The Torah says Yitzchak’s famine came “besides the first famine, in the days of Avraham.” Why mention Avraham’s famine at all? And why did Avraham leave the land then, when that famine was one of his ten trials and he should have stayed to face it?
There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that had been in the days of Avraham, and Yitzchak went to Avimelech, king of the Pelishtim, to Gerar.
9“There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine.” What does the verse mean to teach us by saying “besides the first famine”? To answer, it seems, we must begin with Avraham. Of him it says, “There was a famine in the land, and Avram went down to Egypt …”1 At first glance this is puzzling. The famine in the land at that time was one of Avraham's ten trials,2 so why did he leave because of it? He should have stayed there through the days of famine and stood up to his trial.
Avos 5:3 counts ten trials of Avraham; Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 26 counts the famine, brought “to test him,” as the fourth. ↩
In shortWhy does the verse recall Avraham's famine, and why did Avraham leave the land in a famine that was one of his ten trials?
10When there are wicked people in a generation, they hold back the flow of blessing. Then the tzaddik who wants to bring blessing down to the world must go down from his level, all the way to the bottom of his lowest level, as the verse says, “Out of the depths I call You.”3 In Avraham's days his generation was wicked, and he had to go down from his level entirely. So he was compelled to go down to Egypt, the coarsest and most material of places, so that he too would bend himself down from his lofty level and be able to bring down blessing through his prayer. As the verse says, “A prayer of the poor man …”:4 one who prays must be like a poor man standing at the door.5 But Yitzchak, though his generation was wicked, did not need to go down to Egypt to make himself coarse. We know that once a tzaddik has repaired something through his prayer, if the same thing later befalls a tzaddik after him, it is easy for the second to accomplish it, because the tzaddik before him has already repaired it. That is why the verse says “besides the first famine”: it gives the reason why Yitzchak did not need to go down to Egypt, for Avraham had already repaired the first. This is easy to understand.
In shortAvraham had to go down to Egypt to lower himself for prayer; Yitzchak did not, for what his father had already repaired came easy to him.
The maamar as a whole
R’ Elimelech asks why the verse recalls Avraham’s famine, and why Avraham left the land in a famine that was one of his ten trials. When the wicked of a generation hold back the flow of blessing, he answers, the tzaddik who wants to bring it down must go down from his level to its very bottom, as in “Out of the depths I call You.” Avraham’s generation was wicked, so he went down to Egypt, the coarsest of places, to lower himself and pray like a poor man at the door. Yitzchak’s generation was wicked too, but he did not need to go down: what one tzaddik has repaired through prayer comes easily to the tzaddik after him. “Besides the first famine” gives the reason: his father had already repaired it.
Takeaway
To bring blessing to others, a person must first come down from his height and pray like a poor man at the door. And what an earlier tzaddik has repaired comes easier to those who follow: we walk a road he has already opened.
