Parshat Vayera

Parshat Vayera

In this parsha we read about the episode of Akeidat Yitzchak. HaShem commands Avraham to "Please take your son, your only son, whom you love-Yitzchak- go to the land of Moriah, and bring him up there as an offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell you".

At first glance this commandment is mind boggling. Did HaShem not promise that through Yitzchak, He would make Avraham into a great nation? Just earlier in the parsha, when Sarah pressures Avraham to send away Hagar and Yishmael, HaShem commands Avraham to listen to Sarah "since through Yitzchak will offspring be considered yours." The Gemara in Nedarim (31a) learns from that passuk that no one else other than the offspring of Yitzchak is considered the offspring of Avraham (meaning that Yishmael and Esav are excluded). The only possible link to Avraham is through Yitzchak. And now, HaShem is asking for his son as a human offering? Avraham was an extremely intelligent person, for he came to the knowledge of G-d on his own, so then how could Avraham not pick up on this blatant contradiction?

Even more puzzling is when we take into account that Avraham fought his entire life against Idol worship and human sacrifice. How could Avraham possibly serve up his own son as a human offering? Everyone he taught would be so disgusted by the hypocrisy that surely they would reject his past or future teachings. It would undo all the progress that he had made so far to spread monotheism. How could it be the will of HaShem to plunge the world back in the darkness of polytheism, turning it farther away from the original belief in one G-d?

Perhaps from the Midrash we can begin to understand. The Midrash explains that while Avraham was on his way to Moriah, the Satan wanted to stop him from fulfilling the will of HaShem; he put a river to stop Avraham from reaching his destination. Nevertheless, Avraham was intent on crossing and he succeeded. The Satan, seeing that he couldn't stop Avraham, tells him that in the end, HaShem won't let Avraham go through with it, thus telling him that there is no test at all. The Alter of Novardohk explains the approach of the Satan: the Yetzer Harah comes in two ways. One way is to stop a person from doing the mitzvah, and when that fails, he tries to steal the pure intention of the mitzvah. For example, for a person who gives tzedaka freely, the Yetzer Harah knows that if he tried to get him not to give at all, it won’t work; this person has worked so hard on generosity. Rather the Yetzer Harah tells him, “Give...but give so people will think you're righteous!” Here too, the Satan couldn't stop Avraham, but he could at least take away the pure intent. He hoped to have Avraham believe that he would never actually need to sacrifice yistchak, and thereby remove Avraham’s lofty motives in going to do the mitzvah. But Avraham could not be swayed – and he continued on to do the Will of G-d.

According to this explanation, perhaps we can say that the test for Avraham was not to offer his son – he was ready to do that. Rather, the challenge was to go and do the mitzvah with a completely pure heart, without any of his own logic and calculations getting in the way. We know that Avraham was an intelligent, thinking person, for he came to belief in G-d on his own accord. And yet, at the moment of trial, he was able to disregard logic in the face of G-d’s request. Avraham could have asked how any of this made sense, how Hashem could want such a thing, how this could possibly benefit society or result in the emergence of a nation from his offspring. He could have gone according to the arguments of the Satan, telling him that the act would never follow through. But instead, he kept his own thoughts out of the picture and focused only on doing what G-d said.

We see a proof to this idea, in that when HaShem stopped Avraham from offering Yitzchak, He said, "Do not do anything to him for nowI know that you are G-d fearing". The question is why now? Could it be that HaShem, chas ve shalom, had doubts about Avraham's fear of Him? However, according to our explanation above, we can say that HaShem now saw that Avraham's fear of Him was a fear of pure intentions, seeing that despite the social repercussions and the questions of logic, Avraham did not allow any of those doubts in to affect his purity of service. This was the test of Avraham, and it is our test as well. We often put our own calculations on par with what Hashem asks of us, when what we really need to do is bend our will to His. May we learn from Avraham and have the strength to do so.

Shabbat Shalom.

Naftoli Kassorla