Last week we saw Avram refuse even a thread from the king of Sedom, so that no one could say his wealth came from anyone but Hashem. This week Hashem asks Avraham for the one gift that was worth more to him than all of that wealth: the son he had waited for until the age of one hundred.
On Rosh Hashanah we read this parsha and blew a ram’s horn in memory of the Akeida (Rosh Hashanah 16a). Now we read it again on an ordinary Shabbat in MarCheshvan, a month with no Yom Tov. Let’s look at one small word in Hashem’s command.
וְהָאֱ-לֹהִים נִסָּה אֶת אַבְרָהָם וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו אַבְרָהָם וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּנִי׃ וַיֹּאמֶר קַח נָא אֶת בִּנְךָ אֶת יְחִידְךָ אֲשֶׁר אָהַבְתָּ אֶת יִצְחָק וְלֶךְ לְךָ אֶל אֶרֶץ הַמֹּרִיָּה וְהַעֲלֵהוּ שָׁם לְעֹלָה׃
“Hashem tested Avraham. ‘Avraham,’ He called, and Avraham answered, ‘Hineni, here I am.’ Hashem said: ‘Please take your son Yitzchak, your only one, whom you love, and go to Eretz HaMoriah and offer him there as a korban olah (burnt offering).'” (Bereishit 22:1–2)
Two questions. This is the hardest command ever given to a human being. Why does Hashem say נָא, “please”? A king does not say please to his servant. And at the end of the story the malach (angel) says עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי יְרֵא אֱ-לֹהִים אַתָּה, “now I know that you fear Hashem” (22:12). Hashem knew Avraham’s heart long before this day. What did the Akeida add?
Rashi – “Please Stand Up for Me in This One”
Rashi (Bereishit 22:2), quoting the Gemara (Sanhedrin 89b), says אֵין נָא אֶלָּא לְשׁוֹן בַּקָּשָׁה, the word na is always a request. Hashem said to Avraham: I am asking you, hold firm for Me in this test, so that people will not say the earlier tests had nothing to them. The Gemara, in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Abba, gives a mashal (parable). A king had one warrior who won all his wars. When a harder war came, the king said to him: please, stand for me in this one, so that no one will say the earlier victories were nothing. The request is for the warrior’s own record, not for the king’s information.
Rashi further explains the extended way in which Hashem names the son. “Your son.” Avraham answered, I have two sons. “Your only one.” Each is the only son of his mother. “Whom you love.” I love them both. “Yitzchak.” Why not say Yitzchak right away? שֶׁלֹּא לְעַרְבְּבוֹ פִּתְאוֹם, not to shock Avraham all at once, and לִתֵּן לוֹ שָׂכָר עַל כָּל דִּבּוּר וְדִבּוּר, to give him reward for every single word. Hashem is speaking gently to Avraham (a father at 100!), and every word is building Avraham’s reward. The Akeida was arranged for Avraham’s sake, not for Hashem’s.
Ramban – A Test Is for the One Being Tested
The Ramban (Bereishit 22:1) gives the principle behind every nisayon (test) in the Torah. A person’s actions are in his own hands, so from his side it is a test. But Hashem, who gives the test, commands it לְהוֹצִיא הַדָּבָר מִן הַכֹּחַ אֶל הַפֹּעַל, to bring the thing out of potential into action, so that the person earns the reward of a good deed and not only the reward of a good heart. Hashem tests only a tzaddik whom He knows will do His will, when He wants to make him more righteous. He does not test the wicked, who would not listen. The Ramban sums it up: כָּל הַנִּסְיוֹנוֹת שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה לְטוֹבַת הַמְּנֻסֶּה, every nisayon in the Torah is given for the benefit of the person who receives it.
On “now I know” (22:12) the Ramban applies the same idea. Until this day Avraham’s fear of Hashem was in potential. Now it was known through a deed, וְהָיָה זְכוּתוֹ שָׁלֵם, and his merit was complete. “Now I know” does not mean Hashem learned something. It means that now it exists in the world as a “deed”.
This is why “please” fits. We ask when the thing we request is really a favor to the one we are asking.
The Or HaChaim HaKadosh – “Right Now,” and Three Loves
The Or HaChaim HaKadosh (Bereishit 22:2) reads the word na another way: right now. Avraham was not to ask for time, and that itself was part of the test. He contrasts this with the daughter of Yiftach, who asked her father for two months before he carried out his vow (Shoftim 11:37). Avraham asked for nothing.
He then explains why the pasuk describes Yitzchak in three ways. They match the three loves of Shema, בְּכָל לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל נַפְשְׁךָ וּבְכָל מְאֹדֶךָ (Devarim 6:5). With all your heart: nothing is closer to a person’s heart than his children, so אֶת בִּנְךָ. With all your soul: an only child is a parent’s very life, so אֶת יְחִידְךָ. With all your possessions: you love him more than everything you own, so אֲשֶׁר אָהַבְתָּ. Hashem spelled out every level so Avraham would know: even though he is all of this to you, I still ask that you bring him up to Me. The Akeida was the whole Shema in one action.
Kli Yakar – A Hidden Love Made Visible
The Kli Yakar (Bereishit 22:12) takes up our second question directly. The word עַתָּה, “now,” does not cancel what came before it. The Torah says וְעַתָּה יִשְׂרָאֵל מָה ה’ אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ שֹׁאֵל מֵעִמָּךְ כִּי אִם לְיִרְאָה (Devarim 10:12), and Hashem certainly asked for yirah before that moment too. So “now I know” means “behold, I know.” Then he brings a second reading that goes deeper: יָדַעְתִּי כְּמוֹ הוֹדַעְתִּי, “I know” in the sense of “I have made known.” The purpose of the test was לְהָרִים דֶּגֶל נֵס, to raise a banner so that the nations would see the beauty of Avraham’s deeds. That is why the Torah says וְהָאֱ-לֹהִים נִסָּה, from the word נֵס, a banner that everyone can see.
The Kli Yakar explains this with a pasuk in Mishlei: טוֹבָה תּוֹכַחַת מְגֻלָּה מֵאַהֲבָה מְסֻתָּרֶת, an open rebuke is better than hidden love (Mishlei 27:5). When a person’s love for Hashem is great but hidden inside him, Hashem sends him an open test. When he accepts it with love, the love that was hidden becomes visible to everyone. The Akeida did not create Avraham’s love. It brought it out where the whole world could see it.
He adds a small detail from the previous pasuk (22:11). When the malach (angel) stops Avraham, he calls אַבְרָהָם אַבְרָהָם, twice, which is לְשׁוֹן חִבָּה, an expression of affection, while at the start of the Akeida he was called only once. Before the test, the Kli Yakar says, Avraham’s closeness to Hashem was not yet known to the world, because perhaps he would not stand up to this test. Once he showed his willingness to follow Hashem to the utmost level, it was seen by all, and so he is called twice. In his words: כִּי נִסָּיוֹן זֶה הָיָה לְתוֹעֶלֶת הַמְנֻסֶּה לְהוֹדִיעַ חִבָּתוֹ, the test served the one who was tested, by making his closeness to Hashem known. (This is the same point the Ramban made.)
Why Hashem Said “Please”
Now the small word na, “please,” makes sense. Hashem said “please” because the Akeida was not for Him. It was for Avraham, to turn a heart full of love into an action that completed his merit.
Many siddurim place the Akeida at the start of Shacharit, before the korbanot, with a request after it: כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּבַשׁ אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ אֶת רַחֲמָיו… כֵּן יִכְבְּשׁוּ רַחֲמֶיךָ אֶת כַּעַסְךָ מֵעָלֵינוּ, just as Avraham Avinu overcame his compassion for his only son, so may Your compassion overcome Your anger toward us. Rashi (22:14) brings the Midrash that Hashem “sees” this Akeida every year to forgive Yisrael and save them from trouble.
Haven’t we all had at least one time in our lives when we were tested at a new and seemingly inconceivable level? We can now see those events through the lens of Hashem’s tests, which measure our resolve and our faith in Him.
Chovot HaLevavot – Love Shown in Every Way
Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Pakuda, in Sha’ar Ahavat Hashem (the Gate of Love of Hashem) of Chovot HaLevavot, chapter 4, describes three levels of love. At the first level a person is ready to lose his money for the one he loves, but not his body or his life. At the second he will give up part of his body along with his money, as long as he expects to stay alive. At the third, money, body, and life itself all become light in his eyes.
He then writes: וּכְבָר מָצָאנוּ אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ ע״ה הֶרְאָה אַהֲבָתוֹ בֵּא-לֹהִים בְּכָל הַפָּנִים הִתְנַדְּבוֹ בְּמָמוֹנוֹ בְּגוּפוֹ וּבְנַפְשׁוֹ, we have already found that Avraham Avinu showed his love for Hashem at every one of these levels, giving freely of his wealth, his body, and his very life. First with his wealth, which he spent on travelers to teach them about the Creator, and in what he told the king of Sedom, אִם מִחוּט וְעַד שְׂרוֹךְ נַעַל, the very pasuk we learned last week. With his body, in the brit milah he carried out on himself and his household with joy and without delay. And with his life, in מָה שֶׁהֶרְאָה בְּעִנְיַן יִצְחָק מִן הַמְּהִירוּת וְהַחֲרִיצוּת, what he showed by the Akeida of Yitzchak, with speed and diligence. That proved אַהֲבָתוֹ הַזַּכָּה בֵּא-לֹהִים וּלְבָבוֹ הַנֶּאֱמָן בַּעֲבוֹדָתוֹ, his pure love of Hashem. This is the Or HaChaim’s “right now” seen from the inside. The third level, he adds, is הַמַּדְרֵגָה הָעֶלְיוֹנָה מִמַּדְרֵגוֹת הָאַהֲבָה בֵּא-לֹהִים, the highest of all the levels of love of Hashem, and it is beyond ordinary human ability, because nature pulls the other way. Where it is found in a rare individual, it is only with the Creator’s help against the yetzer.
May we be zocheh (merit) to stand up in our small tests the way Avraham Avinu stood up in his great one (we should never know from such a trial), and may the merit of our resolve in these tests protect us, as the Akeida continues to protect Klal Yisrael.
Shabbat Shalom,
Moshe
MarCheshvan 5787