וַיְהִ֤י רָעָב֙ בָּאָ֔רֶץ מִלְּבַד֙ הָרָעָ֣ב הָרִאשׁ֔וֹן אֲשֶׁ֥ר הָיָ֖ה בִּימֵ֣י אַבְרָהָ֑ם Many meforshim are bothered by why the Torah links the famine that took place in Yitzchak's lifetime with that which took place in Avraham's lifetime. Abarbanel writes:
השאלה הא׳: באמרו מלבד הרעב הראשון אשר היה בימי אברהם כי מה צורך לומר כן האם אפשר שנחשוב שהיה רעב הזה אותו שהיה בחייו בהיות בין זה לזה כמו מאה שנים. והרמב״ן כתב כמתנבא אולי שלא היה רעב בעולם עד שבא אברהם ולא ידעתי מאין היה לו זה.
From the time Avraham settled in the land and there was that first famine until his death, in all those 100 intervening years, there was no other famine or want in Eretz Yisrael. That's an incredible thing. It's only once Avraham was gone that the regular cycle of lean years and boom years returned. This was a testimony to the greatness of Avraham.
Ramban suggests that the famine in Avraham's time was so great that everyone remembered it years later. It's like when the stock market crashes and people start drawing comparisons to 1929. That's the benchmark of disaster by which everything else is measured.
Ramban then goes on to explain why Yitzchak wanted to go to Egypt to escape the famine, and he says something that may be obvious, but which I think is nonetheless very interesting:
כי זה להגיד כי היו זוכרים אותו הרעב הראשון ומספרים עליו, שבעבורו ירד אברהם למצרים ושם עשה לו השם כבוד גדול, ולכן היה יצחק חפץ ללכת בדרך אבותיו לירד שם, עד שנאמר לו: אל תרד מצרימה
Why do I think this is such a remarkable line? Because Ramban in Lech Lecha (12:10) tells us that Avraham did wrong by leaving Eretz Yisrael in time of famine:
ודע כי אברהם אבינו חטא חטא גדול בשגגה שהביא אשתו הצדקת במכשול עון מפני פחדו פן יהרגוהו,.... גם יציאתו מן הארץ שנצטוה עליה מתחלה מפני הרעב עון אשר חטא, כי האלהים ברעב יפדנו ממות. ועל המעשה הזה נגזר על זרעו הגלות בארץ מצרים ביד פרעה, במקום המשפט שמה החטא
If Avraham did wrong, then why would Yitzchak compound the error by following in his footsteps ולכן היה יצחק חפץ ללכת בדרך אבותיו?!
I think there are two possibilities here. The obvious answer is that maybe Yitzchak didn't realize that there was anything wrong with what Avraham did. If Avraham could make such a mistake, who says Yitzchak could not also err in exactly the same way? I am not very satisfied with this. It's bad enough to say one of the Avos erred, but to double the problem and say two erred?
The second possibility is that Yitzchak knew Avraham was in the wrong, but wanted to follow in his footsteps anyway. This is an equally unpalatable solution.
Maybe we can thread the needle between the two. Let me put in in contemporary terms. A person grows up in a rabbinic home; his father is a talmid chacham. He gets to yeshiva and starts learning halacha and discovers that there is a Mishne Berurah that says black on white the opposite of what he saw his father do. His father is unavailable to ask for whatever reason. What is this yeshiva bachur to do? I know what he would do in our times -- he would drop what he saw at home and change his practice to conform to the MB. But life wasn't always this way. R' Chaim Soloveitchik, RYBS' son, has a famous essay about this. What a person saw at home can be just as much a valid source of what normative tradition is than what is in a book. That's called ללכת בדרך אבותיו.
It's true that Ramban says Avraham got it wrong, but there are many meforshim who think Ramban got it wrong, and there was no problem with Avraham leaving Eretz Yisrael. It's a point open to debate. I imagine Yitzchak Avinu much like the yeshiva bachur that you show a MB to and tell him he is doing the wrong thing. In this case, instead of opening as MB, you come with a Mikraos Gedolos and show him a Ramban. Are the words on the page enough to trump what he saw his father Avraham Avinu do? I think this case -- where things are in doubt and open to question -- ללכת בדרך אבותיו carries the day.
Of course it is nonesenical to say that if a person's father was a mechalel shabbos he now has license to be a mechalel shabbos because that is ללכת בדרך אבותיו. I am trying to contextualize ללכת בדרך אבותיו to the grey areas. When things can go one way or the other, give previous generations the benefit of the doubt. There were good Jews who lived before you in whose footsteps it is safe to walk.
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