Shabbat Parshat Noah  17 Cheshvan 5769, November , 2008

Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Vayera                    

Genesis: 18:1-22:24
          
By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel – “And G-d said, ‘Take now your son, your only one, whom you love, even Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and lift him up there as a dedication, on one of the mountains that I will show you.” (Genesis 22:2)

The emotional and moral tensions of the above passage have a way of constantly reminding us that what we thought we understood about the sacrifice of Isaac is as elusive, and illusive, as ever.

Many agonizing questions must be asked concerning the two principal figures in this powerful and awe-ful encounter between G-d and Abraham. First, how is it possible that G-d, Who will eventually reveal Himself to Moses as “the Lord of Love, the Lord of Love, a G-d of compassion and freely-given love, patient, filled with lovingkindness, and truth” now addresses the very person who discovered this G-d of compassionate righteousness and morality with such an outrageous demand.  Perhaps even more puzzling than G-d’s request is the response of Abraham, his silent acquiescence; how could the man who remonstrated with G-d on behalf of the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah (“Will the Judge of the entire earth not dispense justice?” Gen 18:25) meekly accept a command that he sacrifice his pure and innocent son Isaac? 

Furthermore, in the Torah portion of two weeks ago we read of a new stage in the evolution of humanity which emerged after the Flood, G-d’s covenant with Noah that “…He who sheds the blood of another will have his blood shed, since the human being was created in G-d’s image” (Gen 9:6).  To add to the difficulty,  G-d promised Abraham eternal progeny, even guaranteeing the Patriarch that “…through Isaac shall your progeny be called” (Gen.21:12). This Divine command to sacrifice Isaac seems not only totally incongruous but even contradictory to all that we have  been taught about ethical monotheism, the new, path-breaking, pagan-smashing,  religion founded by Abraham.  

To answer our questions we must turn to Abraham’s wife Sarah, our first Matriarch, and attempt to understand her role in this family drama involving God, parent and child. After all, G-d commands Abraham “…to listen well to every word that Sarah says” (ibid), which prompts the Midrash to state that Sarah had greater prophetic powers than Abraham had (Rashi ad loc). As my rebbe Rav J.B. Soloveitchik has noted, Abraham lived thirty-eight years after Sarah’s death (when Sarah died, her husband was 137 years old, ten years older than his wife, and he lived to the age of 175) – vigorous years during which he re-married and had more sons and daughters; nevertheless, during all those 38 years the Torah doesn’t mention even once that G-d visited or appeared to Abraham.  Apparently Abraham was the Rabbi because Sarah was the Rebbetzin, it was Sarah’s living presence which created the proper conduit for Abraham’s Divine visitations and missions.

Moreover, Abraham’s sole accomplishment after Sarah’s death was the appointment of Eliezer to find a suitable wife for Isaac; it seems that without his wife Sarah, he doesn’t even trust himself to make such a decision alone! 

Bearing all this in mind, we must ask a final question: in next week’s Biblical portion we shall read, “And Sarah died in Kiryat Arba, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to eulogize Sarah and to weep over her” (Genesis 23:2). But what was Sarah doing in Hebron? We know that after the “binding of Isaac,” Abraham returned to Be’er Sheva, the desert area which had become the family homestead, so to speak, in the wake of the treaty that Abraham the Patriarch had made with Avimelekh the King (Genesis 21:32-34; ibid 22:19).

How did it come about that Sarah died in Hebron if their home was in Be’er Sheva?  What was she doing in Hebron?

To give insight into all of these concerns, I would suggest the following scenario.  On the early morning of his trip to Moriah, Abraham and Isaac’s preparations must certainly have awakened Sarah. “Where are you two going so early in the morning? And why the slaughterer’s knife?” Abraham had no choice but to reveal to his faithful wife – the loving mother of Isaac – the Divine command. Sarah demands to hear G-d’s precise words. “He didn’t say that you should slaughter our child; He merely said to lift him up, to dedicate him to Divine service. G-d could not possibly have commanded you to slaughter an innocent child!” 

And indeed Sarah was a greater prophetess than Abraham. The Sages of the Talmud (B.T. Taanit 4a) cite a verse from the prophet Jeremiah “‘I did not command, I did not speak and I did not imagine’ I did not command Mesha the King of Moab to sacrifice his eldest son; I did not speak to Jephtha to sacrifice his daughter; and I did not imagine Abraham taking Isaac to the binding.” Based on this Talmudic passage, Rashi comments that Abraham misunderstood the Divine charge; G-d wanted a dedicated, committed Isaac, but not a dead Isaac! 

Why does Abraham understand G-d differently than his wife Sarah does? Perhaps growing up in the shadow of the idol Moloch, the pagan world which demanded child sacrifice of the most faithful of the idolaters, affected his perception of the world. The S’fat Emet commentary of Gur Hassidut goes so far as to interpret the verse “And he [Abraham] saw the place (of the binding, Mt. Moriah) from afar” in the sense that Makom is that context should be seen as a synonym for God’s name (as we use it in a house of mourning).  Abraham saw G-d out of fear, rather than out of love; Abraham was – at this particular moment in his life – far removed from G-d and so G-d was far removed from Abraham.  Abraham did not truly understand the Divine intent; Sarah did and she therefore opposed Abraham’s journey.

Hence, when Abraham didn’t listen to his wife and brought Isaac to the binding despite Sara’s opposition, Sarah went to Hebron, to the burial-place of Adam and Eve, to pray to G-d in the place of the repose of the first two human beings, Sarah cried out to her forbears, Adam and Eve, who knew the pain of having been bereft of a son; Sarah called out to G-d from Hebron, the place where her husband had received the Covenant between the Pieces, which guaranteed future living progeny. And even if Abraham didn’t listen to Sarah, G-d did; He stayed Abraham’s hand, preventing him from taking Isaac’s life.  

But alas, Sarah herself died; the strain, the pain, was simply too much for this dedicated mother to bear. But Isaac lived – and so does Jewish eternity. 

Shabbat Shalom