Choosing to See or Not to See

Many commentators are critical of Isaac. Some have suggested that he is stupid. Others that he is limited.

Here is why. He is duped by his father Abraham. When Isaac asks, “Where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” (Genesis 22) Abraham answers that God will provide it even though Isaac is the intended sacrifice. Then Abraham does not trust him and sends his servant to find him a wife. The servant returns with Rebekah who Isaac marries. And finally, this week we read that his son Jacob tricks Isaac along with Rebekah’s help into offering him the first-born blessing instead of the rightful heir Esau.

We are left wondering. How can Isaac be so blind? The Torah reports: “Isaac was old, and his eyes were too dim to see.” (Genesis 27) One answer is that he is in fact blind. And yet, how can he not distinguish between one son and another? When Jacob stands before him with his requested steak dinner, he asks, “How did you succeed so quickly, my son?” Jacob responds, “Because the Lord your God granted me good fortune.” Sounds like Abraham! And Isaac’s response is the same.

Isaac recognizes his son Jacob’s voice but is tricked by the feel of his arms. Again, we are left to wonder. Maybe Isaac is stupid. Or instead, does he hear what he wants to hear? Isaac expects that it is Esau standing before him and so he “sees” Esau. How often do our expectations color what we see? (Or the algorithms confirm our opinions?) We see what we want to see. We hear what we want to hear.

Isaac is moved by others. He is a transitional actor who appears to have little agency. His father moves him in one direction and his son, and wife, move him in another. Maybe they are instruments of God’s design. We cannot control every facet of our lives. Sometimes we are moved by others. Sometimes God’s design is other than we intended or planned. How often do circumstances create unforeseen opportunities. And then we find ourselves standing in a situation not of our own design.

Can we discern the blessings inherent even when things don’t go as planned?

Perhaps we should view Isaac’s blindness as his agency. He sees the truth but does not, or cannot, say it aloud.

Without the occasional willful blindness we are lost.

Oliver Sacks, the great neurologist and writer, who like our forefather became blind later in life, remarks:

To what extent are we the authors, the creators of our own experiences? How much are these predetermined by the brains or senses we are born with, and to what extent do we shape our brains through experience? The effects of a profound perceptual deprivation such as blindness may cast an unexpected light on these questions. Going blind, especially later in life, presents one with a huge, potentially overwhelming challenge: to find a new way of living, of ordering one's world, when the old has been destroyed. (The Mind’s Eye)

We are constantly ordering, and reordering, our world. Sometimes we see. Other times we see what we want to see. Sometimes others move us in one direction or another. And other times we choose blindness.

All are required in the writing of any story. All move our story forward.