The Place

(Genesis 22:4)

Marcheshvan 17, 5779/October 26, 2018

This week's Torah reading, Vayera, comes to a close with the final and most dramatic of Avraham's ten trials, the binding of Yitzchak, known in Hebrew as the akeidah. When G-d commanded Avraham, "Take your son, your only one, whom you love, yea, Yitzchak, and go away to the land of Moriah and bring him up there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I will tell you,"(Genesis 22:2) didn't G-d know that he was asking the impossible of Avraham? The very son that G-d promised Avraham, repeatedly telling Avraham to be patient, for Sara would indeed give birth to a son, G-d is now asking Avrahamto make an offering of? The very son who G-d promised Avraham would be the beginning of a great nation which would span the generations to the end of time, G-d is now telling Avraham to slaughter as an offering leaving not a single descendent to carry on the line? What was G-d thinking?

Yet Avraham took it all in stride: "And Avraham arose early in the morning, and he saddled his donkey, and he took his two young men with him and Yitzchak his son; and he split wood for a burnt offering, and he arose and went to the place of which G-d had told him." (ibid 22:3) Hadn't Avraham risked his own life as a young man, defying the accepted idolatry of his day which included the outrageous ritual of child sacrifice? Hadn't Avraham spent a lifetime teaching of a G-d who loves His creation and blesses man with loving kindness? Hadn't Avraham displayed tremendous audacity when he literally talked G-d down from indiscriminately destroying Sodom, the righteous along with the evil doers? Wasn't Yitzchak the fulfillment of G-d's greatest promise to Avraham? Wasn't Yitzchak's birth the fulfillment of Avraham's greatest desire? How could Avraham possibly conceive of heeding G-d's command to make of Yitzchak a burnt offering, with out even a peep of protest? What was Avraham thinking?

It is tradiionally understood that the akeidah, (the binding of Yitzchak), was G-d's greatest test of Avraham's faith. If Avraham would hearken to G-d's command, even when it contradicted every thing that Avraham believed in and that Avraham had lived for, then G-d would be satisfied with Avraham's total and utterly unassailable faith in Him. This proof of faith would be eternal, and serve as a sign of Israel's faith in G-d throughout the generations. This is true. But what about G-d's faith in Avraham? Didn't G-d teach Avraham that the world is built on loving-kindness and that creation is not dependent on the willful whim of a capricious god who could one day promise the birth of a longed for son and on another day demand the demise of that very same longed for son? Wasn't G-d expecting Avraham to rise up and protest that what G-d is asking of him is impossible?

One can almost sense the tension in the air even as Avraham dutifully rises at daybreak and makes his preparations for his journey. Something is happening, and we get our first clue from the verse that follows: "On the third day, Avraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar." (ibid 22:4) The place, of course, is the place where the burnt offering is to take place. The Place, also is a name for G-d, (in Hebrew, HaMakom), expressing that G-d is The Place within which creation exists. So when Avraham lifts his eyes and The Place is afar, distant, we are being told that Avraham, who has walked alongside G-d throughout his entire life, now finds himself very far from G-d. G-d's instruction to Avraham to offer up his son has created an existential crisis for Avraham. Yet Avrahamperserveres. Why?

In spite of the cognitive dissonance, or perhaps, because of the cognitive dissonance that Avraham is experiencing, he is determined to do precisiely as G-d has commanded, to push the crisis to the breaking point. Avraham's faith in G-d is so great, so perfect, that he knows in his heart of hearts that G-d will not allow this crisis to be resolved inexplicably, in a way that contradicts all that Avraham knows is true and good. This faith is expressed silently in Avraham'sreassurance to Yitzchak, "G-d will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." (ibid 22:8) Both G-d and Avraham are testing one another in a test of faith. Who will blink first?

It is G-d who blinks first, sending an angel to call Avraham, not once, but twice, "Avraham, Avraham!" (ibid 22:11) The moment Avraham has been anticipating has arrived, and Avraham answers in the affirmative, "Here I am!" The angel responds, "Do not stretch forth your hand to the lad, nor do the slightest thing to him, for now I know that you are a G-d fearing man, and you did not withhold your son, your only one, from Me." (ibid 22:12) G-d has seen that Avraham has remained the very same Avraham that has sought out G-d from his youth, never abandoning his belief in G-d's goodness. And Avraham's trust in G-d's goodness has likewise been vindicated: G-d, indeed, would never demand the impossible of Avraham, without explanation or consolation.

This is the meaning of the name that Avraham gave to that place: "HaShem will see, as it is said to this day: On the mountain, HaShem will be seen." (ibid 22:14) On that day, and in that place, man and G-d saw one another eye to eye, each witnessing the fullness of the other, in a moment of complete unity of will and desire and love. A covenant of eternal love between Avraham and G-d was made at that moment. That place and that moment would become the eternal resting place of the Shechinah, G-d's Presence, and the place of the Holy Temple, where man and G-d will come together, and behold the other, eye to eye, in love and faith, forever!

-The Temple Institute