The Akedah: The Role of Our Jewish/Israeli Mothers

(1) Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test, saying to him, “Abraham.” He answered, “Here I am.”(2) “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, “It is God who will see to the sheep for this 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 a messenger of יהוה called to him from heaven: “Abraham! Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.”(12) “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 יהוה there is vision.”(15) The messenger of יהוה called to Abraham a second time from heaven,(16) and said, “By Myself I swear, יהוה 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.(20) Some time later, Abraham was told, “Milcah too has borne sons to your brother Nahor:(21) Uz the first-born, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram;(22) and Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel”—(23) Bethuel being the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.(24) And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore [sons]—Tebah, Gaham, and Tahash—and [a daughter,] Maacah.

And he saw the place from afar off. Abraham had asked himself: What shall I do? If I tell Sarah all about it, consider what may happen. After all, a woman’s mind becomes distraught over small matters; how much more disturbed would she become if she heard something as astounding as this! However, if I tell her nothing at all, and simply steal him away from her when she is not looking, she will kill herself. What did he do? He said to Sarah: “Prepare some food and drink that we may eat and rejoice.” “But why is this day different from other days?” she asked. “What are you celebrating?” He replied: “When a couple our age has a son, it is fitting, indeed, that they should eat, drink, and rejoice.” Whereupon she prepared the food. While they were eating, he said to her: “When I was a child of three, I already knew my Creator, yet this child is growing up and still has had no instruction. There is a place a short distance away where children are being taught, I will take him there.” She answered: “Go in peace.”

Immediately: And Abraham arose early in the morning (ibid., v. 3). Why did he arise early in the morning? He had said to himself: Perhaps Sarah will change her mind and not permit me to go; I will arise before she does.”

When Abraham returned from Mount Moriah in peace, the anger of Sammael was kindled, for he saw that the desire of his heart to frustrate the offering of our father Abraham had not been realized. What did he do? He went and said to Sarah: Hast thou not heard what has happened in the world? She said to him: No. He said to her: Thy husband, Abraham, has taken thy son Isaac and slain him and offered him up as a burnt offering upon the altar. She began to weep and to cry aloud three times, corresponding to the three sustained notes (of the Shophar), and (she gave forth) three howlings corresponding to the three disconnected short notes (of the Shophar), and her soul fled, and she died.

(5) While all this was transpiring, Satan visited Sarah in the guise of Isaac. When she saw him she asked: “What did your father do to you, my son?” He replied: “My father led me over mountains and through valleys until we finally reached the top of a certain mountain. There he erected an altar, arranged the firewood, bound me upon the altar, and took a knife to slaughter me. If the Holy One, blessed be He, had not called out, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, I would have been slaughtered.” He had hardly completed relating what had transpired when she fainted and died, as it is written: And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her (ibid. 23:2). From where did he come? From Moriah.