A man was in his car, driving along the
highway.
His wife calls him on the cellphone: 'Honey be careful, I just heard on the
radio there's some crazy guy driving the wrong way along the highway.'
'Some guy? There are hundreds of them!'
No, don't try it at home! Yet in this
week's Torah reading we see that sometimes being Jewish is all about going
against the flow, swimming against the tide.
This week's Torah reading talks at length
about Chessed, kindness. Abraham was the epitome of Chessed. We see,
throughout the account of his life, his devotion to others and his unending
kindness. So imbued was Abraham with Chesed that the Bahir, a mystical work,
tells us that the attribute of Chessed (kindness) came before G-d and
complained that as long as Abraham was around it did not have any work to
do.
It is against this background that G-d
made a startling request, to sacrifice 'your son, your only son, whom you
love.' In the end, of course, G-d did not allow this to happen and sent a
ram in Isaac's place, but at the time when Abraham was commanded he really
thought he would have to sacrifice his son. Not only had he waited many
years for Sarah to give birth but even without this personal consideration,
Abraham wanted an heir to carry on his work in spreading monotheism. Isaac
was that heir and here was G-d telling him to throw everything away.
Yet Abraham prepared to do as G-d had
told him.
We find in this an incredible measure of
self-sacrifice on the part of Abraham. Here was someone who was renowned for
their kindness, being asked to pass a test which was the very antithesis of
that kindness, to be willing to invoke the attribute of 'gevurah' which
means harshness, strictness, to go totally against their very essence and
being, to fulfil G-d's will.
We are told in the Torah that 'maaseh
avos siman l'banim', that the deeds of our Forefathers are a symbol to the
future generations. Not just a symbol, but an infusion of energy and of
koach (potential) for us to follow the trail they blazed for us.
The Akeidah, the story of the Binding of
Isaac, sets a task for each of us, throughout the generations, to be
prepared to put our own considerations on the side, even going against our
own nature and instinct, to do the right thing. It is not easy to swim
against the tide, either within ourselves, the personal challenges we face,
or within the wider society, when we are challenged by the world around us.
Yet our Forefathers were able to do it, and so are we.
Shabbat Shalom