Parshat Lech Lecha
Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer

Chazal (our sages) tell us that the 400-year exile which was formulated in the Bris Bein Ha-Besarim (Covenant Between the Parts) in 15:13 commenced with the birth of Yitzchak. Rashi (ibid.) explains that the Avos were referred to as "strangers" since that point in history, indicative of a discomfort or imposed separation on the part of the surrounding peoples. This state of affairs was the onset of the exile. What does this exile feeling have to do with Yitzchak's birth?

It is critical that we realize that Avrohom and Sarah were both, in a way, baalei teshuva. This underscores how they were uniquely successful and expert in their interaction with those whom they brought close to Hashem - for Avrohom and Sarah, too, could personally relate to the situations and attitudes of non-believers and their cultures.

It may very well be that the level of comfort with Avrohom and Sarah as experienced by outsiders began to wane at the occasion of Yitzchak's birth. Since Yitzchak was "frum from birth" and had no exposure to the idolatrous lifestyles of the Canaanites, Avrohom was able to raise him and relate to him differently. His upbringing was obviously saturated with "hard-core" commitment to Hashem, as evidenced by the Akeidah. Avrohom entrusted the Mesorah (Tradition) of Torah to Yitzchak, and the two related to God and each other with a feeling of unmitigated purity of Torah. (See Rashi from Medrash Rabbah on 22:8.)

When Avrohom's neighbors observed that Yitzchak was raised on a different plane and that his chinuch and relationship to Avrohom were of a different nature than the chinuch experience and relationship which they shared with Avrohom, they felt a distancing from Avrohom and his household and began to treat the Beis (Household of) Avrohom as different. Avrohom was no longer only a nobleman in a congregation of neighbors; rather, he was a foreign force in their midst.

The separateness imposed by the surrounding peoples was critical in the development of Klal Yisroel. Although it was not pleasant - to say the least - it set an example for Yitzchak and Yaakov and their families in their ability to remain distinct, and it provided a precedent for the Bnei Yisroel in Egypt to endure as one nation with one faith until the redemption. May we, too, learn from our experiences in this regard and use them to build upon, as hard as it may be.

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