Strangers in a land ruled by strangers

There are a number of three-word verses in the Torah. Some of them would seem to require no commentary, as only names are mentioned. See, for example, 25:14, when three of Yishmael’s children are listed — “Mishma, Duma, Masa”: 35:24, “Rachel’s children: Yosef and Binyamin” (four Hebrew words); Shmot 1:2-4, when the 11 tribes who descended to Egypt are simply listed.

A great example is Bereshit 46:23: “And the children of Dan: Chushim.” Another  classic is in Yaakov’s blessing to his sons, when he cries out, “I pray that G-d will help you” (“lishu’atkha kiviti Hashem”) (49:18).

In our parsha, we have a seemingly inconsequential verse alerting us to Yitzchak’s settling in the city of Gerar — “Vayeshev Yitzchak B’Gerar” (26:6). The background to the verse is that Yitzchak appears to follow his father’s footsteps in settling in Gerar on account of a famine. G-d affirmed for Yitzchak that the blessing bestowed on Avraham would be transferred to Yitzchak in his father’s merit. And now he is settling in Gerar, about to use the same ruse that his parents used, declaring himself and his wife to be siblings in order to avoid being killed in anticipation of his wife being taken to King Avimelekh’s harem.

So “Yitzchak settled in Gerar.” That’s a simple fact, not too much to glean from it. It moves the story along, but is not, to say the very least, profound. And yet the commentaries have a mouthful to say even on this simple verse.

On the one hand, it teaches us that Yitzchak was fulfilling G-d’s instruction (Ibn Ezra, Or haChaim) and that he lived there securely on account of G-d’s Divine Providence (Netziv). He settled in “Gerar” because he was told gur (live) in the land. So he settled in the place where his father settled (Pesikta).

It was only after being blessed that he too will inherit the land that was promised to his descendants (Alshikh).