When you see detailed rules and regulations, the first question you ask yourself is: What are all these limitations supposed to accomplish? Pointless constrictions are like a Kafkaistic nightmare. When these restrictions are geared towards a beneficial goal, however, they become an integral part of a positive endeavor. For the noblest goals to materialize they must be broken down into nitty-gritty, clearly defined details. This is the concept that runs through this week's Parsha, Avraham (Chesed) giving birth to Yitzchak (Gvurah).
If it were up to us (which fortunately its not), we would not choose the name Yitzchak, laughter, to define the Pillar of Severity. To understand this choice, we must first observe an event that happened later at the celebration of his physical independence. His mother saw his half-brother laughing, and promptly voiced her objection to his proximity saying: the son of this maidservant will not inherit with my son, with Yitzchak. The addition of his name was obviously not a means of identifying who she was referring to, since she had only one son, but rather an explanation why they could not be together. Someone who is fully aware of the trials and tribulations, the pain and the anguish that are the steady fare of most of Mankind, cannot laugh. Only if he sees clearly that every detail is part of a grand plan of beneficence of such unimaginable magnitude that it completely obliterates the temporary setbacks that lead up to it, can true laughter bubble up out of the sheer absurdity of the trivial dimensions of our present state. Yitzchak Avinu was allowed to laugh because his whole existence was in the future. In his old age he could not even see the temporal anymore, to the extent that he saw his son Esav as he will ultimately be, completely ignoring all his constant painful aberrations during the long path of history.
"Then will our mouths be full with laughter…", but whoever elevates his consciousness above the here and now and is constantly aware of the Eternal will have true happiness even in the present, knowing that the vicissitudes of life are the only child of Benevolence.
Adapted from Rabbi Vali's book on Bereishis. Questions and subscriptions can be mailed to: the Yeshiva