Re: The sacrifice of Isaac

joseph botbol (botbolj@total.net)
Wed, 23 Oct 1996 20:16:37 -0400 (EDT)

I am a recent subscriber to Torah-Forum. I have been reading the many
questions and responses to the Akedah and I too have a few questions.
Abraham is tested for the tenth time, and I find the wording intriguing,
the "please" in "Kah Na", the "only" (would I be wrong in interpreting it
also as unique more than only?), whom "you have loved" (Asher Ahavta), a
past tense, rather than "Asher ata ohev." There is no doubt that Abraham
was ready to offer his son for an offering and there is a "piyyut" that is
said both on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, "'Et Sha'areh Ratzon" (the time
of the gates of favor) describing his state of mind as he was about to
sacrifice Isaac: "Ayin bemar bokha veleb sameah" (his eye crying bitterly
and his heart rejoicing).

While we marvel at Abraham's faith in G-d, very little is said about Isaac.
The portion is known as Akedat Itzhak, the Binding of Isaac, not the test
of Abraham. No one told Isaac, a man of 37, why he should be sacrificed.
Even his father refrained from telling him until the very last moment.
Would he have refused to accompany his father? Would he have thought the
demand to excessive? Would he have rebelled against his father? Against G-d?

I find Isaac's faith in G-d equal to his father at the very least. He
accepts, WITHOUT QUESTION, G-d's demand. His love of his father, his
obedience to his father 'binds" him to him and to G-d. I find the name
given to this portion equally telling. The Akedat Yitzhak is the bind that
ties him to his father, to his faith, to his unquestionned loyalty and
service to G-d.