(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 fire 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 ה' 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 ה' there is vision. (15) The messenger of ה' called to Abraham a second time from heaven, (16) and said, “By Myself I swear, ה' 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.
(ז) וַיִּקְרָא אֵלָיו מַלְאַךְ ה' מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָהָם אַבְרָהָם (בראשית כב, יא), תָּנֵי רַבִּי חִיָּא לְשׁוֹן חִבָּה לְשׁוֹן זֵרוּז. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר בֶּן יַעֲקֹב אָמַר לוֹ וְלַדּוֹרוֹת, אֵין דּוֹר שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ כְּאַבְרָהָם, וְאֵין דּוֹר שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ כְּיַעֲקֹב, וְאֵין דּוֹר שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ כְּמשֶׁה, וְאֵין דּוֹר שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ כִּשְׁמוּאֵל. (בראשית כב, יב): וַיֹּאמֶר אַל תִּשְׁלַח יָדְךָ, וְסַכִּין הֵיכָן הָיָה, נָשְׁרוּ שָׁלשׁ דְּמָעוֹת מִמַּלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת וְשִׁחֵת הַסַּכִּין. אָמַר לוֹ אֲחַנְקֶנּוּ, אָמַר לוֹ אַל תִּשְׁלַח יָדְךָ אֶל הַנַּעַר. אָמַר לוֹ אוֹצִיא מִמֶּנּוּ טִפַּת דָּם. אָמַר לוֹ אַל תַּעַשׂ לוֹ מְאוּמָה, אַל תַּעֲשׂ לוֹ מוּמָה. כִּי עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי, הוֹדַעְתִּי לַכֹּל שֶׁאַתְּ אוֹהֲבֵנִי וְלֹא חָשַׂכְתָּ וגו', שֶׁלֹא תֹאמַר כָּל הֶחֳלָאִים שֶׁחוּץ לַגּוּף אֵינָן חֳלָאִים, אֶלָּא מַעֲלֶה אֲנִי עָלֶיךָ כְּאִלּוּ אָמַרְתִּי לְךָ הַקְרֵב עַצְמְךָ לִי וְלֹא עִכַּבְתָּ.
(7) "And the angel of God called to him out of heaven, and said: Abraham, Abraham" (Gen. 22:11). Rabbi Hiya taught: This is an expression of love, this is an expression of urging. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov said: He spoke to him and to future generations, there is no generation which does not contain people like Avraham, and there is no generation which does not contain people like Yaakov, Moshe, and Shmuel. And he said: "Do not lay your hand etc." (Gen. 22:12) Where was the knife? Three tears had fallen from the angels of service and the knife dissolved. Avraham said: ‘I will strangle him,’ He said: ‘Do not lay your hand upon the lad.’ [Avraham] said ‘I will take a drop of blood from him’ - He said to him: ‘Neither do anything [me'uma] to him’ [meaning] inflict no blemish [muma] upon him. "Because now I know" [meaning] I have made it known to all that you love Me, "and you have not withheld, etc". And do not say that all ills that do not affect one’s own body are not ills, rather I ascribe merit to you as though I had told to you to sacrifice yourself and you did not refuse.
(י) וַיִּקְרָא אַבְרָהָם שֵׁם הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא ה' יִרְאֶה (בראשית כב, יד), רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן אָמַר, אָמַר לְפָנָיו רִבּוֹן הָעוֹלָמִים בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁאָמַרְתָּ לִי (בראשית כב, ב): קַח נָא אֶת בִּנְךָ אֶת יְחִידְךָ, הָיָה לִי מַה לְּהָשִׁיב, אֶתְמוֹל אָמַרְתָּ (בראשית כא, כב): כִּי בְיִצְחָק וגו', וְעַכְשָׁו קַח נָא אֶת בִּנְךָ וגו' וְחַס וְשָׁלוֹם לֹא עָשִׂיתִי כֵן אֶלָּא כָּבַשְׁתִּי רַחֲמַי לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ, יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ ה' אֱלֹקֵינוּ בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁיִּהְיוּ בָּנָיו שֶׁל יִצְחָק בָּאִים לִידֵי עֲבֵרוֹת וּמַעֲשִׂים רָעִים תְּהֵא נִזְכַּר לָהֶם אוֹתָהּ הָעֲקֵדָה וְתִתְמַלֵּא עֲלֵיהֶם רַחֲמִים. אַבְרָהָם קָרָא אוֹתוֹ יִרְאֶה, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וַיִּקְרָא אַבְרָהָם שֵׁם הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא ה' יִרְאֶה. שֵׁם קָרָא אוֹתוֹ שָׁלֵם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (בראשית יד, יח): וּמַלְכִּי צֶדֶק מֶלֶךְ שָׁלֵם, אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אִם קוֹרֵא אֲנִי אוֹתוֹ יִרְאֶה כְּשֵׁם שֶׁקָּרָא אוֹתוֹ אַבְרָהָם, שֵׁם אָדָם צַדִּיק מִתְרָעֵם, וְאִם קוֹרֵא אֲנִי אוֹתוֹ שָׁלֵם, אַבְרָהָם אָדָם צַדִּיק מִתְרָעֵם, אֶלָּא הֲרֵינִי קוֹרֵא אוֹתוֹ יְרוּשָׁלַיִם כְּמוֹ שֶׁקָּרְאוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם, יִרְאֶה שָׁלֵם, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם. רַבִּי בֶּרֶכְיָה בְּשֵׁם רַבִּי חֶלְבּוֹ אָמַר עַד שֶׁהוּא שָׁלֵם עָשָׂה לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא סֻכָּה וְהָיָה מִתְפַּלֵּל בְּתוֹכָהּ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהלים עו, ג): וַיְהִי בְשָׁלֵם סֻכּוֹ וּמְעוֹנָתוֹ בְּצִיּוֹן, וּמָה הָיָה אוֹמֵר יְהִי רָצוֹן שֶׁאֶרְאֶה בְּבִנְיַן בֵּיתִי. דָּבָר אַחֵר, מְלַמֵּד שֶׁהֶרְאָה לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ חָרֵב וּבָנוּי חָרֵב וּבָנוּי, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: שֵׁם הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא ה' יִרְאֶה, הֲרֵי בָּנוּי, הֵיךְ מָה דְאַתְּ אָמַר (דברים טז, טז): שָׁלוֹשׁ פְּעָמִים בַּשָּׁנָה יֵרָאֶה. אֲשֶׁר יֵאָמֵר הַיּוֹם בְּהַר ה', הֲרֵי חָרֵב, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (איכה ה, יח): עַל הַר צִיּוֹן שֶׁשָּׁמֵם. ה' יֵרָאֶה, בָּנוּי וּמְשֻׁכְלָל לֶעָתִיד לָבוֹא, כָּעִנְיָן שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהלים קב, יז): כִּי בָנָה ה' צִיּוֹן נִרְאָה בִּכְבוֹדוֹ.
(10) "And Avraham called the name of the place "Ad-nai Yireh" [Ad-nai will see] (Gen. 22:14). Rabbi Yochanan said "he said to Him: 'Master of Worlds, at the hour that you said to me "Take please your son, your only son" (Gen. 22:2), I had what to respond. Yesterday You said "For through Itzchak [will I make your line great]" (Gen. 21:22) but now "Take please your son"!? And God forbid that I don't do as you've asked me; instead, I conquered my mercy to do Your will. May it be your will, Ad-nai our God, that in the hour when the sons of Itzchak come to do transgressions and bad deeds, that this very Binding [Akeidah] be remembered for them, and may You be filled with Mercy on them!' Avraham called it "Yireh", as it says "and Avraham called the name of the place Ad-nai Yireh." Shem called it Shalem, as it says "And Malchitzedek, the king of Shalem..."(Genesis 14:18) The Holy One of Blessing said "If I call it Yireh, as Avraham called it, then Shem, who was a righteous man, will become angry; and if I call it Shalem, Abraham, who was a righteous man, will be angry. Instead, I call it Yerushalayim [Jerusalem], as they called it together: Yireh Shalem. Jerusalem. Rabbi Berechiah said in Rabbi Helbo’s name: While it was Shalem, the Holy One of Blessing made for Godself a sukkah [booth] and prayed in it, since it says "In Shalem is set His tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Tzion" (Psalms 76:3). And what did He say? ‘May it happen that I see the building of My house." Another interpretation: It [this verse] teaches that the Holy One of Blessing showed him the Temple destroyed and built, destroyed and build [a second time], since it says: "the name of that place Ad-nai Yireh" (Ad-nai sees): this is it built, as you say [the verse] "Three times in a year shall all your males be seen [yira'eh] (Deut. 16:16). "As it is said to this day in the Mountain of Ad-nai [is seen, Heb. yira'eh]" (Gen.22:14) This is it destroyed, as in the verse "on the mountain of Tzion, which is desolate" (Lam. 5:18). "Ad-nai is seen" this is it built and perfected in the future to come as the topic [in the verse] that is said: "When Ad-nai built Tzion, He will be seen in His glory" (Psalms 102:17).
Similarly, Rabbi Abbahu said: Why does one sound with a shofar from a ram’s horn? The Holy Blessed One said: Sound a blast before Me with a shofar made from a ram’s horn, so that I will remember for you the binding of Isaac, son of Abraham, in whose stead a ram was sacrificed, and I will ascribe it to you as if you had bound yourselves before Me.
Like these other narratives, the story of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son Isaac seems to modern scholars to have had an etiological message for ancient Israelites. To understand it, one must be aware of a somewhat gruesome fact of life in the ancient Near East: apparently, various peoples in the region used to sacrifice their own children to their gods...
If so, then a story about Israel's distinguished ancestor Abraham, who showed himself willing to sacrifice his beloved son to God but, at the last moment, was told by God to offer a ram in his son's stead--such a story would seem to have a clear etiological message: our God does not demand that we sacrifice our children to Him. The one occasion on which He seemed to do so turned out to be only a "test"; ever afterward, we have sacrificed animals, like the ram in this story, as a substitute for our children. Once again, a story about something that happened in the distant past explains present-day reality, in this case, why the Israelites at some point ceased acting like their neighbors and no longer made such drastic demonstration of their loyalty to their God.'
by Judy Klitsner
The story’s subtle shifts and omissions suggest that the reader’s initial sigh of relief may have been premature. While it is clear that on a covenantal level, Abraham emerges victorious, it seems that he has not fared nearly as well on a personal plane. The careful wording of the text suggests that Abraham has lost many things along his journey: the love toward his son that was initially assumed by God; the father-son connection emblematized by the word יחדו, “together,” and most disturbingly, by the story’s end, Abraham seems to have lost Isaac himself.
If the reader felt an initial sense of harmonious resolution at the story’s end, Abraham’s personal tragedy should challenge and confound. We are left with a formula that is virtually impossible to comprehend: God’s steadfast servant endures both temporary and enduring trauma, all undeserved, much of it directly from God. These ordeals serve to highlight and exaggerate the eternal problem of God’s injustice in the world.
It is always difficult to understand the suffering of the innocent; but the Akedah raises the philosophical stakes by asking how, of all people, God’s most loyal adherent and his blameless son could be singled out for such pitiless treatment. Compounding the theological difficulties is the behavior of the story’s protagonist: how could Abraham—the same Abraham who was so outspoken in defense of the wicked people of Sodom!—comply with God’s horrific command without comment or protest?
by Prof. Aaron Koller
Abraham walks back together with his attendants, but, as Abraham ibn Ezra (1089–1167) comments: ולא הזכיר יצחק, “It does not mention Isaac.” Ibn Ezra and Radak argue that Isaac was in fact there, and only not mentioned; Abarbanel, more dramatically, suggests that Isaac did not in fact return with Abraham to Beersheba, but instead went to his mother in Hebron, apparently living separate from her husband. In any case, however, the omission of Isaac is jarring, and suggests some sort of rupture between father and son, husband and wife. In short, vis-à-vis God, Abraham is doing very well, but vis-à-vis Sarah and Isaac, things are less happy.
סב לסוף עשרים צץ איש עצתי
סלה למולו ששתי ועלצתי
שרף פסילים ועליו הצצתי
סובליו עזב להכנס במחיצתי
עֶלֶם אשר חננתו בכלות כֹּחוֹ
עקדוֹ על עצי מזבחו
עצור שלושה ימים עָשׂ אפרוחו
עָרַב ונרצה ניחוחו
עָצַם ובכל ארץ הפיח ריחו
עניין כְּרַחֵם אב על בנים בְּשָׁכְחוֹ
עטיפת תחִנָּה היה לו לערוך בְּשִֹיחוֹ
'עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי' שִׁימַּעְתּוֹ לשבחו
עושה ארץ בכחו.
R. Qilliri, Piyyut for Shavuot, 6th-7th C.
Turning to the end of twenty he saw
Indeed, to circumcise him I rejoiced and exulted
He burnt idols, and I gazed upon him
He abandoned his family to enter my fold.
The Torah—referred to here as אָמוֹן, “the faithful one”—replies:
The young man with whom you graced him when his strength was spent
He bound on the wood of the altar
Arrested for three days, he offered his chick
It was pleasant, and his offering was accepted
He became great, and his reputation spread throughout the land.
But he forgot how a father is supposed to have mercy on children
A prayer or plea he should have offered!
“Now I know,” you said to him, to praise him,
The One who made the land with his strength.
by Wilfred Owen, 1918
So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
by Dr. Chaim Trachtman
Kierkegaard’s “Nobel Challenge”
The most well-known interpretation to Western readers is Søren Kierkegaard’s characterization of Avraham (in his Fear and Trembling) as a “knight of faith.” For Kierkegaard, Abraham’s behavior represents the zenith of human faith. Abraham’s willingness to follow God’s command and sacrifice Yitzhak with full confidence that everything would still work out well, demonstrates a level of belief that is unique and admirable. Kierkegaard label’s Abraham’s belief the “teleological suspension of the ethical.”
All this explains Avraham’s behavior, but what about God’s? According to Kierkegaard, God’s demand that Avraham slaughter his beloved son is legitimate; otherwise, God could not have demanded it. This is a difficult position to understand, let alone accept.
God Never Really Wanted Avraham to Sacrifice his Son
This is a bold statement about God and ethics, but how is one to read that into the text?
The challenge was taken up by Martin Buber, whose ethical outlook is predicated on dialogue with and a mutual recognition of the dignity of the other. For Buber, it is inconceivable that God could have issued such a demand.[5] Cleaving to God alone and abandoning individual connectedness to people and the world is contrary to a Buberian conception of God’s benevolent will. Thus, Buber believes that the challenge of the Akedah for Avraham as a moral creature was to overcome the inclination to follow God’s command and recognize that true fear and love of God could never entail the sacrifice of his son.
Buber’s thinking has precedent in Chassidic thought. Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, a contemporary of the Maggid of Mezeritch, asserted that Avraham knew that Yitzhak would survive and realized from the outset that God did not want him to kill his son. The challenge to Avraham was to act as if he would, on the assumption that it was not an authentic request by God.
Similarly, Rabbi Joseph Leiner of Izbica (1801-1854) wrote in his work, Mei Hashiloach, that Avraham’s challenge was to clarify what the word of God really was. Unlike Kierkegaard, he does not imagine God forcing Avraham to confront the dilemma of reconciling a religious versus an ethical imperative. Instead, Avraham was confronted with the urgent need to decipher the meaning of God’s words. Avraham knew that murder was forbidden, especially to kill his favored son. But at the same time, Avraham recognized that he had to obey a divine command even though God’s words, ambiguous though they might initially be, seemed to mandate a violation of his ethical code.
According to R. Leiner, the trial of the Akedah was to discern the true meaning of God’s word and gain an appreciation of God’s rules of moral conduct. Avraham achieved this as an independent autonomous individual when he ultimately realized that God did not demand the sacrifice of Yitzhak and knew that he could not ignore the ethical norm NOT to kill his son.
by Prof. Rabbi David R. Blumenthal
Elie Wiesel, in Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends sees the Akeda as a double-edged test. God starts it, but Abraham understands the true opportunity: “As though Abraham had said: I defy You, Lord. I shall submit to Your will, but let us see whether You shall go to the end, whether You shall remain passive and remain silent when the life of my son — who is also Your son — is at stake.”
Wiesel then points to three victories Abraham achieves in this brinkmanship with God. First, Abraham forces God to change His mind on the command to sacrifice Isaac. Second, Abraham forces God to cancel the order Himself; it was not enough that the angel spoke to Abraham. And third, as referenced in the opening of this essay, Abraham forces God to agree that, whenever the children of Israel would be sinful, they need only retell the story to invoke God’s mercy.
To this, I add a fourth victory: Abraham forces God to actually swear by Godself that God will give the threefold blessing to the Jewish people. It was not enough for Abraham that God had already spoken the promise to him several times. Abraham used the Akeda to force God into swearing, as it says, “I swear by Myself.” The proof of this is that, after the Akeda, there is nothing left to say; God and Abraham never speak again...
The goal of the Akeda story, then, is to record that God swore, by God’s very own Self, that God will always remember God’s people for the threefold now-sworn blessing of seed, land, and blessedness.
By associating Rosh Hashana practice and liturgy with the Akeda, we call upon the merit of our ancestors. But we do more than that. We strongly remind God of the oath God made at the Akeda. Indeed, we forcefully invoke God’s oath to Abraham and to his seed, and we call upon God to forgive us our sins as God swore to Abraham that God would do.
by Rabbi David J. Wolpe
Rabbi Menahem Mendle of Kotzk once put this question to his stu-dents: What was the hardest part of the Akedah for Abraham? Was it the initial call, the long walk to Moriah, or the binding? His answer: the hardest part was coming down the mountain.
In peak moments of our lives, the immediacy, the rush of adrenaline, often carries us through. What happens afterward is the true test of sincerity, for afterward we must live with the consequences of our actions. Are we faithful to those peak moments? Do we forget them, or disregard them?
The hardest part of Yom Kippur is not the fasting. The hardest part is two months later, when we are supposed to live by the promises we made. There is great drama in falling in love. But the test of a love is not in the falling; it is in the staying. The test of life is not in moments of passion that can stir the blood and push even the sluggard to new swiftness and resolve. The test of life is after the crisis has passed. Our worthiness is measured not in the pinnacle, but in the persistence.
In teaching, there are times when we are kindled by the task at hand.
Such experiences are wonderful, but ultimately it is in the daily work, when we come down the mountain, that our achievement will be measured. In our teaching we should recall that education is not a parade of peaks, but a long, loving walk together through valleys and level plains.
We should treasure the summit of inspiration, but not live by it. Here below, once we have come down the mountain, our task awaits.