What Does God Want From Us? Tikun Leil Shavuot 2016 @ KK Bene-Israel Rockdale Temple

(8) And the child grew, and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. (9) And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne unto Abraham, making sport. (10) Wherefore she said unto Abraham: ‘Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.’ (11) And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight on account of his son. (12) And God said unto Abraham: ‘Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah saith unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall seed be called to thee. (13) And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.’ (14) And Abraham arose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away; and she departed, and strayed in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

(1) And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham, and said unto him: ‘Abraham’; and he said: ‘Here am I.’ (2) And He said: ‘Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.’ (3) And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he cleaved the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. (4) On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. (5) And Abraham said unto his young men: ‘Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship, and come back to you.’ (6) And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife; and they went both of them together. (7) And Isaac spoke unto Abraham his father, and said: ‘My father.’ And he said: ‘Here am I, my son.’ And he said: ‘Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?’ (8) And Abraham said: ‘God will aprovide Himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.’ So they went both of them together. (9) And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. (10) And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. (11) And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said: ‘Abraham, Abraham.’ And he said: ‘Here am I.’ (12) And he said: ‘Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou art a God-fearing man, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.’ (13) And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. (14) And Abraham called the name of that place Adonai-jireh; as it is said to this day: ‘In the mount where the LORD is seen.’ (15) And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven, (16) and said: ‘By Myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, (17) that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; (18) and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast hearkened to My voice.’

R. Aha said: Abraham began to wonder: These words are nothing but surprising! Yesterday You said, "For in Isaac shall seed be called to thee" (Gen. xxi, 12); You then retracted and said, "Take now your son..." (ib. xxii, 2); and now You say to me, "Lay not thy hand upon the lad!" Said the Holy One, blessed be He, to him : ' O Abraham, My covenant will I not profane (Ps. lxxxix, 35), And I will establish My covenant with Isaac (Gen. xvn, 21). When I bade thee, "Take now thy son," etc., I will not alter that which is gone out of My lips (Ps. loc. cit.). Did I tell thee, Slaughter him? No! but, "Take him up." Thou hast taken him up. Now take him down.'

And he raised him up. He did not say to him “slaughter him,” because the Holy One of Blessing would not rejoice in his slaughter, rather to bring him up the mountain, to make him an offering, and when he brought him up he would say to him, “take him down."

Some say we need to read with different spelling: נשא instead of נסה ‘Uplifted’ instead of ‘Test’. And I say, the content of the Parashah (the story) proves that נסה is a ‘Test’. And experts explain that נסה (Test) means - to know what exists in the present.

And the Gaon (a Babylonian Jewish leader) explained that the purpose of the test was to show His righteousness to the people. But the Gaon surely knew that when Avraham bound his son, no one else was there.

And others say “go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the heights” meant to be “make a sacrifice upon the mountain.” And not him for sacrifice. And Abraham did not know the secret of the prophecy, and he hurried to slaughter him, and God said to him, “I did not ask for this.”

All these wise leaders needed their interpretations because they couldn't believe that God would command a Mitzvah and then change it. But all those leaders did not notice that there is a precedent for a change like that. In the case of commanding a role for the first born male child (Bamidbar ג – Nombers 3) He replaces them with the Levites one year later.

(And my understanding is) that the text of the Torah uses “נסה" Test, and that is why we don't need to think that anything changed. God tested Avraham for the purpose of giving him a reward (and not for the purpose of commanding sacrifices or showing his righteousness).

(1) And God spoke all these words, saying: (2) I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (3) Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. (4) Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; (5) thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; (6) and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments. (7) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. (8) Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (9) Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; (10) but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; (11) for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (12) Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (13) Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (14) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. (15) And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off. (16) And they said unto Moses: ‘Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.’ (17) And Moses said unto the people: ‘Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before you, that ye sin not.’ (18) And the people stood afar off; but Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.