(א) וַיְהִ֗י אַחַר֙ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְהָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔ים נִסָּ֖ה אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֔יו אַבְרָהָ֖ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר הִנֵּֽנִי׃ (ב) וַיֹּ֡אמֶר קַח־נָ֠א אֶת־בִּנְךָ֨ אֶת־יְחִֽידְךָ֤ אֲשֶׁר־אָהַ֙בְתָּ֙ אֶת־יִצְחָ֔ק וְלֶ֨ךְ־לְךָ֔ אֶל־אֶ֖רֶץ הַמֹּרִיָּ֑ה וְהַעֲלֵ֤הוּ שָׁם֙ לְעֹלָ֔ה עַ֚ל אַחַ֣ד הֶֽהָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֖ר אֹמַ֥ר אֵלֶֽיךָ׃ (ג) וַיַּשְׁכֵּ֨ם אַבְרָהָ֜ם בַּבֹּ֗קֶר וַֽיַּחֲבֹשׁ֙ אֶת־חֲמֹר֔וֹ וַיִּקַּ֞ח אֶת־שְׁנֵ֤י נְעָרָיו֙ אִתּ֔וֹ וְאֵ֖ת יִצְחָ֣ק בְּנ֑וֹ וַיְבַקַּע֙ עֲצֵ֣י עֹלָ֔ה וַיָּ֣קׇם וַיֵּ֔לֶךְ אֶל־הַמָּק֖וֹם אֲשֶׁר־אָֽמַר־ל֥וֹ הָאֱלֹהִֽים׃
(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.
Views on Jewish Practice
Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Judaism, Human Values, and the State of Israel, 1975
Performance of the mitzvot is man’s path to God, an infinite path, the end of which is never attained and is, in effect, unattainable. A man is bound to know that this path never terminates. One follows it without advancing beyond the point of departure...
What, then, is the substance and import of the performance of the mitzvot? It is man’s striving to attain the religious goal...
Performance of the mitzvot is man’s path to God, an infinite path, the end of which is never attained and is, in effect, unattainable. A man is bound to know that this path never terminates. One follows it without advancing beyond the point of departure...
What, then, is the substance and import of the performance of the mitzvot? It is man’s striving to attain the religious goal...
Yeshayahu Lebowitz, The Territories, 1992
The land of Israel is the Holy Land and the Temple Mount is a holy place only by virtue of the Mitzvoth linked to these locations. These Mitzvoth were not associated with the land and the mountain because these are “holy.” On the contrary, their “holiness” derives from the Mitzvot associated with them. The idea that a specific country or location has an intrinsic “holiness” is an indubitably idolatrous idea.
The land of Israel is the Holy Land and the Temple Mount is a holy place only by virtue of the Mitzvoth linked to these locations. These Mitzvoth were not associated with the land and the mountain because these are “holy.” On the contrary, their “holiness” derives from the Mitzvot associated with them. The idea that a specific country or location has an intrinsic “holiness” is an indubitably idolatrous idea.
Religious Praxis: The Meaning of Halakhah, 1953
The Halakhah does not depend upon the incidence of religious experience and attaches little importance to the psychic urges to perform extraordinary deeds. It strives to base the religious act, even in its highest manifestations, on the permanent habit of performing one's duty...
The Halakhah does not depend upon the incidence of religious experience and attaches little importance to the psychic urges to perform extraordinary deeds. It strives to base the religious act, even in its highest manifestations, on the permanent habit of performing one's duty...
Two Types of Religiosities
He'arot le-Parshat Ha-Shavua, Hebrew University Press, Jerusalem, 1988, Leibowitz p. 56
The religion of values and beliefs is an endowing religion - a means of satisfying man's spiritual needs and of assuaging his mental conflicts. Its end is man, and God offers his services to man. A person committed to such a religion is a redeemed man. A religion of Mitzvoth is a demanding religion. It imposes obligations and tasks and makes of man an instrument for the realization of an end which transcends man. The satisfactions it offers are those deriving from the performance of one's duty...From such a standpoint, the question "what does religion offer to me?" must be completely dismissed. The only proper question is: "what am I obligated to offer for the sake of religion?...
Religious Praxis: The Meaning of Halakhah, Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1953)
The two types of religiosity may be found within all religions, but religions differ from one another in the extent to which one type predominates. A religiosity of the first type is characteristic of Christianity. Its symbol, the cross, represents the sacrifice God brought about for the benefit of mankind. In contrast, the highest symbol of the Jewish faith is the stance of Abraham on Mount Moriah, where all human values were annulled and overridden by fear and love of God.
The two types of religiosity may be found within all religions, but religions differ from one another in the extent to which one type predominates. A religiosity of the first type is characteristic of Christianity. Its symbol, the cross, represents the sacrifice God brought about for the benefit of mankind. In contrast, the highest symbol of the Jewish faith is the stance of Abraham on Mount Moriah, where all human values were annulled and overridden by fear and love of God.
Chosen?
Yeshayahu Leibowitz , Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State (1975)
If by nature there is something special about a Jew that distinguishes him from the non-Jew, then Judaism is not a task and a vocation but a factual datum. Given facts, as such, are devoid of value, they are axiologically neutral. Values are not rooted in reality; they are objects of aspiration beyond reality toward which one must strive from within reality. It follows that to claim inherent uniqueness for the people of Israel is to deprive this uniqueness of all significance.
If by nature there is something special about a Jew that distinguishes him from the non-Jew, then Judaism is not a task and a vocation but a factual datum. Given facts, as such, are devoid of value, they are axiologically neutral. Values are not rooted in reality; they are objects of aspiration beyond reality toward which one must strive from within reality. It follows that to claim inherent uniqueness for the people of Israel is to deprive this uniqueness of all significance.
Leibowitz, cont.
"In his doctrine of providence, Maimonides conceives of God's providential relation to man as identical with the state of man when he is aware of God. It is identical to it and not just a consequence. Similarly, one might say that the election of the people of Israel ('And the LORD has affirmed this day that you are') is identical with the assumption of the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven by the people of Israel ('You have affirmed this day that the LORD is your God').
Accordingly, the uniqueness of the Jewish people--also called the 'holiness' of Israel--is not something that was given to the people as an abiding and enduring possession, but is rather a demand, an assignment and a task with which they are charged--a goal toward which they are to strive eternally, without any guarantee of ever attaining it. The question is not 'Did God bestow holiness upon the Jewish people" but rather, "Is the Jewish people striving toward holiness by assuming the yoke of Torah and Mitzvoth?"
"In his doctrine of providence, Maimonides conceives of God's providential relation to man as identical with the state of man when he is aware of God. It is identical to it and not just a consequence. Similarly, one might say that the election of the people of Israel ('And the LORD has affirmed this day that you are') is identical with the assumption of the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven by the people of Israel ('You have affirmed this day that the LORD is your God').
Accordingly, the uniqueness of the Jewish people--also called the 'holiness' of Israel--is not something that was given to the people as an abiding and enduring possession, but is rather a demand, an assignment and a task with which they are charged--a goal toward which they are to strive eternally, without any guarantee of ever attaining it. The question is not 'Did God bestow holiness upon the Jewish people" but rather, "Is the Jewish people striving toward holiness by assuming the yoke of Torah and Mitzvoth?"
The Land/State of Israel
Yeshayahu Leibowitz "On the Significance of the Land of Israel for Judaism."
The Land of Israel is not the cradle of Judaism nor of the Jewish people. From the perspective of Judaism -- the Land of Israel is a task placed on the people of Israel throughout the generations. The essence of this mission is not control of the land, but the implementation of the Torah in the land. The Scroll of Independence of the State of Israel opens with a deliberate lie -- "The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people." The Jewish people was not born in the Land of Israel but came to the Land of Israel as a consolidated nation. The traditional historical consciousness of Judaism sees the birth of the nation -- in a symbolic sense -- with Abraham our father, who recognizes the Creator in Iraq. The people of Israel comes to crystallization ("and on this day they became a people.") with the covenant sealed in the desert, in a no-mans land. This teaches us that the Torah is not dependent on the Land of Israel. The Torah was given outside of the land, and the bulk of the people of Israel's existence throughout the generations was outside of the land. The greatest spiritual and religious creativitiy took place in the Exile. Without the task of observance of Torah there is no religious meaning to possessing the land.
The Land of Israel is not the cradle of Judaism nor of the Jewish people. From the perspective of Judaism -- the Land of Israel is a task placed on the people of Israel throughout the generations. The essence of this mission is not control of the land, but the implementation of the Torah in the land. The Scroll of Independence of the State of Israel opens with a deliberate lie -- "The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people." The Jewish people was not born in the Land of Israel but came to the Land of Israel as a consolidated nation. The traditional historical consciousness of Judaism sees the birth of the nation -- in a symbolic sense -- with Abraham our father, who recognizes the Creator in Iraq. The people of Israel comes to crystallization ("and on this day they became a people.") with the covenant sealed in the desert, in a no-mans land. This teaches us that the Torah is not dependent on the Land of Israel. The Torah was given outside of the land, and the bulk of the people of Israel's existence throughout the generations was outside of the land. The greatest spiritual and religious creativitiy took place in the Exile. Without the task of observance of Torah there is no religious meaning to possessing the land.
Leibowitz, cont.
"The Judaism of Moses as arduous. It means knowing that we are not a holy people. The Judaism of Korach is very comforting. It allows every Jew to be proud and boast that he is a member of the holy people, which is holy by its very nature. This obligates him to nothing....He who empties the concept of the Jewish people of its religious content (like David Ben Gurion) and still describes it as Am Segulah/chosen people turns this concept into an expression of racist chauvinism."
"The Judaism of Moses as arduous. It means knowing that we are not a holy people. The Judaism of Korach is very comforting. It allows every Jew to be proud and boast that he is a member of the holy people, which is holy by its very nature. This obligates him to nothing....He who empties the concept of the Jewish people of its religious content (like David Ben Gurion) and still describes it as Am Segulah/chosen people turns this concept into an expression of racist chauvinism."