Why is little said about Isaac?

Question

Three parshiot contain numerous details about Avraham. We learn about his leaving his parents' home, his travelling to Egypt & Gerara among other places, the problems with Hagar and Yishma'el, binding Isaac to the alter, and other stories.

Seven parshiot mention Ya'akov from Toldot (story of his getting the blessing instead of Esav), his travails with Lavan in Vayetze, His dealing with Esav in Vayishlach, there's a bit of a "break" from Vayeshev through Miketz as the focus is mainly on Yosef, but things continue in Vayigash when he comes down to Egypt and his blessings to his children and burial in Vayechi.

By comparison, little is said about Yitzchak. We read about his birth and akeida in Vayeira, he gets married to Rivkah in Chayei Sarah (very little mentioning of him, in this parsha). Toldot seems to be the main parsha were we seem most of his activity, then, near the end of the parsha, we see he is about to die. There's very little mentioned about him in comparsion to his father and his son.

Why does the Torah spend little time talking about him? Was there so little that occurred to him by comparison?

Feel free to improve the tagging. Offhand, I didn't think of including all the various parshiot, as I'm not really asking about something specific to any parsha.

Answer 1

R' Yaakov Kaminetzky points this out in his first entry on Parshas Toldos. He also points out that in the Rambam's brief historical description of the impact of the Avos (Hil. Avodas Kochavim 1:3) Yitzchok gets pretty short shrift, with a one-line mention about how he taught his son Yaakov.

It's worth seeing inside, but R' Yaakov's basic approach is that each of the Avos had their approach to relating to Hashem, which is what they really conveyed to others. Avraham conveyed to others that Hashem was the Source and Essence of חסד. Yaakov established the search for truth and the G-d of truth.

Yitzchak's approach, however, was the approach of justice and judgement, and preached a life of self-discipline and exactitude in lining up with what Hashem wants from a person, with no room for compromise. This approach was not as popular, as one might imagine, by the general masses, and therefore Yitzchak was not as involved in the world as the other Avos, and his only disciple was his son Yaakov.

Answer 2

The Avos all had different purposes & missions based on their unique personalities. Avraham Avinu first discovered the true path & being the epitome of Chesed used his social skills to teach his Torah to every soul he interacted with. Yitzchak on the other hand was a man of great Gevurah & as we see with his compliance with the Akeida was the greatest & most loyal Talmid. He spent much of his time meditating in the field absorbing his fathers teachings & using his inner strength to completely internalize it. Yaakov perfected the Chesed - Gevurah approach into Tiferes which is why his life’s work was turning this “father & son shop” into a global phenomenon through the Shevatim. While Avraham & Yaakov’s approaches afforded them many opportunities to interact with the outside world & the more amazing great Tzadikim interact with the outside world the more amazing great stories & lessons can be gleaned from their life, hence their “longer screen time”. Yitzchak worked mainly introspectively on perfecting his Fathers complex Torah & paving the path for Yaakov to teach a more comprehensive & complete ideology to his 12 sons & ultimately to us all. Since the purpose of Berashis is, in large part, maaseh avos siman l'banim the torah focuses on the stories which teach us the most. We can speculate that more can be learned from the interpersonal interactions than quiet introspection.