Isaac יצחק אבינו
the second patriarch, the only one who never left the Land of Israel
Yitzchak was born in 2048, when Avraham was a hundred and Sarah ninety. His name — «he will laugh» — recalls the laughter of both parents at the promise. He is the first person circumcised on the eighth day.
At thirty-seven he goes with his father to Mount Moriah. The Torah describes the binding sparely: «and the two of them walked together». The sages say Yitzchak understood and consented, so that the trial was his as well. Tradition associates him with gevurah, restrained inner strength.
He is the only patriarch never to leave the Land: in famine he is told outright not to go down to Egypt. He sows in Gerar and reaps a hundredfold, redigs his father's wells stopped up by the Philistines, and yields again and again until he finds a well no one disputes.
Blind in old age, he blesses Yaakov in place of Esav — and, the sages say, confirmed the blessing knowingly. He lived 180 years, dying in 2228.