Laugh with our forefather Yitzchok

at your Vayairoh Shabbes table

Yisroel Susskind, Ph.D.

Oct 2026

Very Puzzling ! Would you name your child after a traumatic event in your life? And yet, Avraham and Sara appear to have done so.

Towards the end of last week’s parsha,  Hashem promised Avraham that he and Sara would have a child during the coming year. Avraham “laughed” (17:17) ויצחק ) “vayitzchak”. Rashi explains that here the word “laughter” refers to great “Joy”.

In this week’s parsha, Sara hears angels repeating Hashem's promise in front of Avraham. In reaction, Sara laughs inside herself (18:12). Here, the commentaries use a second definition  “laughter” צחוק) ), “ tschok “meaning “mockery”. Sara appears to doubt or mock Hashem’s ability to cause her to be fertile at her old age. Sara tried to stifle or hide her laugh because she realized that her doubts were inappropriate.  Hashem then chastises Sara, in front of her husband Avraham, for the laughter(18:14) and a frightened Sara initially denies that she had laughed (18-15).

Nonetheless, the new baby is named Yitzchak, meaning “he will laugh.” Why brand him with a label that memorializes a painful episode?

An answer:  

Yitzchak’s innate temperament was archetypically the opposite of Avraham’s. 

Avraham epitomizes Chesed:  generous, compassionate, flexible, merciful, where you give people the benefit of the doubt. Yiztchok embodies Gevurah: enforcing rules and boundaries, legalistic, exactingly fair, offering Justice, but by the letter of the law.

In my practice, I often help people find a balance between Chesed and Gevurah. For example, “can you disagree without being disagreeable?”

There are times in our family when we need to “cut someone some slack”, where we pamper people and turn a blind eye to minor infractions. “Let it go, don’t make a big deal about it. ” My mother would convey this to my father, when indulging me, by saying in Hungarian, “Hodyal bekkenh beh” ; in Hungarian it is written as hagyd békén. It means, essentially , “let him be.”

Nonetheless, there are times when we need to draw strict lines, to protect ourselves, our spouses, and our kids. There are consequences for unacceptable behavior. We don’t enable. We are Gevurah-filled. We are Yitzchok.

There was an important reason to “brand” Yitzchok with “laughter.” We , and Yitzchok, need to be very conscious about how we use Gevurah. Even when we perform the role of Yitzchok, we can do so more gently, incorporating some playfulness, some “tschok” in its sense of “Joy”. The Talmud offers a powerful example of Yitzchok's combining legalistic argument and absurd playfulness.

The Talmud teaches (see Shabbat, 89b (שבת פ״ט ע״ב)) that it is our Patriarch Yitzchok/Isaac (rather than Avraham or Yaacov) who will defend the merits of the Jewish people, at the coming of Moshiach. It is Yitzchok whom the Jews will address as “our father “.

Why Yitzchok? 

Yitzchok was able to hold G-d to the strict letter of the law, while also being clearly playful. Here is  the full dialog, as translated by   Sefaria (the light-faced words are Sefaria's comments).

“ In the future that will surely come, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will say to Abraham: Your children have sinned against Me. Abraham will say before Him: Master of the Universe, if so, let them be eradicated to sanctify Your name.

God said: I will say it to Jacob. Since he experienced the pain of raising children, perhaps he will ask for mercy on their behalf. He said to Jacob: Your children have sinned. Jacob said before Him: Master of the Universe, if so, let them be eradicated to sanctify Your name.

The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: There is no reason in elders and no wisdom in youth. Neither Abraham nor Jacob knew how to respond properly.

 He said to Isaac: Your children have sinned against Me. Isaac said before Him: Master of the Universe, are they my children and not Your children? At Sinai, when they accorded precedence to “We will do” over “We will listen” before You, didn’t You call them, “My son, My firstborn son Israel” (Exodus 4:22)? Now that they have sinned, are they my children and not Your children?

And furthermore, how much did they actually sin?

How long is a person’s life? Seventy years. Subtract the first twenty years of his life. One is not punished for sins committed then, as in heavenly matters, a person is only punished from age twenty. Fifty years remain for them.

Subtract twenty-five years of nights, and twenty-five years remain for them. Subtract twelve and a half years during which one prays and eats and uses the bathroom, and twelve and a half years remain for them.

If You can endure them all and forgive the sins committed during those years, excellent. And if not, half of the sins are upon me to bear and half upon You. And if You say that all of them, the sins of all twelve and a half years that remain, are upon me, I sacrificed my soul before You and You should forgive them due to my merit.

The Jewish people began to say to Isaac: You are our father. Only Isaac defended the Jewish people as a father would and displayed compassion toward his children.”

 May we soon (in fact, immediately) engage in that dialog with the coming of Moshiach.



Dr. Yisroel Susskind  is a clinical psychologist (Ph.D., Yale, 1969) who practices locally (in Monsey/Sufern, New York) and internationally (over the telephone and computer). He lectures worldwide on topics involving Torah, psychology, marriage and interpersonal relationships. He can be reached via email (dr@susspsyc.com) or by phone 845-304-5481.

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