Yitzchak's Blindness Came After Eisav Grew Old, Texts Reveal
Jewish tradition resolves a biblical puzzle: the patriarch was not blind when his son turned wicked, yet he loved him with a tense that defies the present.
By Julian Schulz ·
The Torah states that Yitzchak loved his son Eisav, a sentiment that puzzles readers given Eisav's later wickedness. Traditional commentary now clarifies the timeline: Yitzchak lost his sight long after Eisav had already proven his character.
Midrashim in Bereishit Rabbah 65 propose two causes for Yitzchak's blindness. One suggests it occurred when Eisav was 13 and strayed from the path, protecting Yitzchak, then 75, from public embarrassment. Another links the blindness to the Akeidah, where Yitzchak, then 37, gazed at the divine presence or had angelic tears fall in his eyes. In this scenario, God delayed the blindness until Yitzchak was old.
A third Midrash in Bereishit Rabbah 65 cites incense burned by Eisav's Hittite wives, Judith and Basemath, as the cause. Eisav married them at 40, making Yitzchak 100 years old. A definitive text in Tanchuma Toldot 8 anchors the timeline to the blessing of Yaakov. At that moment, Yitzchak was 123 years old.
The math is explicit: by the time Yitzchak was blind for the last 57 years of his life, Eisav was over 60. His physical inability to see did not explain his affection for a son who had been identified as evil for decades.
Commentators argue that Eisav deceived his father through performance. He acted like a scholar and a righteous person in Yitzchak's presence while behaving as a wicked man elsewhere. Despite the smell of idolatrous incense in the house, Yitzchak's knowledge of Eisav's nature was evident in his instructions for the blessing. He told Eisav to hunt and prepare meat, specifically commanding proper shechita so that no treif meat would be served.
The Baal HaTurim notes that if Yitzchak truly believed Eisav was a strict righteous person, he would not need to remind him of the technical laws of slaughter. Yitzchak's confusion when Yaakov invoked the name of God further proved he knew his son. Eisav never used that divine name.
The Hebrew text uses the word 'va'ye'ehav' to describe this love, a grammatical anomaly that mixes past and future tenses. It is not a present tense love. Yitzchak loved the Eisav of the past, before age 13, when the twins were indistinguishable in their Torah study and piety.
The future tense points to a prophetic vision. The Gemara in Avodah Zara 11a identifies a descendant of Eisav as Antoninus, the Roman Emperor who became a brother to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and converted to Judaism. Other descendants, including Shmaya and Avtalyon and Rabbi Akiva, became pillars of Torah. Yitzchak loved Eisav because he saw the future righteousness of his lineage.
