Chasidut for Shabbat 178:3
ויאמרו לפניו רבש"ע אצל מי נלך אצל אברהם שאמרת לו (בראשית טו, יג) ידוע תדע ולא בקש רחמים עלינו אצל יצחק שבירך את עשו (שם כז, מ) והיה כאשר תריד ולא בקש רחמים עלינו אצל יעקב שאמרת לו (שם מו, ד) אנכי ארד עמך מצרימה ולא בקש רחמים עלינו אצל מי נלך עכשיו יאמר ה' אמר להן הקב"ה הואיל ותליתם עצמכם בי אם יהיו חטאיכם כשנים כשלג ילבינו:
in the time to come the Holy One, blessed be He, shall say unto Israel, 'Go now to your forefathers, and they will reprove you.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Or, convince you — of your wrong-doing. ');"><sup>6</sup></span> And they shall say before Him, 'Sovereign of the Universe! To whom shall we go? To Abraham, to whom Thou didst say, Know of a surety [that thy seed shall be a stranger … and they shall afflict them …],<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Gen. XV, 13. ');"><sup>7</sup></span> yet he did not entreat mercy for us? To Isaac, who blessed Esau, And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have dominion,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. XXVII, 40. ');"><sup>8</sup></span>
Kedushat Levi
The reader’s attention is directed at the commentary of Nachmanides (very lengthy). He concludes that Yaakov, personally, (if it had been up to him) did not really want to descend to Egypt. It was only because he realized that it had been decreed for him to be exiled in Egypt, (compare Shabbat 89) according to which Yaakov should actually have descended to Egypt in iron chains. Under the circumstances, Yaakov realized that he was very fortunate to travel to Egypt in style, instead. When he addressed G’d as the G’d of Yitzchok, he implied that his father Yitzchok had not been forced to leave the Holy Land, even though there had been a famine there in his lifetime also, G’d had commanded him to remain there. (Genesis 26,2) He may have hoped to change G’d’s decree so as to enable him to remain in the Holy Land.