Lesson: When it comes to God, If you think you know Him, you don’t know Him, because you can’t fully know Him.
The message of the Akeida = The Akeida represents the litmus test of orthodoxy. In life general, we try to sync up God’s will with ours, and strive to see religion as full of value and purpose in practical life. But sometimes we reach conflict… this is the akeida moment.
When faced with the clash what are we going to do? We always submit human morality to divine will. This is the litmus test of Orthodoxy. That is what the Akeida is all about.
Avraham has proved there can be a relationship with God. You have proven yourself as an Ohev Hashem (only person in all of tanach called this)--- now its time to prove your Yirah Hashem and see if you can stick to this relationship even when it doesn’t make sense. ---> PASSES-- עַתָּ֣ה יָדַ֗עְתִּי כִּֽי־יְרֵ֤א אֱלֹהִים֙ אַ֔תָּה”
Can you continue to serve me even when you don't understand me?
The answer--- Yes you follow Hashem’s will. Hashem’s will always wins.
BUT LESSON OF WHAT WE LEARN TOGETHER is this: yes, but you do it as a Human Being. We are not Robots. We have to bring our humanity into it. In fact, Hashem wants us and asks us to bring our humanity and our emotions into every struggle we face in life.
If I were Avraham, What’s the easiest way for me to do the Akeida? For me to objectify and dehumanize Yitzchak-- pretend he’s not my son, close my eyes, and get the act done. Yet we see the very opposite…
"Dehumanization is a psychological process whereby opponents view each other as less than human and thus not deserving of moral consideration."
To succeed, Avraham needs to see his son as anything but his child. He must strip himself of his emotions and do the akeida in some trance like state where this can not be the story of a father and a son.
You’d think that a person who would be willing to kill his child would somehow have to find away to empty himself of his own humanity. Avraham must have banished any human instinct inside of him, in order to worship God in this gruesome act. But Chazal and Rav Amital tells a different story.
Akeidat Yitzchak is not a story of human beings getting rid of their humanity in order to fulfill God’s Will, but actually the very opposite. This story breathes human emotions, human persona, etc.
It is so clear early on that Hashem is not going to let Avraham go into this situation with his emotions stripped. Instead, the opposite, Hashem is inciting and bringing up the emotional connection and fatherly love Avraham has for his children. “I love them both, their both unique..” Hashem says now take that love and make sure it’s part of this process.
הָלַךְ מֵעָלָיו וְנִדְמָה לְבָחוּר וְעָמַד עַל יְמִינוֹ שֶׁל יִצְחָק. אָמַר לוֹ: לְאָן אַתָּה הוֹלֵךְ? אָמַר לוֹ: לִלְמֹד תּוֹרָה. אָמַר לוֹ: בְּחַיֶּיךָ אוֹ בְּמִיתָתְךָ. אָמַר לוֹ: וְכִי יֵשׁ אָדָם שֶׁיִּלְמֹד אַחַר מִיתָה? אָמַר לוֹ: עָלוּב בַּר עֲלוּבָה, כַּמָּה תַעֲנִיּוֹת נִתְעַנֵּית אִמְּךָ עַד שֶׁלֹּא נוֹלַדְתָּ, וְהַזָּקֵן הַזֶּה הִשְׁתַּטָּה וְהוּא הוֹלֵךְ לְשָׁחֳטֶךָ. אָמַר: אַף עַל פִּי כֵן לֹא אֶעֱבֹר עַל דַּעַת יוֹצְרִי וְעַל צִוּוּי אָבִי. חָזַר וְאָמַר לְאָבִיו: אָבִי, רְאֵה מָה אוֹמֵר לִי זֶה. אָמַר לוֹ: אַל תַּשְׁגִּיחַ עָלָיו, שֶׁאֵינוֹ בָּא אֶלָּא לְיָעֵף לָנוּ. מִיָּד וַיֹּאמֶר יִצְחָק וְגוֹ'.
Satan departed from him and appeared at Isaac’s right hand in the guise of a youth. He inquired: “Where are you going?” “To study the law,” Isaac replied. “Alive or dead?” he retorted. “Is it possible for a man to learn the law after he is dead?” Isaac queried. He said to him: “Oh, unfortunate son of an unhappy mother, many days your mother fasted before your birth, and now this demented old man is about to sacrifice you.” Isaac replied: “Even so, I will not disregard the will of my Creator, nor the command of my father.” He turned to his father and said: “Father, do you hear what this man has told me?” He replied: “Pay no heed to him, he has come only to torment us.” Forthwith, And Isaac spoke (ibid., v. 7).
This Medresh in its plain reading is a conversation between the Satan and Avarahm and Yitzchak,
Rav Amital incredibly though, reads it differently. These conversations is the Mederesh accounting for Avraham and Yitzchak’s inner struggle and turmoil. THESE ARE THEIR inner VOICES.
They are struggling- it’s the two sides of them pulling them back and forth between human logic and morality and between the will of God.
This is psychological. This is a medrash that is giving us a glance into the psychological working of our Avos who are seriously struggling with Dvar Hashem.
Rav Aaron Lichtenstein-- why do you think Hashem made them walk a 3 day journey to Har hamoriah to do this? So that you would know this wasn’t Avraham acting impulsively in a transe like state where he shut off all his emotions and just went for it. Instead, he sleeps on it, he travels, he thinks it over, and over and over again. And he actually struggles through every step of the way.
Religion doesn’t mean you don’t have doubt, it means you live with doubt. You serve god with your questions.
What an incredible image. Avraham Avinu, Yitzchak Avinu, living with their doubts, struggling with their doubts-- yet they are never going to flinch at the point of decision. Chazal are constantly trying to humanize them rather than objectify them.
“Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.” Faith in God by definition is not a certainty, but the courage to live with uncertainty.
- Brene Browne, The Gifts of Imperfection
This image is totally dehumanizing Yizchak-- bound him up like an animal, Our mobility and freedom makes us human, and Avraham has limited that for Yitzchak. Avraham is trying to make it look like Yitzchak is not a person at all. Yet, what we see from Chazal is really the exact opposite.
"אבא מה תעשו לזקנותיכם
א"ל בני יודעים אנו שמיתתנו קרובה מי שנחמנו עד עכשיו הוא ינחמנו עד יום מותנו,
Abba, what will you do in your old age? Who will take care of you..
Avraham says back “dont worry, your Mother and I are old already. We'll take care of ourselves, Hashem will help us.
CHAZAL IS DEFENDING THEIR HUMANITY even though in the end they will submit to Gods will. THIS IS NOT A STORY WHERE CHAZAL TRIES TO TELL US TO JUST SHUT OUR EYES AND DO IT EVEN IF WE DONT LIKE IT.
-
Youre still a human being diffused with emotions. And amazingly yitzchak is not even worried about Avraham, but about Sarah who is not even there:
ויקח אברהם את העצים ויערכו על המזבח ההוא אשר בנה, ויקח את יצחק בנו ויאסרהו לשומו על העצים אשר על המזבח לשוחטו לעולה לפני ה׳. ויאמר יצחק אל אביו אבי קשרני מאוד וקשור אותי ואחר תשימני על המזבח, פן אשוב ואנוע ואנתק מחזקת המאכלת אשר בבשרי ואחלל את קורבן העולה ויעש אברהם כן.
ויאמר עוד יצחק אל אביו, אבי בעת אשר תשחטני ותשרפני לעולה קח עמך הנשאר מאפרי והבאת לשרה אמי ואמרת אליה זה ליצחק ריח. אך לא תדבר אליה את הדבר הזה בשבתה לפני באר או במקום גבוה, פן תשליך את נפשה עליי ותמות.
Do bind me securely before placing me upon the altar, or else I may turn and move about, or even break loose for fear of the knife when touching my flesh, and thus profane the offering. And Abraham did so. And Isaac further said to his father:
Oh, my father, after I shall have been slain and burnt up for an offering, take with thee the remainder of my ashes and bring it to my mother, Sa rah, and say unto her: This is the pleasant savor of Isaac. Yet do not tell her these words if she be seated near a well or upon some elevated place, lest she cast herself down after me and die.
“Make sure that when you shecht me, you should burn my body and take my ashes to Imma. And anytime Imma misses me she can look at my ashes and feel comfort. “
“Make sure when you tell Mommy about this make sure you don’t tell her suddenly or she might panic. Make sure she’s not on a roof because she might fall. Make sure she’s not near a well or she might fall in out of grief. Make sure she’s not holding a knife because she may harm herself:
A child in his last moments is thinking about his fathers future and how his mother will handle his own death.
START TO UNDERSTAND that what makes our Avot incredible is the emotion that is coming out in this story. To try to read through it and take away that the lesson is to just shut your eyes and your mind and get it done is not only WRONG, but strips away the beuty and rawness, and inspiration that our Avot show.
And he recites at the end of all of these six blessing their unique conclusions. For the conclusion of the first blessing: Redeemer of Israel, he recites: He Who answered Abraham on Mount Moriah (see Genesis 22:11–18), He will answer you and hear the sound of your cry on this day. Blessed are You, Lord, Redeemer of Israel. For the second blessing, to which he adds the verses of Remembrances, he recites: He Who answered our forefathers at the Red Sea (see Exodus 14:15–31), He will answer you and hear the sound of your cry on this day. Blessed are You, Lord, Who remembers the forgotten.
Says Avraham davened at Har Hamoriah.. When was that??
The Gemara Yerushalmi tells us that POST AKEIDA→ Avraham davening to God saying: Hashem I suppressed my love to fulfill your will, now its your turn. Any time my children need you please suppress your anger and let your mercy overtake you. This is what we say in korbanot every day---
Now that I succeeded in this almost impossible task where my emotions were so conflicted with your will, I’m praying you do the same in the future for my children.
The reason we say it every day is not to remind us to just submit. But to realize that the greatness of avraham, of yiztchak, and the greatness in each of us, is to recognize our emotions and bring them to the forefront of our struggles
באותה שעה פער פיו בבכיה וגעה געיה גדולה והיו עיניו מרופפות וצופות לשכינה והרים קולו ואמר אשא עיני אל ההרים מאין יבוא עזרי עזרי מעם ה' עושה שמים וארץ
In the moment right before the Akeida, Avraham starts screaming and shrieking at the top of his lungs and shouts, looking around at all the mountains: I lift my eyes to the mountains, where will my help come from? My help will come from God who created the heavens and the earth.
Right before the act, Avraham is screaming and davening to God asking him to reverse his decision and not make him have to kill his son.
It’s this crazy image of recognizing and feeling the emotions so deep inside of you, and turning to God and knowing that He is the only one who knows how bad this hurts right now, and therefore He is the only one who knows how to save me from it.
ספר הישר (מדרש), ספר בראשית, וירא
וישמע אברהם את דברי יצחק, וישא אברהם את קולו ויבך בדבר יצחק הדברים האלה וירדו דמעות אברהם על יצחק בנו. וגם יצחק בכה מאוד ויאמר אל אביו, מהרה חושה אבי ועשה בי רצון ה׳ אלוקינו כאשר צוך. ויהי לב אברהם ויצחק שמח בדבר הזה אשר ציום ה׳, אך עין במר תבכה ולב שמח.
Sefer HaYashar (midrash), Book of Genesis, Vayera 20
And when Abraham heard the words of Isaac he lifted up his voice and wept, so that his tears flowed down upon Isaac, his son, and Isaac, too, wept bitterly, and he said unto his father: Make haste, oh my father, and fulfill on me the will of the Lord our God as he hath commanded unto thee. And the hearts of both Abraham and Isaac were full of joy in doing the will of God, but their eyes wept bitterly while their hearts were rejoicing.
Its this story of this traumatized father and son who light up in happiness for fulfilling the will of God at the same time.
How can you be cry and be thrilled in the very same instant? That’s the hero we see in this story.
This is where we see the multilayered dimensions of our hearts. We are called in life, and in Judaism, to feel multiple emotions at once. That is the takeaway.
If your rich uncle dies-- halachah says you make 2 brachot: a baruch dayan haemet and a shehechiyanu because now you’re wealthy. HOW?? That is what the test of the Akeida truly was.
The complexity of Avodas Hashem is that while we rejoice in the fact that we are able to constantly and consistently fulfill the will of God, our father, our king, our best friend-- we also struggle and cry and doubt sometimes. THAT is the complexity of avodas hashem and really the complexity of life. But its also the beauty of it and the great power we have to hold both.
Pinnacle of Avodas hashem: holding both emotions at once.
וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֵלָ֜יו מַלְאַ֤ךְ יְהוָה֙ מִן־הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אַבְרָהָ֣ם ׀ אַבְרָהָ֑ם וַיֹּ֖אמֶר הִנֵּֽנִי׃
Then an angel of the LORD called to him from heaven: “Abraham! Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.”
Avraham began the test by Hashem calling him “אברהם”, at which point he knew himself. However, after the test Hashem referred to him as “אברהם אברהם”, as now, only after he was able to go through the challenge while being true to himself and his inner struggle, could Avraham emerge with an even greater understanding of who he truly was.
Avraham has now literally doubled his understanding of his identity and the relationship with himself from “אברהם” to “אברהם אברהם” through never negating who was and what he was struggling with internally.
Not only the struggle of life to maintain our own individual emotions through challenge, but it’s the very point to life itself. Hashem does not want us to serve him as robots, but rather as human beings with all the emotions and consciousness that he imbedded us with when he created us. When our emotions come up, we should not shove them down, but rather address them and bring them to the forefront. The humanness in us do not bring us down, but lift us up and bring us to an even greater form of Avodas Hashem as they make us even more human.