Lessons From The Akeida

I don't know what I'm talking about. You probably concluded that already, but you view it as something negative and I consider it as positive, an advantage. I'm ignorant. I have very little background in past explications of the Torah. If I don't stand on the shoulders of giants it's simply because I don't know where those shoulders are. I'm free to say what I want. If I agree with what the sages of the past said it is by coincidence, not intent; if I disagree, it is not a matter of disrespect, but a different perspective.

I'm particularly interested with the Akeida at the moment. Some of its lessons resonate with me and I thought I'd explore them.

G-d told Abraham to sacrifice his son. The first verse of chapter 22 of B'reishit (Genesis) tells us that this was a test. Our sages view it as the tenth test of Abraham that Hashem imposed upon our father in order to determine the extent of his faith. The story of the Akeida (the binding for the sacrifice) is a familiar one and I won't repeat it. I will, however, note a number of tests and lessons that I find in the story.

The first lesson is that the story doesn't end where the story ends. His mother's reaction, and the events that followed, although not spelled out or connected must be connected, but I'll discuss that later.

Starting at the beginning, however, Hashem tells Abraham to take Isaac somewhere and to sacrifice him there. He doesn't specify the place. It's all a mystery. Earlier Abraham had been instructed to leave his parents' home – his birthplace and his own home – and travel to a new land. In the Akeida he is given the same message, using the same words, lech l'cha. It's likely that on both occasions Abraham wondered where he was being sent, but in neither case did he question the command. He would go wherever Hashem wanted him to go – no questions asked.

When he went, Abraham made the necessary preparations. He didn't know where he was going but he knew what he would be doing there, so he took along a knife, fire, and wood. Perhaps he would not find what he needed in the mysterious place so he made sure he would have them and could fulfill Hashem's wishes immediately. He prepared to do the mitzvah as soon as it was possible.

Abraham was prepared for the task. And, specifically, he was prepared to sacrifice Isaac. He bound his son, prepared a place to do so, and raised the knife. But he was stopped before he could perform the act. This was, after all, only a test. Hashem knew what would be the outcome of the episode. He knew that Abraham, however saddened at the death of his and Sarah's son, would do what was asked of him, but Abraham didn't know how firm were his beliefs. He might have softened at the last minute and set his son free. The test taught what no meditation could. It was important that he recognize that he was prepared to all that G-d asked of him, no matter how much it “cost.”

In the end, however, Hashem provided a ram as the offering. A door was closed. Isaac would not be sacrificed, but another was opened and a ram would be substituted. Hashem, by the availability of the ram, provided for completion of the mitzvah even under trying circumstances. But Abraham had to want to perform the mitzvah for the “miracle” to occur.

And Isaac had to be willing to make the sacrifice. The only contact he had had with G-d was what was told him by his father. There had been no personal contact. Still he was ready to accept Hashem's commandments and His judgment. Isaac's sacrifice – his life – would be more significant than Abraham's, but it would be made on the basis of the teachings of his father, “tradition,” the first transmission of our faith from generation to generation, but, though younger and stronger than his father, he submitted to the verdict of death without question or complaint – at least none recorded in B'reishit. Judaism was born.

While Abraham was away, Eliezer and Ishmael (according to Midrash) and a donkey awaited him and it is likely that on his return he related the events. The donkey, who I suspect, was an ancestor of Bilaam's, heard and learned that following Hashem's commands and preserving Judaism were praiseworthy, and he passed on the message to his descendants.

But I mentioned Sarah. How does she fit in? She heard an incomplete retelling of the Akeida from a messenger. Believing that the sacrifice had been carried out she grieved and died. Adam and Eve had not grieved the loss of Abel and this is the first occasion on which grief occurred. And it has been a human emotion ever since.

The story ends with the purchase of a burial site for Sarah. Wanting there to be no dispute over the ownership of that site, Abraham purchased the Cave of Machpela on the edge of the field of Ephron. Current events teach us that we cannot trust all of the people with whom we deal. Perhaps we are being punished because Abraham, himself didn't accept the fact that all the land was Hashem's and that all he had seen was granted to him. Instead he acknowledged the idea that there was a human owner and he paid a mortal for land that was G-d's.

Those are the tests and lessons of which I wrote. They were of Abraham and his family and they occurred millennia ago. Or are they tests and lessons for us? Do they guide us in how we should act and Whom we should believe. The Torah was written a long time ago but its lessons are eternal.

September 12, 2017