binding-of-isaac by Ratner
The Future Temple is already here Sight, Legacy, Delegation and Deportation; Binding, Diversion and Vision for the Future.
“vaYera” – Acquisition of Miraculous Vision
The name of this Parashah is vaYera – “And (the Lord) appeared”. This name indicates that its main subject has to do with seeing – at times plain, at times hidden and implied – as well as Yir’ah-Awe. To these which are added (with the addition Yishm?el) the attributes of listening (Shemi’ah) and discipline (Mishma’at).
In Hebrew, “see” – ra’ah – and “show” – har’eh – are different declination of the same verb-root. It also has to do with Yir’ah – Awe, to
The former Parashah – Lekh-Lekha – began with the command “Walk/Get thee out of thy country…, to the land that I will show thee – Ar’ekha”. The completion of this special “walking” is with a special kind of “seeing”.
This parashah begins with a revelation (epiphany) to Abraham: “And the Lord-YHWH appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre”, and ends with a combination of the act of Abraham – who gave a new name for the place of the Binding: “And Abraham called the name of the place YHWH yir’e” (“the Lord will See” – in the Active Voice), together with an “editorial comment” – that hints at the future of the site, which would eventually become the Temple site – “as it is said to this day, In the mount the Lord will appear” – YHWH yera’e” (“The Lord will be seen” – in the passive voice).
The entire portion deals with the continuation of the trials of Abraham, and with the question of inheritance: the inheritance of the blessings that Abraham received.
The dramatic peak of the parashah is the eleventh trial of Abraham – and the first of Yi??aq-Isaac – the trial of the ?qedah – the Binding of Isaac. There is a tremendous significance both to the Binding per se, and in its marking the place of the Temple for times to come and for our own times.
We shall see how all the various topics that the Parashah deals with, which are ostensibly disparate, are all bound together for this one end.
We shall see how all the issues that the portion deals with, which are seemingly disparate from each other, are tied together to this objective. We shall examine not only the seeing of Abraham, but also the meaning of the special seeing of Yi??aq-Isaac, as he was bound to the altar.
vaYera
The vision, the sight, or the inability to see are mentioned with twelve occurrences in this Parashah:
1. vayera elav YHWH – “And the Lord-YHWH appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre, as he sat at the tent door in the heat of the day; and he raised his eyes and looked (va’yar), and, lo, three men stood by him; and when he saw them (va’yar), he ran to meet them” (18:1).
2. “And there came two angels to Sedom at evening, and Lot sat in the gate of Sedom, and Lot seeing them (va’yar) rose up to meet them” (19:1).
3. “And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door” (19:11).
4. “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (19:26).
5. “And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord-YHWH; and he looked toward Sedom and Amora, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld (va’yar), and, lo, the smoke of the country went up like the smoke of a furnace” (19:27-28).
6. “What hast thou done to us…. What sawest thou (mah ra’ita), that thou hast done this thing?” (20:9-10).
7. “And to Sarah he said, behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is thee covering of the eyes, to all that are with thee” (20:16).
8. “And God heard the voice of the lad…. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink” (21:19). (This was almost a repetition of Hagar’s experience in parashat Lekh-Lekha “And she called the name of the Lord-YHWH that spoke to her, Thou God seest me; for she said, Have I also looked after him that sees me? Therefore the well was called Be’er La?ay-ro’I – well to the Living (God) that sees me” (16:13-14).)
9. “Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place (va’yar et hamakom) afar off” (22:4).
10. “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself (Elohim yir’eh-l) a lamb for offering” (22:8).
11. “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold (va’yar) behind him a ram caught in the thicket with his horns” (22:13).
12. “And Abraham called the name of the place YHWH yir’e, (the Lord will see), as it is said to this day, in the Mount of the Lord will appear (YHWH yera’e)” (22:14).
(There is another place in the scriptures where such a revelation-type sight is described – the epiphany to Moses in parashat Shemot (the first Parashah in the Book of Exodus:
1. “And the angel of the Lord-YHWH appeared (va’yera) to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus 3:2).
2. “And he looked and, behold, the bush burnt with fire, but the bush was not consumed” (3:2).
3. And Moshe (Moses) said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt” (3:3).
4. “And when the Lord-YHWH saw that he turned aside to see, God (Elohim) called to him out of the midst of the bush” (3:4).
5. “And Moshe hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God” (3:6).
6. “And the Lord (YHWH) said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt-Mizrayim” (3:7). )
Ten of these sightings that are mentioned in parashat vaYera are miraculous, and testify to the divine presence in the world, and the overseeing and providence from his side. In the majority of these are involved also angels of God. But the parashah contains another, hidden sight – that of Yitzaq. According to Rashi: “When Yitzaq-Isaac was bound upon the altar and his father was proceeding to slaughter him, in that moment the skies opened to him (Isaac) and he saw the ministering angels who were crying, and their tears went down and fell on his eyes, therefore his eyes became blinded”. In the sequel we shall examine what was the vision that Yitzaq-Isaac might have beheld, and how it relates to the pattern of the future Temple in Jerusalem.
Another outstanding issue in this Parashah is the geographic diversity in which the different dramas in it take place. The structure of Parashat vaYera also displays a clear geographical pattern. Four sets of experiences preceded setting the stage for the aqedah. In the first – Abraham dwelt at the terebinths of Mamre and Lot at the plain of the Yarden (Jordan river); while Lot’s offspring are destined to inherit the lands of Ammon and Moav east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. Thus the eastern sector was established. In the next case the stage moved westward, to the Land of the Philistines at Gerar. From there Abraham passed to the south-east, with Be’er Sheva as centre point, and that is where the sending of Ishmael and Hagar to the south was from. This became the staging grounds for the sons of Ishmael, mainly to the south, but it spreads also ewest and east to the margins of the settled lands, from Egypt as thou goest towards Ashur (Assyria, Gen. 25:18). The fourth move turns again westward, to the Land of the Philistine and the contractual connection with them.
On the basis of these four moves and the contacts entailed in them, there starts a quest journey to seek the Land of Moriah – meaning Vision and Instruction – namely to the aqedah (see appendix 3-B for the former chapter about Abraham as Geomancer).
But still before Isaac’s birth, Abraham had to contend with more trials:
The Seventh Trial: it started with the arrival of the three miraculous guests to the tent of Abraham. This is a trial put to Abraham and to Sarah alike: one of the angels came to announce to Sarah the birth of her son, and received from her the same response that Abraham already failed in – laughter of distrust.
The major trial for Abraham was in the negotiations that he conducted in order to enable a merciful judgement towards the people of Sedom. He surely knew that they were mostly sinners, but he also knew that his nephew lived among them and perhaps other virtuous persons as well. Abraham thus started to dispute with God, and to adopt various tactics: first he threw at him the bold complaint: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (18:25). But then quickly moved to an entirely different tone: “Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes” (18:27). Abraham continued the bargaining, until he succeeded to lower the price of saving the city to ten righteous people. But the next day: “And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord” (19:27), and discovered that the destruction had already been meted.
(As an aside we’ll note that in parallel with those of Abraham, also his nephew Lot passed trials. He repeated one-for-one the experiences of Noah: Like Noah, he is the only righteous person among the wicked people of Sedom, and therefore he was saved from the total destruction. Like with Noah, also the offspring of Lot (females in this case), thought that the world had been destroyed and they have to start humankind all over again. Noah got drunk in his tent and was taken advantage of by one of his sons, and Lot’s daughters made their father drunk with wine until “he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose”. In both cases the incest had its consequences. The son of ?
ham, Kena’an (Canaan) would establish a people that were cursed from the outset: “Cursed be Kena’an; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren” (9:25). The sons of Lot’s daughters, Mo’av and ?mmon, would also establish peoples who were at first held as bastards and undesirables in comparison with the children of Abraham – “An Ammonite or Mo’avite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. Even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord” (Deut. 23:4). Yet even here there is rectification, and the Messiah King, David, is an issue of both sides: of Ruth the Mo’avite and of Bo’az from the issue if Judah, the grand-grandson of Abraham.
The Eighth Trial is much like a repetition of the second trial: Abraham yielding his wife for the ruler of the land. This time the ruler was Avimelekh king of Gerar, in the land of the philistines. Abraham once again presented his wife as his sister. The affair concerning Avimelekh was much more severe – for had Abraham and Sarah believed full heartedly to the message of the angel about the future birth of Isaac, they should have considered the likelihood that Sarah was already becoming pregnant. Avimelekh complained to Abraham (and rightly so): “what hast thou done to us? And in what have I offended you, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? Thou hast done deeds to me that ought not to be done” (20:9). And abraham chose an excuse that could exacerbate the situation and to entangle Avimelekh, and himself, in further incest: “And yet indeed she is my sister, she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother”. This time again, like in the case of Pharaoh in Egypt, the consequence of the deed is a monetary compensation. Abraham gained a tremendous material wealth – sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and women servants, plus a thousand pieces of silver (twice and a half times the exorbitant amount he would pay for the Makhpelah Cave), and Abraham was invited to continue dwelling in Gerar.
Ostensibly, the problem has been solved, but only apparently. We are suddenly informed on a punishment that was put upon the house of Avimelekh because of Sarah: The cessation of pregnancies. The barren Abraham then heals the barrenness of the people of Gerar. Avimelekh’s wife and maidservants gave birth, and only then – Sarah conceived. It is for a reason that the account twice recalls that Avimelekh had not come near her.
In summary, there formed a de-facto family connection between Abraham and the people of Pleshet (Philistines). Abraham enjoyed their hospitality and their property and could not disengage from or deny them.
The Ninth Trial is again a repetition – repeating the fifth trial: that of casting Hagar away. This time the son – Yishme’el-Ishmael, accompanies her. With the birth of her longed-for son, and especially from his weaning, Sarah became still more jealous, and when she saw Yishme’el mocking – she demanded to expel both him and his mother. On the day of the feast of Yi??aq-Isaac, Yishm?’el-Ishmael was expelled and sentenced to thirst – “for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, with Yitzaq” (Gen. 21:10).
“And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s eye because of his son” (21:11). Ishmael was his natural and loved son, whereas in the birth of Isaac there was something supernatural and therefore perhaps even frightening. But God-Elohim (for again there appears the name of God-Elohim, which represents the quality of Judgement, of division or ruling – Serara – and not YHWH, the Name of Being and of mercy) commanded him “in all that Sarah has said to thee, harken (shma) to her voice”. Like in two other cases in this portion, cases of disaster and heartbreak (the destruction of Sedom and the Binding of Isaac) “And Abraham rose up early in the morning”, this time to hasten and cast Ishmael and Hagar out to the desert. Hagar lost her way in the desert of Be’er Sheva, which would also be the site where the tenth trial would take place, the trial that starts with contention and its end a covenant with the Philistines, a covenant that spells the yielding of territories.
And what about Abraham? We can only guess whether there was left in Abraham a residue of pain over the expulsion of his beloved son, and to what extent did the sending out of Ishmael influenced the Binding of Isaac (and there clearly must be a connection, as the text renders the actions of Abraham in these two cases starting with the same words “And Abraham rose up early in the morning”). Both the Jewish Midrash and the Moslem Qur’an agree that the connection between Abraham and his son Ishmael did not end on this jarring note. The Midrash tells that Abraham eventually visited the tent of Ishmael, to inquire what happened to him, yet under the warning of Sarah not to dismount there from his camel. The Qur’an goes on to tell (Sura 2, 119-121) that not only Abraham eventually visited Ishmael, but that they both built together a shrine in Mecca. Whichever, also the Bible marks that after the death of Abraham, his two sons; Isaac and Ishmael buried him together.
Evidently, there is a connection between this trial and the trial of the ?qedah and that even the sending out of Ishmael is not absolute but temporary, and under certain conditions he might return.
The Tenth Trial: is in the dispute and negotiation with Avimelekh and Pikhol captain of his host over territory and water (wells). At its conclusion came the drawing of a covenant, in which Abraham conceded to the Philistines all the rights that were promised him by God in the land of the Philistines. This requires some reflection. Abraham had already obtained from Avimelekh the right to dwell in this area. He was also equipped with the divine promise that the whole land will be given to his seed. Actually, the one who was worried was Avimelekh, and he sought to make with Abraham a covenant that would stand for generations, for his grandchildren and grand-grandchildren, according to the kindness that he had done to Abraham.[1] According to the commentary of Rabbi Chayim Vital, in the name of the ARI”zl, Abraham failed in this tenth trial in that he did not trust the Lord and his promises – which became apparent from the covenant he made with the Philistines – and this failure necessitated a test of absolute faithfulness, in the binding of Isaac.
But before our focusing on the aqedah, which came “after these things”, let us return to two other issues with which this parashah deals: the special relationship that is fashioned in its course (through two different incidents) with the Philistines, and the casting away of the other son, Ishmael. To Be Continued…
