Parashat Vayerah 5768/2007

This week's Parashah, Vayerah, presents the most formative experiences of our people's founding figure - Abraham. Much has been said and written about Abraham's advocacy on behalf of justice in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and on many other passages that make up our Sedra. I wish to reflect briefly on verses from the Binding of Isaac narrative (the Akedah) - a story that continues to challenge me greatly even as I find within it enduring lessons and timeless insights.



A few curious observations follow. When God calls Abraham by name (Chapter 22:1), it is the first and only time in the Torah that God uses Abraham's full (recently amended from Abram) name. If one considers the context of Akedah, it is worth noting that God has not informed Abraham that Lot and his daughters have indeed been spared (Abraham's family members saved from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah). Does this lack of information matter in shaping Abraham's frame of mind as God puts him through the test which is the Akedah?



When Abraham and Isaac speak to each other on their three-day journey, it is the first time that the Bible records a conversation between a parent and a child. Within their very brief dialogue, I believe, we find enduring lessons at the core of the whole purpose of the Akedah. Although they are unchanged, walking together (yachdav) before and after their brief dialogue, a few points in their sharing resonate for me. First, when Isaac asks "Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the offering? (22:7), he does not mention the knife. Why not?



Second, Abraham's response is both enigmatic and prophetic - "God will see to the lamb for the offering, my son." (22:8). It seems to hide more than it reveals. Yet the very name Abraham bestows on the mountaintop is derived from the word for "God will see to". Abraham's capacity to respond prophetically, while not duplicitously, is quite telling. Is there a connection between seeing and the unknowable being asserted here?



Finally, the actual sacrifice is of a ram, not a lamb - of the father, not the child. Perhaps a portion of Abraham, whom God never again speaks directly to following the Akedah, is sacrificed. What might this suggest about the inscrutability of the Almighty's ways?



I look forward to probing with you these and numerous other deep and challenging questions on our Parasha this Shabbat. Shabbat Shalom. Rabbi William Hamilton