Dvar Torah Akedah

Dvar Torah Rosh Hashanah 2004/5765

L'Shana Tovah

Rosh Hashanah 5765. What a pleasure it is to share this day with my community. We celebrate the New Year. In fact we celebrate the creation of the world. This year may we continue to work towards healing the world, Tikkun Olam. What could be a more fitting commitment on the day we celebrate the world's creation than to heal the world! I am so glad to be here.

This is the time G-d judges us for another year. We pray that He is merciful. Have we been good? Have we listened inside for the voice directing us to heal the world, Tikkun Olam; to do our best; to be kind; to be compassionate; to be merciful? Will G-d temper his justice with mercy?

Have we listened to the voice of justification inside; the one justifying our pettiness and revenge? That voice that says, "I have been hurt, therefore I am justified in hurting you back - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

We all know the Torah portion for today from Genesis or Bereshith - The Binding of Isaac, the Akedah. This is the story of Abraham and the supreme test of faith that G-d put to him. It is fitting to hear a story of Abraham, the father of Judaism; on the day we celebrate the creation of the world.

Abraham heard G-d's voice inside telling him to take his beloved son Isaac to Mt Moriah and to sacrifice Isaac. This was the son that Abraham did not have until he was 100 years old and Sarah 90. This was the son that they were so overjoyed to have. This was their son still living at home at the age of 37, but that is another story for another time.

Abraham was a special man. A man who was renowned for kindness, who would invite strangers into his home for food and shelter, who brought the message of the One G-d to so many neighbors and strangers. This was the Abraham who pleaded and negotiated with G-d not to destroy the evil people in Sodom, people who killed the poor and robbed strangers. This was the Abraham who had railed against child sacrifice, a custom not unheard of amongst his neighbors. Yet Abraham immediately followed G-d's command to sacrifice his son without any pleading or negotiation. Baffling.

The story of the Binding of Isaac is the part of the Torah that I like the least. It was difficult to understand when I was a child, and it is still difficult to understand today. Tons of writers have written their Midrashim about this story.

When I was growing up, my father was terminally ill. He was not supposed to live until my first birthday. He did live until I was 16. Death was something very scary. Something we could not talk about; something we were not allowed to talk about. I am not sure I really understood it. I just knew that should my father die, life would be forever changed for the worse.

So here I was sitting there in Schul and listening to the story of the Binding of Isaac. I would sit next to my dad, often sitting between him and my mom. I would listen in disbelief. How could Abraham even consider killing his beloved son? I would hope my father was not as crazy as that Abraham guy; that my father would not hear G d asking him to kill me. I would move over just a little closer to my mom.

We all know the rest of the story. Abraham and Isaac went up the mountain by themselves with the fire and knife. Isaac carried the wood for the sacrificial altar. Abraham bound Isaac and lifted the knife, ready to strike. Then suddenly Abraham again heard a voice, an Angel from G-d, or perhaps an inner voice, telling him not to sacrifice Isaac and not to harm his son at all.

What was that all about? The Torah tells us it was G-d once again testing Abraham's faith. Was the test to see if Abraham would put his beliefs and his love for G-d ahead of everything, no matter how beloved, no matter the consequences? And, indeed there were consequences. We read that Abraham descended the mountain alone. There is no further reference to Abraham and Isaac ever speaking to each other.

Sarah knew nothing of Abraham taking their son to be sacrificed. There is no mention that Abraham went to Sarah and told her of the voice he heard and his intention. There is no further reference to Abraham and Sarah living together. Abraham returned to Beer-Sheba. Later we learn Sarah died in Chevron and that Abraham had to travel there to bury her.

Abraham paid a huge price for following his beliefs and breaking the trust both with his son and with his wife. He was justified, wasn't he? After all, he was following G-d's command.

Was Abraham testing whether G-d would really call for the sacrifice of a child? That was the very abomination that Abraham, in following his faith in the One G-d, had been trying to stop his neighbors from practicing. Was Abraham's G-d so changeable and fickle that he would call for a child sacrifice?

Was the obedient Isaac testing his father's love and whether his father would sacrifice him for his belief in G-d? One Midrash tells us, Isaac knew full and well what his father was intending. At one point Isaac asks his father where the sacrifice is? Abraham answered that G d would provide a burnt offering. Abraham did not know that that was true at the time he uttered it, but it proved out to be true. G-d did provide the Ram caught in the bushes by its horns.

Isaac was 37 years old. Abraham was 137. Surely Isaac would have had far more strength at 37, than his 137-year-old father. Another Midrash goes on to say Isaac lay upon the wooden sacrificial