Hapax Legomenon Exegesis
Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming. Genesis 24:63 NASB 1995
To meditate – Hapax legomenon. That’s what the word śûaḥ’ is. A once only occurrence in the entire Tanakh. If you look in a lexicon, you will find a number of different suggested meanings: “meditate, muse, commune, speak, complain, pray, gossip, stroll, wander about.” But all of these are based on closely related spellings and derivatives. This word never shows up anywhere else. So, take a guess. What exactly was Isaac doing in the field? Are we to assume he was involved in some religious act, or was he simply relieving himself? The beauty of a hapax legomenon is that you can provide whatever meaning you wish. That’s precisely what the Talmud does when it comes to this verse.
“The Talmud identifies this moment [Isaac meeting his wife – Genesis 24:63] as having historic and halakhic implications: Isaac’s ‘meditation’ was a prayer: ‘Towards evening’ means afternoon. If Isaac’s behaviour had normative implications, it means that he instituted minḥa, the afternoon prayer.”[1]
Once more Judaism rescues reclusive Isaac from the shadows. Now his “once only” action becomes the basis for daily prayers. A long-standing tradition is ascribed to a moment that no one knows what was actually occurring and the result is elevating the patriarch. Given Rabbi Ismar Schorsch’s commentary on Isaac, we might be just a bit skeptical about ascribing the evening prayer to his act. You will recall Schorsch’s comment: “Curiously, we are told later that the name by which God was known to Isaac is ‘the Fear of Isaac,’ a name of God not found elsewhere in the Torah (Gen. 31:42). Does the nomenclature suggest that Isaac knew God only as a demonic presence, a source of dread, as God surely must have appeared to him at Moriah?[2]
It seems to me that Isaac’s lack of religious fervor is emphasized by God Himself in another crucial passage: “Then behold, the Lord was standing above it and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants’” (Genesis 28:13 NASB). You noticed, I’m sure, that God refers to Abraham as Jacob’s father. That is truly odd. Of course, commentators will tell us that the word can also mean “forefather,” but the usual rendering of ʾāb removes Isaac from the line, as if Isaac isn’t part of the spiritual connection of the covenant made with Abraham. Something odd is happening.
Judaism needs its patriarchs, and it needs them to at least be spiritual. They may have flaws but they cannot lack faith. Interpreting the passages about Isaac in the best possible light isn’t just exegetical excess, it’s cultural necessity. But maybe that’s the way we’re supposed to read it. After all, who are we to tell the sages that they veered off course.
Topical Index: Isaac, śûaḥ’, prayers, meditate, hapax legomenon, Schorsch, Genesis 24:63
[1] Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible: Genesis: The Book of Beginnings (Maggid Books & The Orthodox Union, 2009), p. 129.
[2] Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor’s Parashah Commentary, November 13, 1993.
