Musar for Pesachim 107:28

I shall now explain the meaning of the words: עד כי גדול מאד "until he was very great," in 26,13. Bereshit Rabbah 64,7 on that verse states that when people wanted to describe excessive wealth they used to describe it in terms of the silver and gold possessed by Avimelech. After Isaac had become rich, they described excessive wealth in terms of the dung of Isaac's mules. This seems a curious comparison. How can we assume that Avimelech's wealth did not even amount to the value of the dung of Isaac's mules? Another difficulty is the Midrash's comment on the words מצא את הימים, in Genesis 36,14. These yeymim are described by Bereshit Rabbah 82,15 as half-donkey and half-horse. Anah who crossbred horse and donkey to produce mules is severely criticized for interfering with G–d's plan of maintaining the purity of the species. How can we assume that Isaac a) kept or raised such animals, b) was the first one to crossbreed, seeing that the Torah reports this as something new much later and in Jacob's lifetime?

How did G–d prove that point? Whereas in the days of Anah a mule had to be the product of crossbreeding, Isaac became the owner of mules which were not the result of crossbreeding but a heavenly gift. Even the scoffers who lived around him became aware of this. This is why Isaac became "great" in their eyes. They realised that if G–d performs such miracles with the livestock of a צדיק, how much greater would be the miracles He would perform with the צדיק himself! When the people said that the dung of Isaac's mules was worth more than the silver and gold of Avimelech, they meant that the fact that Isaac possessed mules which were not the result of crossbreeding proved more about his status as a holy man than the thousand silver pieces Avimelech had given to Sarah to demonstrate that her virtue had not been compromised while she was in Avimelech's palace (Genesis 20,16). Why does the Midrash quote the Philistines as also referring to Avimelech's gold? The Torah does not report Avimelech giving gold to either Sarah or Abraham! We need not understand the word כסף, silver, in the Torah as silver literally, but as an expression of the value of the gift in terms of silver coins. We now have demonstrated how the gift of the land of Israel is specifically connected with Isaac.

Rabbi Akiba said, "Seven things were created before the Universe and they are these : Torah, Repentance, Paradise, Gehennah, the Throne of Glory, the Temple, and the name of the Messiah" (Pesahim 54a). And why these seven? Know this, that the principal reason for the creation of the world is man, for there is no need for the lower world except for man, and he rules over all the lower world : over the cattle, the beasts, the fowl, the fish and the swarming things. And inasmuch as the principal reason for creation is man it was necessary first to create the Torah, which is the very existence of the world. As it is written, "If My covenant be not with day and night, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth" (Jer. 33:25).