Commentary for Genesis 25:11

ויהי אחרי מות אברהם ויברך וגו AND IT CAME TO PASS AFTER THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM THAT GOD BLESSED ISAAC etc. — He comforted him with the words of the formula of consolation which we offer to mourners (Sotah 14a). Another explanation is: Although the Holy One, blessed be He, had entrusted the blessings to Abraham to bless whomever he wished yet he (Abraham) feared to bless Isaac, because he foresaw that Esau would be born from him. He therefore said, “Let the Master of the blessings come himself and bless whomever it seems proper in his eyes” — God came and blessed him (Isaac)(Genesis Rabbah 61:6).

AND ISAAC DWELLED BY THE WELL LAHAI-ROI. I.e., near that place, or perhaps because it was not a city,¹⁸¹See above, 16:14, for the origin of the name “the well of Lahai-roi,” and there it expressly says that it was by a fountain of water in the wilderness. It was thus not a city. Scripture says that he pitched his tent near the well.

ויהי...ויברך, he made Yitzchok as successful in his undertakings as He made his father Avraham.

וישב יצחק עם באר לחי רואי, “Yitzchok settled near the well which had been named א-לוהי רואי (by the angel who had foretold Ishmael’s birth and rise to greatness. Perhaps the cumbersome description of Yitzchok’s home is due to the fact that it was not an urban location.

He comforted him ... for comforting the bereaved. [Rashi knows this] because if you think “Elokim blessed” follows its simple meaning, why does Scripture say, “After Avraham died”? What does it matter if He blessed Yitzchok during Avraham’s lifetime or after? (Nachalas Yaakov)

Bis dahin war der Segen, den Isaak genoss, nur ein Teil des Abraham zugewendeten Segens. Jetzt segnete Gott ihn selbständig.

ויהי אחרי מות אברהם, “it came to pass after the death of Avraham that G-d blessed Yitzchok.” Rashi explains that although G-d had bestowed the power to bestow blessings on Avraham, in fact had given him a free hand on whom to bestow his blessing, he had not made use of the power to bless Yitzchok. Rabbi Nechemyah claims that although Avraham had passed on that power to distribute blessings to Yitzchok, he himself had not conferred a blessing on his son, so that G-d had now made up for this omission on the part of Avraham. (According to some sources he had not done so as he foresaw the birth of Esau; according to others, he did not want to provoke the anger of Yishmael his first born.)

עם באר לחי ראי, as if the Torah had written בבאר, “at the well.” We have a similar construction in Deuteronomy 8,5 וידעת עם לבבך, “you shall know in your heart.” Or, compare Genesis 35,4 תחת האלה אשר עם שכם, “under the terebinth in Shechem.” Or, compare Samuel II 19,38 עם קבר אבו ואמי “by the graves of my father and mother.”

He was afraid to give the blessings to Yitzchok... You might ask: Did not Rashi say before (v. 5) that Avraham gave the blessings to Yitzchok? The answer is: Avraham empowered him to bless others, but Yitzchok himself was not blessed [until now]. And so wrote Nachalas Yaakov.