avimelech. Yitzchok is accorded far more respect and reverence after his expulsion than while he was a guest at Avimelech, needing the latter’s protection.

תהי נא אלה בינותינו, בינינו ובינך, “let there be a treaty confirmed by a mutual oath between us, between us and between you.” From the phrasing it is clear that Avimelech was not prepared to swear an oath in the name of Yitzchok’s G’d. Hence he used the expression בינותינו to indicate that he meant to swear by the deity he was in the habit of swearing by.

אם תעשה עמנו רעה, “If you will do us any harm, etc.” Nachmanides writes that Avimelech’s concern was not that Yitzchok would invade his country, an unlikely scenario, seeing that he was only a stranger in his country, but he was concerned because of the treaty Avraham had concluded with his father and committing several generations into the future. Now that he had been guilty of expelling a descendant of Avraham, he worried that Avraham’s descendants, in due course, would no longer feel bound by the original non-aggression pact between the Philistines and themselves.

כאשר לא נגענוך, “just as we have not laid a hand on you, etc.” We issued a decree that anyone harming you would be severely punished.

וכאשר עשינו עמך רק טוב, “and seeing that we have only treated you well.” We protected your property against looting, etc., and warned the people not to damage what is yours.

ונשלחך בשלום, “and we let you depart in peace.” Even though all my countrymen had become jealous of your new found wealth, all of which originated in our land, and they would have liked nothing better than to deprive you of it, we did not allow this to happen. In view of all the foregoing, we are entitled to ask you to renew the pact your father made with my father. It is entirely possible that, although, in his time, Avraham was very powerful so that he had defeated the four most powerful kings with an army of only 318 men, Yitzchok may have become even more powerful so that Avimelech had reason to fear him if he would incur his displeasure.

אתה עתה ברוך ה', “clearly you are now blessed by the Lord.” The word “now” is important here. Avimelech, while acknowledging that Yitzchok at this time is more powerful than he is, hints that times may change, and a time may come when their relative positions will be reversed, so that having a treaty will also be of benefit to him.

ויבאו עבדי יצחק, “The servants of Yitzchok arrived just then, etc.” According to Nachmanides this statement refers back to what had been written in verse 25 i.e. ויכרו שם, “they dug there (Beer Sheva). The digging had already begun before Avimelech set out to conclude this treaty with Yitzchok. Their efforts were rewarded with success on the very day the agreement was concluded. I believe that it is most likely that this was the same well which Avraham had dug in the same location, and that he had at the time given 7 sheep to Avimelech as testimony that that well had been dug by his servants and that the water was his. (Genesis 21,24) The Philistines had stopped up that well after the death of Avraham. Yitzchok now renamed the well with the name given to it by his father at the time.

על כן שם העיר באר שבע, “this is why the town became known as באר שבע.” The fact that both Avraham the father, and Yitzchok the son, had called the well באר שבע resulted in the urban center surrounding it becoming known by the name given to it by these two prominent people. From a mystical perspective, this name is an allusion to the Tabernacle which stood at Shiloh for over 300 years When the Philistines captured the holy ark which Eli’s sons had taken to war with them, they stopped up that well again, until the Israelites, once the Hoy Ark was returned by the Philistines, reopened it. Ibn Ezra comments that there were two separate reasons why the well and the town were called Beer Sheva. On the other hand, seeing that this is somewhat unlikely, it is possible that the city Beer Sheva is not the site at which this well was dug and the treaty concluded.

ותהיינה מורת רוח, “Their conduct caused both Yitzchok and Rivkah mental anguish.” The Torah writes this so as to explain that due to their not visiting Yitzchok and Rivkah often, it is not surprising that they were not on hand to reveal Yaakov’s masquerading as Esau.