The account of the Akedah is a marvel of deceptive simplicity.
Its
sentences are mostly short and simple: to allow an assembled crowd to easily
follow the text as read aloud, but it is also a masterful piece that engages and
engrosses the minds and hearts of its audience -- at three (3) levels.
Level 1 – Step by step by step
The text
details almost everything step by step by step. This both teases the audience
and allows the audience to relive each key moment and create tension in the
audiences mind and heart.
The audience
from the start knows -- thanks to the opening verse -- the mission and
challenge Abraham is to face: to sacrifice his only child and son. It is a kind of foreshadowing.
Verse 2 begins
the slow, step by step by step approach.
The son to
be sacrificed is identified in a four (4) stage spiral: teasing the reader as
to the intent as one word/description is replaced by another that is more
precise and more personal/emotional – until the last ‘yells’ out the name Isaac.
(https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0122.htm , with my corrections marked * * )
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ב וַיֹּאמֶר קַח-נָא אֶת-בִּנְךָ אֶת-יְחִידְךָ
אֲשֶׁר-אָהַבְתָּ, אֶת-יִצְחָק,
וְלֶךְ-לְךָ, אֶל-אֶרֶץ הַמֹּרִיָּה; וְהַעֲלֵהוּ שָׁם, לְעֹלָה, עַל אַחַד
הֶהָרִים, אֲשֶׁר אֹמַר אֵלֶיךָ. |
2 And He said: 'Take now thy
son, thine only *one*, whom thou lovest, even Isaac,
and *for your benefit go* to the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a
burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.' |
This spiral
grabs the audiences’ attention, activates their ‘minds’ in trying to figure out
the ‘who’, and creates a heightened
sense of anxiety and sadness in the audience as the spiral unfolds and the name
Isaac is finally revealed.
The same
mind game plays out when Abraham gets set to start out on this trip in the very
next verse, verse 3.
Each preparatory action or step is given in detail. All six (6) steps of the day they left [1].
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ג וַיַּשְׁכֵּם
אַבְרָהָם בַּבֹּקֶר, וַיַּחֲבֹשׁ אֶת-חֲמֹרוֹ, וַיִּקַּח אֶת-שְׁנֵי
נְעָרָיו אִתּוֹ, וְאֵת יִצְחָק בְּנוֹ; וַיְבַקַּע, עֲצֵי עֹלָה, וַיָּקָם וַיֵּלֶךְ,
אֶל-הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר-אָמַר-לוֹ הָאֱלֹהִים. |
3 And Abraham
rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass,
and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he
cleaved the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose
up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. |
As the order
is somewhat surprising, the audiences’ mind again becomes triggered into puzzle
solving:
Q1. Why is
Isaac – the focus of the account - not mentioned as step #2, ahead of the
ass?
Q3. Why are
the two attendants mentioned before Isaac?
Q3. Why is
the cutting of wood done or mentioned last, just before they leave?
The next
verse, verse 4, also uses this technique.
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ד בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי,
וַיִּשָּׂא אַבְרָהָם אֶת-עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא אֶת-הַמָּקוֹם--מֵרָחֹק. |
4 On the third day Abraham
lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. |
Why do we
need to know Abraham “lifted up his eyes”?
Why not just state: “Abraham saw far off …”?
Because the
text wants us to visualize Abraham’s physical act of raising his eyes gazing: as if we were there --
as if we were HIM.
Verse 5, the
next verse, also gives a step by step description. One that is logical and orderly but ends with
a huge lie.
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ה וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָהָם אֶל-נְעָרָיו, שְׁבוּ-לָכֶם פֹּה עִם-הַחֲמוֹר,
וַאֲנִי וְהַנַּעַר, נֵלְכָה עַד-כֹּה; וְנִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה, וְנָשׁוּבָה אֲלֵיכֶם. |
5 And
Abraham said unto his young men: 'Abide ye here with
the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder;
and we will worship, and we will come back to
you.' |
Abraham and
we, the audience, know from the outset that Abraham plans to kill and burn to
ashes his son Isaac: the secret hidden from the two attendants and from Isaac!
And when
Abraham says to his two servants “we will worship and WE will come back to you” וְנִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה, וְנָשׁוּבָה (plural) אֲלֵיכֶם. it is an outright lie!
But will
it be a lie, the audience surely, quickly asks itself?
Maybe
Abraham has had a change of heart.
Lie or
truth? The question is left to dangle
and linger in the audience’s mind for an excruciating two verses.
Verse 6, the
very next verse, also plays step by step mind games with the audience.
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ו וַיִּקַּח
אַבְרָהָם אֶת-עֲצֵי הָעֹלָה, וַיָּשֶׂם עַל-יִצְחָק בְּנוֹ, וַיִּקַּח בְּיָדוֹ, אֶת-הָאֵשׁ וְאֶת-הַמַּאֲכֶלֶת; וַיֵּלְכוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם, יַחְדָּו. |
6 And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid
it upon Isaac his son; and he took in his hand
the fire and the knife; and they went
both of them together. |
Again, every
step is detailed.
And the
wording of step #2: having Abraham place the wood ‘on Isaac’s back’,
symbolically invokes the future alter sacrifice process were the victim and
wood fully ‘touch’.
Then there
are step #3 and step #4 which seem reversed.
After all, Isaac would have his throat cut or be stabbed to death before
he would be set on fire, so why mention the ‘fire’ first?
Answer: to
end with the most horrific element, the knife the father would use to murder
his own son.
Once on the
mountaintop, the step by step style returns with verses 9 and 10.
Every stage
needed for the sacrifice is described; all seven (7) of them!
·
Abraham
builds an altar,
·
Abraham
sets the wood on top,
·
Abraham
ties up Isaac,
·
Abraham
lifts up Isaac on top of the altar’s wood
·
Abraham
reaches out his hand
·
Abraham
takes the butchering knife
·
Abraham
lifts it up to kill his son
Who in the
audience would not be led by the text to visualize this process and
‘see’ in his or her mind’s eye Abraham last steps as if present – or as
he or she were Abraham himself: reaching for the knife and lifting it up to
kill his own son?
The step by
step approach continues with verse 13.
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יג וַיִּשָּׂא
אַבְרָהָם אֶת-עֵינָיו, וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה-אַיִל, אַחַר, נֶאֱחַז בַּסְּבַךְ
בְּקַרְנָיו; וַיֵּלֶךְ אַבְרָהָם וַיִּקַּח אֶת-הָאַיִל, וַיַּעֲלֵהוּ לְעֹלָה תַּחַת בְּנוֹ. |
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.
And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up
for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. |
Again, we
see Abraham ‘lifting his eyes’ and we follow his gaze as he turns around.
We share his
startle as he sees a ram –of all things – nearby and, even more surprisingly,
its horns are trapped in a bush.
Abraham
rushes up, grabs the ram and then makes it a substitute burnt offering on the
altar.
And, again,
the text triggers questions in the audiences’ mind:
Q1. Why did not Abraham notice this large ram beforehand?
Q2. How was elderly
Abraham – well past age 100, able to overpower the ram?
Q3. Or did he kill the ram while trapped by the bush?
Q4. Why not detail the ram section as with Isaac? The steps
of cutting the throat (first or third), tying up the ram’s legs, placing it on
the wood, and lighting the fire so it could burn?
Q5. What was ISAAC doing during all this ram work?
All these
questions flood to one’s mind because the text has trained the audience from
verse 2 on to be active and engaged and questioning.
Lastly, the
detailed step by step approach is used to end the Akedah.
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יט וַיָּשָׁב אַבְרָהָם
אֶל-נְעָרָיו, וַיָּקֻמוּ וַיֵּלְכוּ יַחְדָּו אֶל-בְּאֵר שָׁבַע; וַיֵּשֶׁב
אַבְרָהָם, בִּבְאֵר שָׁבַע. {פ} |
19 So Abraham
returned unto his young men, and they rose up and
went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt
at Beer-sheba. {P} |
·
Abraham
(and Isaac) come down from the mountain
·
They
reunite with the two attendants (and ass)
·
They
break camp and get up
·
They
return to Beer-sheba
Again, the
text leads us to visualize each element and step as if we were there.
The text,
then, has carefully led the audience as if we too had made this trip and gone
up the mountain and been present at Isaac’s binding, the intercession of a
voice from Heaven, the substitute ram sacrifice, and the final return down the
mountain and departure.
And, we, in
literary terms, have been made by the text to visualize the prologue and inciting action(verse 1), the rising
action, the climax when Abraham
is about to kill Isaac by the Divine message, the denouement of the ram replacement and final ending: the return home.
Level 2 The psychology of
Abraham
There is
also a gigantic SILENCE throughout the Akedah
as to what went through Abraham's mind and heart from the moment he received
the Divine command to kill his only child and heir -- and burn him as a sacrifice
to God -- to the very end when they all go
homeward three days later.
The silence,
in fact, entices the audience to speculate as to Abraham’s emotions and thoughts
at every step.
The sacrifice
is to be his one and only child and heir: information painfully stretched out as
the sacrifice victim is ‘identified’ slowly over a spiral of four (4)
synonyms in verse 2.
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ב וַיֹּאמֶר קַח-נָא אֶת-בִּנְךָ אֶת-יְחִידְךָ
אֲשֶׁר-אָהַבְתָּ, אֶת-יִצְחָק,
וְלֶךְ-לְךָ, אֶל-אֶרֶץ הַמֹּרִיָּה; וְהַעֲלֵהוּ שָׁם, לְעֹלָה, עַל אַחַד הֶהָרִים,
אֲשֶׁר אֹמַר אֵלֶיךָ. |
2 And He said: 'Take now thy son, thine only * one*, whom
thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee
into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of
the mountains which I will tell thee of.' |
One can
almost feel the pain Abraham felt as this message is revealed to him: that
stresses his son Isaac as the victim four (4) times back to back.
Abraham is
also told at the outset the sacrifice is to take place far away. And so Abraham’s
mind and heart was to be tormented for many hours and days – in fact, a three
(3) day journey.
The audience
surely would wonder if Abraham managed to sleep the night he got the
Divine command, or during the ensuing 2 nights along the journey.
Thoughts
re: Sarah
What were Abraham’s
thoughts re: Sarah, his beloved wife and mother of Isaac?
How would
she react and cope with news her only child had been killed and burned to ashes
by his own father – her husband?
Would
Abraham not have speculated on how carrying out the sacrifice of Isaac would
affect his marital bond with Sarah going forward?
Legend has
it she died of sudden shock on hearing from a Satanic angel of Isaac’s
sacrifice. Did Abraham have any such
concern?
And what, at
the outset, did he tell Sarah re: this long 5 to 6 day round trip journey
accompanied by their only, young son, Isaac?
Surely, she
would have questions as to why, and qualms about the safety of her son (and
husband) on a long journey through Canaanite territory.
So Abraham
had to come up with a plausible reason – a lie; one that the Torah leave out.
Thoughts
re: Isaac
And what
thoughts ran through Abraham’s mind and heart during the 3 days of slow walking
with Isaac beside him.
How did Abraham keep his composure and ‘act calm’?
When they
reach the mountain base, Abraham maintains his outward calmness and lies to the
two servants staying behind and to Isaac, when Abraham say in verse 5 that they
will BOTH return after worshipping.
Then in the
verses 7 and 8, the key conversation with Isaac as they
walked up the mountain alone, would have been extremely traumatic
for Abraham.
Isaac asks
where is the animal to be sacrificed is and Abraham answers obliquely that God
will show him the offering: Abraham knowing full well it is to be
Isaac, his son who was walking beside him.
And when Isaac
adds the superfluous vocative "my father",
Abraham responds with the equally unnecessary "my son" TWICE:
reflecting the strong bond of love between them.
A bond soon
to be torn to bits, or, more accurately, turned to ashes.
And what
thoughts and feeling rushed through Abraham as he built the alter and arranged
the wood and bond Isaac and placed him atop the wood and reached out to get the
butchering knife and raised it up ready to strike?
The message
from Heaven calls out TWICE to get Abraham’s attention:
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יא וַיִּקְרָא אֵלָיו
מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה, מִן-הַשָּׁמַיִם, וַיֹּאמֶר, אַבְרָהָם
אַבְרָהָם; וַיֹּאמֶר, הִנֵּנִי. |
11 And the angel of the LORD
called unto him out of heaven, and said: 'Abraham,
Abraham.' |
As if
Abraham was so focused on carrying out God’s command or so emotionally wound
up that he might not hear the voice without it yelling out “Abraham” TWICE.
And what
relief and joy did Abraham feel once he was told NOT to kill Isaac?
What
emotions ran through Abraham when he suddenly noticed the ram and slaughtered
it in place of Isaac?
What did
Abraham feel and think on the walk down from the mountain alongside Isaac?
And what did
he say to his son on the way down?
All of this
is left to the audience’s imagination as the text is totally and utterly and
surprisingly silent on Abraham’s feelings and thoughts during this three (3)
day ‘test’.
The
audience: whether fathers, sons, mothers or daughters, would certainly raise
these questions, and even project their own experiences and emotions into
Abraham and his lengthy, three (3) day emotional trauma.
Level 3: The psychology of Isaac
As for Isaac
and what he felt and thought during the three day travel, or once on the
mountain top or on the way down to their camp, all this too is left to the
audience's imagination.
As made
clear in The Akedah: part 1 – the FACTS,
the Torah text, the peshat, states
again and again that the test was only of Abraham: of his total dedication to God the
Eternal.
Attempts by ancient
rabbinic legends and by Medieval commentaries to find clues and inferences in
the text that would make this test also one for Isaac, i.e., that he knowingly
participated and was willing to be sacrificed if so willed by God the Eternal,
is fanciful, wishful thinking.
There is no rabbinic
consensus as to how old Isaac was at the time (affecting his ability to resist)
and even as to when Isaac ‘clued in’.
Abarbanel
holds that Isaac thought the actions on the mountain top were to be ‘symbolic’
and therefore did not resist being bound and placed on top of the altar’s wood.
Once he saw Abraham lift the knife, however, he finally realized the plan was
to kill him, and he yelled out to God Eternal to intervene.[ii]
And
the Malbim states that Abraham took with two attendants to make sure Isaac did
not resist or run off.[iii]
Below, are
explored the various scenarios that one or another Jewish, religious group
might accept as accurate, and their implications.
At the outset
No Jewish
tradition claims Isaac was fully aware from the start that he was to be killed
and sacrificed by his father. Only that he was told the journey was to fulfil a
Divine command and to worship at a distant, special place chosen by God.
As such,
Isaac, if a child, would have at the start seen the trip as a chance to spend
‘quality time’ alone with his busy father, while simultaneously being glad his
father chose to take him along on this journey to fulfil a Divine commandment
re: worship. After all, they both believed
in and followed God the Eternal. And it is
quite possible this trip was -- for a young Isaac – an adventure: his first time off alone with his father camping.
So Isaac, at
the start, would have been excited and overjoyed at the prospect of this travelling
adventure and father bonding, and also for the religious, divine worship
aspect.
If Isaac was
age 37, much of the above feelings and thoughts would still apply. Of course,
he would as an adult have gone on trips before but spending ‘quality time” with
his father and taking part in a special, divinely ordered sacrifice act of
worship -- in some especially holy location -- would have been positive
motivations; just as if he were a child.
Moment of truth
Whenever it
was that Isaac somehow realized he was to be the sacrifice, that his father was
ready to kill him and burn his body to ashes on God’s order, his first
reactions would certainly have been shock,
fear and even anger: at God who ordered his
innocent ‘murder’ and at his obedient father who did not tell him the truth
from the outset.
Subsequent reaction
Once the
divine command sunk in: whether according to the legend of the Satanic Angel
revealing the truth to him or any Medieval commentary that saw him realize ‘the
truth’ on his own when Abraham had him carry the wood on his back or from the
obtuse answer from Abraham re: sacrifice animal on their walk up the mountain,
Isaac’s agreement to go on and be sacrificed would be a major act of piety and
obedience to God’s will. To die -- if so
ordered by God -- would be the highest act of faith, an Al Kiddush Hashem moment.
But if as
the Malbim suggests and as Abarbanel details it, i.e., that
Isaac only realized the truth when it was clear beyond a doubt that his father was ready -- and
just seconds away -- from killing him, and Isaac cried out in fear triggering
the divine intervention, then there is no moment of ‘voluntary
submission’ or Al Kiddush Ashem on
Isaac’s part. Only shock, fear and,
probably, anger.
Yes, Isaac would surely cry out to heaven, to God
the Eternal, for salvation, and so it came.
Post-climax and going back down
As to what
Isaac thought and felt -- and any words he may have said to Abraham -- while
Abraham was sacrificing the ram instead, or during their long return down the
mountain ‘together’, is again left to the audience’s imagination.
One could
ask:
·
How
long was Isaac upset – even angry-- with his father?
·
Did
he return down the mountain in muted rage?
·
Did
the Akedah alter the relationship between Isaac and his father: weakening or
destroying the son-father bond?
Such
questions are sure to run through the minds of the audience: whether fathers,
sons, mothers or daughters.
And my
answer to these logical questions appears in the dramatization I offered at the
end of part 1 – the FACTS.
Reprinted
below:
A dramatic audience
moment
One can
envision the following discussion triggered by an inquisitive young audience
member (IAM) near the front as the Aramaic translator finishes the last verse
of the Akedah.
Setting: Jerusalem market place in the days
of Ezra the Scribe, c. 445 BCE.
IAM (jumping up and down with arm
raised): What happened to Isaac? The
text only names Abraham coming down the mountain. And the verb is singular - not plural. So what
happened to Isaac?
Did
he fly off to Heaven with the messenger angel?
Aramaic translator: No. Isaac came down the mountain with his
father Abraham. As the 'test' was
only of Abraham, the Bible only names Abraham coming down to emphasize he alone
was tested.
Torah Reader (in
Aramaic): In the next parshah we find Isaac is age 37 when his
mother Sarah dies (Gen. ch.23), and soon thereafter Abraham arranges a
marriage, a shidduch for Isaac, with
his cousin Rebecca from far off Haran
(Gen. ch. 24). They wed when Isaac turns 40 (Gen. 25:20) and
eventually they have twin boys: Esau and Jacob (Gen. ch. 25: 20-34).
So Isaac did not fly off to Heaven. He came down
from the mountain with his father.
Ezra the Scribe (in Aramaic):
from his seat on the platform
If you had paid close attention to the last
verse, you would have found your answer in the clue: יַחְדָּו
"together"
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יט וַיָּשָׁב
אַבְרָהָם אֶל-נְעָרָיו, וַיָּקֻמוּ וַיֵּלְכוּ יַחְדָּו
אֶל-בְּאֵר שָׁבַע; |
19 So Abraham returned unto his young
men, and they rose up and went together to
Beer-sheba; |
|
|
|
Why would the Torah care if Abraham and his two servants
left happily together?
יַחְדָּו is the key word, the EXACT SAME WORD, used TWICE when Abraham and Isaac walked up
the mountain “together” i.e., in harmony (Gen. 22: 6 and 8).
And its recurrence in verse 19 – at the very end of the
account -- is to show that father and son continued on and left in
harmony.
Yes, the test was Abraham's alone, but eventually Isaac
understood and felt no anger or grudge against his father.
After all, the test was
ordered by God the Eternal whom both worshipped and followed.
Torah Reader (in
Aramaic): And if you had just waited
another minute you would have known Isaac returned home. The parshah
ends with Abraham, sometime later, getting news that his brother, Nahor, had
had many children and grandchildren – one of whom was a girl named Rebecca
(verse 23).
Ezra the Scribe
(in Aramaic): A classic
Bible foreshadowing of the upcoming
marriage of Isaac and Rebecca
And as the
tall young man lowered his arm and head, the reading of the rest of the parshah resumed.
The bond of
love between Abraham and Isaac survived Abraham’s test.
The text’s
closing "together" יַחְדָּו is a clue, but more telling is the
explicit account of the great effort and expensive gifts Abraham sent to Haran
to get Isaac a bride – all 67 verses of Gen. ch 24.
And, as Ezra
the Scribe stresses in the dramatization:
After all, the test was
ordered by God the Eternal whom both worshipped and
followed.
CONCLUSION
The Akedah is a
masterful multi-layered psychological thriller.
We follow -- as if present -- the test of Abraham as it unfolds
step by step by step.
We, the audience, are triggered by the great SILENCE of the
text to constantly speculate as to the thoughts and emotions of Abraham – the
key actor – and even Isaac: based on our own family life experiences.
The text, while simple in language and sentence structure:
to ensure any audience at even an open marketplace could hear and understand
the Akedah text and message, also
cleverly and continually triggers the audience’s mental and emotional
engagement.
A truly masterful piece of literature and Torah teaching.
[i] There are a number of steps that must have been taken by Abraham the day before their departure (i.e., as soon as he got the Divine command) which the Torahs leaves out but which were ‘logistically’ very important nevertheless: food and drink for 4 people and a donkey for a 5 to 6 day round trip had to be arranged and packed, equipment and utensils for food preparation and meal eating had to be collected, and camping gear and sleeping gear.
[ii] See right sidebar for verse 3 at https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.22.3?ven=The_Contemporary_Torah,_Jewish_Publication_Society,_2006&vhe=Miqra_according_to_the_Masorah&lang=bi&with=Abarbanel&lang2=en
[iii] Ibid.
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