See Me: Isaac, the Akeida and Foster Care

(1) When Isaac was old and his eyes were dimmed from seeing, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” He answered, “Here I am.”

10) "From seeing"—from the strength of that vision, when Abraham bound Isaac his son to the altar

(13) When Abraham looked up, his eye fell upon a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son. (14) And Abraham named that site Adonai-yireh, whence the present saying, “On the mount of the LORD there is vision.” (15) The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, (16) and said, “By Myself I swear, the LORD declares: Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your favored one, (17) I will bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes. (18) All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed My command.” (19) Abraham then returned to his servants, and they departed together for Beer-sheba; and Abraham stayed in Beer-sheba.

(62) Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi for he was settled in the region of the Negeb. (63) And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening and, raising his eyes, he saw camels approaching. (64) Raising her eyes, Rebekah saw Isaac....

(13) And she called the name of God who spoke to her, “You Are El-roi,” by which she meant, “Have I not gone on seeing after He saw me!” (14) Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it is between Kadesh and Bered.—

'You are El Roi' - said Rabbi Aivu: You are the one who sees the sufferings of the persecuted. 'Since she said: also, here [halom], I have seen after the One Who sees me.'

(1) Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test. He said to him, “Abraham,” and he answered, “Here I am.” (2) And He said, “Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you.” (3) So early next morning, Abraham saddled his ass and took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and he set out for the place of which God had told him. (4) On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place from afar. (5) Then Abraham said to his servants, “You stay here with the ass. The boy and I will go up there; we will worship and we will return to you.” (6) Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac. He himself took the firestone and the knife; and the two walked off together. (7) Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he answered, “Yes, my son.” And he said, “Here are the firestone and the wood; but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” (8) And Abraham said, “God will see to the sheep for His burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them walked on together. (9) They arrived at the place of which God had told him. Abraham built an altar there; he laid out the wood; he bound his son Isaac; he laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. (10) And Abraham picked up the knife to slay his son. (11) Then an angel of the LORD called to him from heaven: “Abraham! Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.” (12) And he said, “Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.” (13) When Abraham looked up, his eye fell upon a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son. (14) And Abraham named that site Adonai-yireh, whence the present saying, “On the mount of the LORD there is vision.”

It is a day of sounding [terua] the shofar to you” (Numbers 29:1), and we translate this verse in Aramaic as: It is a day of yevava to you. And to define a yevava, the Gemara quotes a verse that is written about the mother of Sisera: “Through the window she looked forth and wailed [vateyabev], the mother of Sisera” (Judges 5:28). One Sage, the tanna of the baraita, holds that this means moanings, broken sighs, as in the blasts called shevarim. And one Sage, the tanna of the mishna, holds that it means whimpers, as in the short blasts called teruot.

Isaac returned to his mother and she said to him: ‘Where have you been, my son?’ Said he to her: ‘My father took me and led me up mountains and down hills,’ etc. ‘Alas,’ she said, ‘for the son of a hapless woman! Had it not been for the angel you would by now have been slain!’ ‘Yes,’ he said to her.

Thereupon she uttered six cries, corresponding to the six blasts of the shofar. It has been said: She had scarcely finished speaking when she died.

(10) 10 "And Avraham lifted his eyes and saw after it got stuck by its horns, behold a ram" (Genesis 22:13). [This] teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Avraham our father, the ram separated from one thicket and get entangled in another

thicket. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Avraham, "So in the future will your children be stuck in iniquities and mired in troubles. But in the end, they will be redeemed by the horns of the ram. This is the [understanding of] that which is written (Zecahriah 9:14), "and the Lord, God, will blast with the shofar."

Rabbi Huna beRabbi Yitschak said, "[This] teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Abraham the ram separated from one thicket and get entangled in another thicket. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Avraham, "So in the future will your children be stuck in the nations and entangled by troubles, and going from one empire to [another] - from Babylonia to Medea, from Medea to Greece, from Greece to Edom. But their end is to be redeemed by the horns of the ram. This is the [understanding of] that which is written (Zecahriah 9:14), 'And the Lord will manifest Himself to them, and His arrows shall flash like lightning; etc., will blast with the shofar.'" Rabbi Abba the son of Rav Papei and Rabbi Yehoshua of Sakhnin said in the name of Rabbi Levi, "All of the days of the year, Israel is involved in their work; but on Rosh Hashanah they take their shofars and blast in front of the Holy One, blessed be He; and He stands up from His Throne of judgement and [moves] to the Throne of mercy and is filled up with mercy upon them." When? In the seventh month.