Nov 11/06 — Parashat Vayera

Commentary by Rabbi Alan Green

“And it came to pass, after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him: “Abraham,” and he replied, “Here I am.” And God said, “Take your son, your only son, who you love—Isaac—and go forth to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there, on one of the mountains that I will designate.” So Abraham got up early, saddled his ass, and took two of his servants, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the sacrifice, and then arose and went to the place that God had said. On the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and, off in the distance, he saw the place.”                 Genesis 22:1-4

What are we to make of this story, which we read two times every year: once on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, and again only about six weeks later, on Shabbat Vayera? God has promised Abraham a line of descendants that will inhabit the land of C’naan. But now that He is demanding the life of Isaac—”your son, your only one, whom you love”—God seems to be contradicting Himself. This is over and above the more primary level of horror: a God that demands the lives of children.

If we take this story seriously, it has a profoundly unsettling effect. What a horrible way to begin a New Year! And then, after a brief few weeks, to be hit with the same terrible story again? Judaism is, first and foremost, all about the art of teaching. The choice of this reading for Rosh Hashanah, and its reappearance in the Torah reading cycle didn’t happen by accident. What is the tradition attempting to teach us by placing the binding of Isaac at the beginning of the Torah, and at the beginning of the year?

The rabbis tell us: KOL HATCHALOT KASHOT—“There are no easy beginnings.” For any new project, whether it’s a year, a life, or an institution, there will always be powerful forces of resistance, internal and external, that must be overcome. Why? Because there are always very good reasons for things being exactly the way they are.

The current condition of one’s life, one’s society, and one’s world, is the result of the sum total of the myriad causes and effects that prevail in the universe at this very moment. Therefore, to bring about change—to bring something new into being—one has to create new causes and new effects. What is the definition of insanity? To expect change, while you continue to do things the same old way you’ve always done them.

Abraham, the first Jew, has been assigned the task of creating an ideal people which, in its turn, must create an ideal world. It’s the biggest, most important project that could ever be. The fate of humanity, not to mention the fulfillment of God’s dream for creation, depends upon it.

We see ample evidence of the spread of barbarism in the early stories of the Torah. In the ten generations from Adam to Noah, God actually despaired of His creation and destroyed it with Noah’s flood. But the desired improvement never came. In the ten generations from Noah to Abraham, humanity continued its downward spiral.

We can imagine God’s desperation at this point. Was this dark, chaotic world destined to be the ultimate result of “Let there be light”? But then God found Abraham, and said LECH L’CHA—”Go to yourself. Leave your dark existence behind, and go to the land that I will show you.” Nothing is spelled out here—certainly not the “how” of a Chosen People blessing the entire world. Here, at the very beginning of the Jewish vocation, the main demand is one of total surrender and trust. God never says it will be easy.

And so, at this new beginning, God tests Abraham. There is a fierce resistance to change that must be overcome. In a world in which children are regularly offered as blood sacrifices to propitiate gods of murder and bloodshed, the tendency to violence must be defeated.

Should Abraham sacrifice any less than his friends and relatives? If God is the One who He says He is, the least of what He deserves is what is customarily sacrificed to a god. This is why Abraham is ready and willing to sacrifice Isaac, without any argument or hesitation.

So what is Abraham’s true test here? It actually comes later than we think—when the sacrificial knife is about to find its mark. At the last possible moment, an angel tells Abraham to stand down, and Abraham passes God’s test, by standing down. In this way, Abraham, all future generations of the Jewish people, and the whole world, discover the kind of God and the kind of world we are truly meant to inhabit.

It’s a world of peace and goodwill for all of the human family. It’s a world where violence, war, hatred, poverty, disease, and ignorance will all be long-forgotten realities. It’s a world in which we will all see God in the way that Moses did—PANIM EL PANIM—”face to face”—in the eyes, and in the faces of every man, woman, and child on the planet.

But getting there isn’t easy. In particular, the Jewish role in redeeming the world isn’t going to be easy. God gives Abraham a strong hint of this with this test. He also reveals the fate that the Israelites are destined to suffer at the hands of the Egyptians during the “covenant of the pieces.”

Had God revealed the whole story of Jewish suffering down through the ages, it probably would have been more than Abraham could bear. But that sad history is already present here, in this story of the binding of Isaac. How many times have the Jewish people been threatened with total extinction, only to be saved at the last possible moment? Indeed, all of Jewish history can be understood as one continuous binding of the Chosen People on the altar of God.

Shabbat Shalom.