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Parshat Va'yera
2002
The Akeida: A Satanic Plot
In many editions of the Siddur (prayer book), the Akeida (binding of Isaac; Genesis, chapter 22) is part of the daily prayers. I am relieved that the custom of the "yeshivot" I attended was not to read that unit as part of the daily service. Although the Akeida is one of the most famous passages in the Bible, it is replete with many moral dilemmas and textual difficulties. The Midrash and the commentaries struggle with the text but the various resolutions are, to my mind, not convincing. I hear the Akeida read twice a year - on Rosh Hashanah and this coming Shabbat - and that is sufficient.
The silences in the text are awesome: the Bible doesn't reveal what Abraham was thinking when God asked him to make the ultimate sacrifice. What, indeed, was Abraham feeling as he slipped out of his house early in the day. Was he trying to avoid confronting his wife and others with the purpose of his journey?
Also troubling are the brief conversations during Abraham and Isaac's trip.
Genesis 22:7-8
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?" And Abraham said, "God will see to the sheep for His burnt offering, my son." And the two of them walked on together.
Isaac's innocent question - "Abba, where's the lamb for the sacrifice" - prompts Abraham to create a pious solution: "don't worry, God will find something, my son" he says. The Midrash, cited by Rashi, wonders how Abraham could have lied to Isaac, as the text implies. The Midrash is forced to suggest that the father's response really wasn't a lie. Abraham knew that an animal would not pacify; his remark to Isaac was a daring, oblique revelation of the horrible truth that "my son" was to be the sacrifice, not a lamb.
Rashi, Genesis 22:8
God will see to the sheep - That is to say, He will see and choose the lamb. And if there is no lamb, my son will go as the sacrifice. Even though Isaac understood that he was going to be sacrificed, [the text says] "And the two of them walked on together," with an equal heart.
Abraham couldn't keep the secret to himself. By sharing the ultimate purpose of the journey with Isaac, he included him in this ultimate test. And the Torah tells us that even after this revelation, "the two walked together." According to this Midrash, both father and son accepted the divine imperative with astounding obedience.
The moral problems presented by the Akeida story are perhaps best dealt with in the Torah's introduction of the story.
Genesis 22 (JPS translation)
"Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test. He said to him, 'Abraham ... take your son, your favored son, Isaac, whom you love ... and offer him ... as a burnt offering on one of the heights ...' So early next morning, Abraham saddled his ass and took with him ... his son Isaac."
The Midrash struggles to figure out how God could command such an immoral deed. Rashi (on 22:1, based on the Talmud, Sanhedrin 89b) suggests that the introductory frame - "Some time afterwards, God put Abraham to the test" refers to a specific event.
Rashi Genesis 22:1
Some time afterwards. Some of our Rabbis say (Talmud, Sanhedrin 89) [this line refers to] after the incident with Satan. Satan was accusing, and said: "From all of the meals that Abraham made, he did not offer You (God) a single bull or ram." God responded, "Everything Abraham did was for his son. Yet, if I were to tell Abraham to sacrifice him before me, he would not delay."
Your Rashi Navigator
1. This unit opens with an introductory frame, which tells us that the following event - the Akeida (Binding of Isaac) - occurred "some time afterward." After what event? If this introduction seeks to connect the Akeida with a specific event, why didn't the text explicate it for us? The inclusion of an introductory timeframe has meaning only if the antecedent episode is identified.
2. Why does the Midrash (which Rashi is citing) feel compelled to include Satan in the story of the Binding of Isaac?
3. Who prompts this test of Abraham?
4. Why is God so confident that Abraham will obey?
A Word
The Midrash offers a remarkable review of God's command to Abraham: the Akeida is a test prompted by the devil. God, on His own, would not have dreamt of such a possibility; only Satan could have engendered such an immoral command. Such a conversation between the Almighty and the devil can't be recorded verbatim in the text; it only can be alluded to by a cryptic reference that the following episode happened after "you-know-what." (Sounds like a line out of Harry Potter ...)
Hazal (the sages) shared my fear of the Akeida. According to some midrashic texts the Binding of Isaac is a moral dilemma. The various attempts to justify God's command do not fully satisfy; the questions are better than the answers. Armed with the honesty of Midrash I now can endure the reading of the Akeida ... but only once or twice a year.
Prepared by Rabbi Charles Sheer, Director and Jewish Chaplain, Columbia University/Barnard Hillel.
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