and he went up and kissed him. And he smelled his clothes and he blessed him, saying, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that Hashem has blessed.”
English: This teaches that Yitzchak saw the Temple built, destroyed, and rebuilt.
On the daf / in context: The three clauses of the blessing (“see the smell of my son… like the smell of a field… that Hashem has blessed”) are mapped onto the three stages of the Temple’s history.
Type of Learning
Custom (aggadah — vision of the Temple’s three stages)
What Is Learned
In the moment of the blessing Yitzchak prophetically saw the Temple built, destroyed, and rebuilt in the future.