By Dr. Rabbi Moshe Dror
The Biblical narrative of the Akedah as told in Genesis chapter 22 is certainly one of the most strange, terrifying, and fascinating stories of the entire Biblical tradition. In all probability, more commentaries have been written about this single story than any other of the entire Bible.
I do not want to get into the vast literature of what has been called by so many varying names:1. The Test of Abraham;2. The Last Trial; 3. The Binding of Isaac;4. The Binding of Ishmael (Dhabih, in Arabic);5. The Sacrifice of Isaac;6. The Akedah;7… Others…
Each of these relates to the same narrative more or less-And by calling them different names, and focusing on different persons- It is retelling the same story from vastly different frames of reference and religious perspectives. And that is just what I have some idea about. So Rather than getting in over my head and dealing with a world that I have only some knowledge about, I want to focus on and limit these comments just to these two images of Phillip Ratner.Before I get into the Ratner images, I want to tell you about a personal story that actually happened to me. I came to Israel and made Aliyah on September 26, 1981.That just happened to be two days before Rosh HaShanah (the Jewish New Year that falls in the month in the fall, called in Hebrew-Tishre). I came to live in a town called Yeroham, which literally means: Yeru- a human habitation , and Ham- from the root word Rahamim- which is derived from the word that means womb=rechem and has the associated meanings of Mercy and Compassion. So I came to a place that was called- The Habitation of CompassionAccording to local Bedouin tradition this is the site of the well that Hagar was shown after she was sent out by Abraham and where her son Ishmael by Abraham was saved by finding a well that saved the life of Ishmael and her life, (Genesis, chapter 21). According to the Arabic tradition Ishmael was the son of Abraham who was bound at the altar, and was latter blessed by God and became the ancestor of all of the Arab peoples. The Qur’an itself does not mention the name of Abraham’s son, although the full narrative points to Ishmael (Qur’an 37:99-113)This site, near Yeroham, is known as Be’er Rachma—the Well of Compassion. After I heard this, I went to one of the places where this well is supposed to have been according to the local Bedouin heritage. I have no idea if I found the ACTUAL site, – But it was in the general vicinity. I Took off my shoes and did a long meditation. I did some deep breathing and was able to draw into my body through my naked feet on the actual sand of the presumed site some of the energy that I imagined was still there from that epical event. Two days later, it was Rosh HaShanah.When I was in the Synagogue and the congregation read the section of the Bible of the story of Hagar on the first day of the holiday and also of the Akedah on the second day of the Torah reading- It all made some long buried unconscious-subconscious connection with the sacred nature of the site and why I was in Yerohan altogether. I was Re-living those events in my own mythos of one of the most powerful stories of the Bible. And- I am still here- 26 years later. If you want to see how enduring this story is go into Google and key in: Sacrifice of Isaac- nearly 100,000 hits; Binding of Isaac- 47,000 hits Akedah-36,000 hits This is what I found in a Google search on June 17, 2007.
If the story of the Akedah fascinates you as it does me and has had such a monumental impact on Western culture for Jews, Christians, and Moslems. Some scholars also associate Abraham with Brahmin, the divine personage of Hindu tradition as well. Look at Gen. 25 and you will see that Abraham had six other children not only the two we generally know of Isaac and Ishmael. And these six went Kedma to the east-orient. So what we have here is not only a Western tradition but a global tradition of the human and divine interaction. Take a look at two books that deal with this narrative in vastly different ways and in much different historic periods.1. The Last Trial: On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to Offer Isaac as a Sacrifice—The AKEDAHBy Shalom Spiegel Translated with an Introduction by Judah Goldin , and a New Preface by Judah Goldin.(Jewish Lights Publishing; Woodstock, Vermont; 1993) This is one of the truly great classics on the story. Shalom Spiegel takes us up to the events of 13th Century Christian Europe.2. TESTAMENT: AKEDAHBy: Douglas Rushkoff (author) and, (artist- illustrator) Liam Sharp(Vertigo, 2006).This is a Comic Book for cyberspace This is about the past, our present and the future: a science-fiction interpretation of the same story. Rushkoff is a futurist and media-guru. This event is taking place in a site called Moriah (Genesis 22:2). The Jewish tradition associates this site of Mount Moriah as the sacred place of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. More- According to some Sages of the Talmud (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yoma 54b) the very stone upon which, the actual near human sacrifice and actual animal sacrifice took place is called the Foundation Stone (Even haShetiyah). This is the name of the rock that is at the heart of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem: -It was from this rock that the world was created;-It was the first part of the world that was created,-It is the Center point of the world,-It is on this spot that stood the Holy of Holies.-It was from this earth that God gathered the earth that was formed into Adam.-It was on this rock, that Adam, and later Cain, Able and Noah offered sacrifices to God.-It is the site of the Binding of Isaac.– It is also associated with the rock upon which Jacob dreamt about angels ascending and descending on a ladder.– It was on this site that king David who purchased the site from Arunah the Jebusite offered the sacrifice.– It was upon this rock upon which the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the First Temple. -During the Second Temple period when the Ark was no longer available, it was on this stone that the High Priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrifices during the Yom Kippur Service-In Islamic tradition, the rock is said to be the location where Muhammad ascended to heaven on his horse, Again, this narrative is a global and universal epic.
We see three figures formed in a T format- perhaps even cross like shape. In the Jewish tradition the father did not kill his son. In the Christian tradition the Father did kill His Son and brought him back to life again.
We see a young person, here Isaac; being bound with ropes, above him is Abraham holding a bomb or missile like device. In the Biblical story in two places Genesis 22:6 and Genesis 22:10 the Hebrew word is used ma’achelet which is translated as knife, sword, and cleaver- some device that is supposed to kill the boy. The root of the Hebrew word used is from the word to Hebrew Achal, eat, consume. So what we read is that there is some device that is an all consuming device.More, when one eats we destroy what we eat and our body transforms that which is eaten into its component elements and chemicals and this nourishes us and keeps us alive. So what is going on here? What does a missile have to do with a knife? But what is the story about. Here it is no longer about what happened nearly some 4,000 years ago on some ancient site. Where the father did not kill the son and found a substitute. But it is about what WE as fathers do all of the time, not only then BUT NOW every Day. It is US who send our sons to kill and be killed all over the world for the greater Glory of God or some political ideology? We say all of the time that our children are our most precious possessions. AND in every country it is precisely they who we the parents send out to die for our beliefs. EVERY DAY.
Now look at who it is that stays the hand of Abraham, It is of course an angel of God. Have you ever seen an angel like this? We generally assume that angels have wings like birds. Why?In the ancient times, birds were the only beings that we knew that would be able to fly. The word Angel means messenger and what does a messenger do?They go from place to place. How do you get there, you can walk and you can fly to do the will of your Father in heaven So if we are talking about the future the messenger has wings indeed but not birds wings. Rather it has wings of a jet Airplane. Ratner put the exhaust vent in the wing in a backwards mode so that the angel will fly in any direction that it needs to go. The angel has an astronaut like helmet on his head. So now the angel is an astronaut messenger. With one hand the angel holds the hand of Abraham with the destroying device the missile bomb to stop him from killing the boy. Now look at the other hand interesting indeed. This is in the form of the hand that the Jewish priests held their fingers when they were blessing the Jewish community and this is used until today. When you put the two hands together you get the fingers to form the Hebrew letter SHIN which is the first letter of the word Shaddai ,one of the names of God. It is the same letter SHIN that is on many of the mezuzah containers that Jews have on their doorposts and on the tefillin of the Head piece. And many other religious ceremonial objects. When I first looked at this image of the hand, it became obvious that it was one of the hands of the priest in blessing as found in the Bible in Numbers 6: 23-27. The text reads: May the Lord Bless you and keep you,May The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you? May the Lord lift up his face upon thee and give you peace.What a vast difference between the words of the priestly blessing and what is going on in the Akedah. Then it hit me. This is the Vulcan salute of Mr. Spock from Star Trek saga. (look at Vulcan Salute in Wikipedia) Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played the half human -half Vulcan Spock in the classic Star Trek series devised the Vulcan salute and it first appeared in the second season opening episode, Amok Time. In his autobiography, I am Spock, Nimoy writes that his father often took him to an Orthodox Synagogue and he distinctly remembers the blessing of the Kohanim, the Priests, and how he would hide under his father’s big Tallit. It is believed that when the Kohanim bless the community and hold their hands in that way, that the Shechinah- the presence of God is there and it is shining forth and no one should actually look at it. I remember this same ritual from when I was a little boy and that I also hid my head under the tallit of my father. When Gene Roddenberry was looking for some distinct salutation for the special character of Spock, Nimoy showed him this gesture and Roddenberry liked it and used it and the rest is history. But there is more to the story. If you remember the salute, you also probably remember the spoken blessing of Spock— Live Long and Prosper ( Just what Isaac-Ishmael- Jesus have been doing for thousands of year and for billions, perhaps even trillions ( if you add up ALL of the Jews , Christians and Moslems who ever lived) of people. Nimoy and Roddenberry were looking for a physical gesture that could accompany the Live Long and Prosper greeting. This Jewish priestly gesture looked sufficiently alien and mysterious and thus was television and science fiction history made. Amazing indeed the power of mythos the story and its influence
If you are not a Star Trek fan you may be one of the many Americans who might confuse Mr. Spock of the Star Trek Saga with Dr. Benjamin Spock the real-life physician who was called the Baby Doctor because he wrote by far the most used book on how to bring up babies during the post World War Two period. I used it all of the time. It was this Dr. Benjamin Spock who was furious that the children who he loved so much and helped to bring up to be responsible adults were being blown up and blowing up others in the Vietnam War. He became a passionate anti- War demonstrator and was even arrested for civil disobedience. He also ran for President of the USA and lost.
Gene Roddenberry and the Star Trek team deny that there was any connection at all with his use of the same name of Spock. It is merely coincidence. Perhaps so. Or, Is it? No one lived long and prospered in the Vietnam War. What a connection that jumps out at us over a period of nearly 4,000 years. Perhaps… But that is where Midrash comes in. This is where art can make a visual metaphor so powerful.
Ratner does not stop with the Ma’achelet= consuming device, knife- of chemical explosives only.
It is our generation that is both blessed and burdened with a power that literally transformed our world, namely nuclear power. In this powerful image, Ratner puts the atomic mushroom cloud in the hand of Abraham and the alter-here looking like the blades of a double axe . Now we are not dealing with destroying a single person but destroying of worlds.Now has the symbol of the nucleus emblazoned on its side. The Angel seems to be coming from some form of space vehicle and seems again to be a messenger of another place. So, here we can see just one story that extends across 4,000 years of human history, animates until this very day-billions of people and is one of the most enduring stories of any age- how fathers and sons relate to one another.
