The Binding of Isaac: The Whole Story Doesn't Make Sense - until now

every story in torah is a heavenly message not a bit of gossip or local news you know in mesopotamia or something hey how are things in mesopotamia every story in torah is a divine revelation god had to come down to mount sinai and tell us that story and have moshe write it down forever for all time to come so you get your first impression of the story stop and think where is the godliness my impression can't be the whole story so let's take a look at the story of the binding of isaac akida first of all it's very interesting that it is called the binding of isaac shouldn't it be called the test of abraham it's not about isaac the story is about abraham this is showing the greatness of avraham why do we call it akidas yitzhak that's got to tell you something so let's take a look at the story here's how it reads god tested abraham and he called to him and he said take your son your only son your beloved son yitzhak and bring him up as a sacrifice on the mountain that i will show you he gets up early in the morning and he goes off to do what god asked in the last moment he's already got yitzhak on the altar and he's about to sacrifice him and the angel comes and says don't do it because now it is known you have now revealed how god-fearing you are and that's all that needed to happen just testing what is what what what what feeling you come away with from that story well first of all poor avrom what did god put him through that for just testing and then poor yitzhak he was 37 years old he was not naive he must have known at least at some point in this in the event he must have known that that's what was going to be happening did he cooperate did he resist was he part of that test so first of all if god is testing avraham why involve yitzhak i mean this must have been quite a traumatic experience for yitzhak why involve him say well god needed to test avraham so yitzhak had to be no nobody is a victim of somebody else's test and what does testing mean what is that seems so cruel and unnecessary did god not know how devoted avraham was did he not know that avraham would obey whatever he tells him he had to test him to find out we're talking about god so if you just read the story you walk away thinking wow what's with what's with avraham he doesn't even plead for yitzchak's life he pleads for the evil people of saddam he doesn't plead for yitzhak what did you do he was a good boy okay so let's look at the rest of the story firstly in those days sacrificing your children was coming because it was believed with some justification that being on earth being human was not was not the most fun thing to do and if you could get to heaven that would be better so they believed in human sacrifices they didn't sacrifice the worst kid on the block this was not euthanasia they sacrificed the best the firstborn the most innocent because sacrificing a child meant send the child back to heaven and that was seen as a blessing in fact the other children who were not chosen to be the sacrifice must have felt a little uh [Music] a little insulted am i not good enough how does god impress on the world that human sacrifice is a terrible idea so look at the drama that god used to make that point he tested avraham meaning to say he didn't tell him up front what was going to happen not because he needed to prove something or or to find out how devoted avraham really was not at all he knew how devoted he was but he needed to make this point and there was no event that sinai going to happen for another hundreds of years 400 years so how is he going to make this statement dramatically so he tells avraham go ahead yitzhak is wonderful he deserves to come back to heaven and of course avraham goes to do it and then god says don't you dare do that don't even touch your kid human sacrifices totally unacceptable boy that made an impression both on avraham and on yatrak and since they were the moral teachers of the world at that time the word got out no human sacrifices after that anyone who did perform a human sacrifice of any nation in the world was held responsible and punishable because it was well known that that is idolatry it's not god's way of thinking so that's just the technical uh historical context so why didn't avraham plead for yitzhak why plead that he shouldn't go to heaven it's not like the people of saddam they were being punished and destroyed they were not going to heaven yitzhak was going straight to heaven what was he going to argue about in fact maybe avraham had this little thought about you know how come not me i don't get to go to heaven but let's go a little deeper than that in order to reveal the godliness that avraham embodied you had to see [Music] something greater something more divine than a very nice personality avraham was well known for being a wonderful guy very hospitable in fact when he was recovering from his circumcision at 99 years old what bothered him was that no guests were coming so he sat by the door hoping somebody would come by and need a little help and need some food so god sent three angels to appear as human beings so that avraham could practice his kindness so everybody knew of rom to be a man of kindness the epitome of kindness the embodiment of kindness [Music] and so he served god out of kindness that didn't really reveal the godliness of it because good is good it's not godly so everybody knew him as a good guy but how was his godliness going to be revealed so god asks him to do something that is the diametrically opposed to the nature of kindness sacrifice your son when avraham was ready to do that which i mean in human terms that would be so uncharacteristic of him that would be so out of his norm out of his personality out of his values out of his comfort zone if he could do that with the same devotion with the same enthusiasm that he did kindness then we know that his kindness is a divine kindness and when when necessary for divine purposes he can be the opposite of kind as well so that tells us something about godliness in the human being a very very good person is not a godly person just happens to be of the finer type a superior human being but a human being god wanted to reveal to the world that avraham was more than just a nice guy and that when you devote yourself to god you transcend your personality your characteristics the first time god spoke to avraham what was the first thing he said then he said leave your birthplace leave your home leave your father's house what does that tell you transcend yourself you're a great person he was 75 years old when god spoke to him for the first time and he was already a great person but he was a person so now god comes to him and says you got to be more than that so leave your nature your birth habits your father's influence the nurturing that you got transcend it all and be godly so the ultimate expression of that was when avraham showed an enthusiasm for anything that god would expect of him whether it fit his personality or not more than that whether it fit his philosophy or not i think it's safe to say that avraham was not in favor of human sacrifices kindest man in the world would not be into human sacrifices so when avraham was ready to perform that that mitzvah that commandment it was because his personality imposed no limits on his devotion to god so we have a very important lesson here most people think that you have to be a good human being right let's start at the beginning first you got to be a real mensch you got to be a real decent upstanding uh get your head on right have have it all figured out then you can serve god if you believe in it or want but you got to be a mensch so if god comes along and tells you something that goes against your beliefs against your values you should protest here's here's an important principle that you may not hear anywhere else when avraham protested defended the evil wicked people of saddam we get the impression and people actually speak of it this way even some teachers avraham was a decent guy and he was upset that god wasn't being decent enough some rabbis even suggest that that is the essence of judaism the essence of judaism is to hold god responsible when he is misbehaving how do we know he's misbehaving because we don't agree with what he's saying really that's terribly terribly wrong-minded we are not more moral than god and we don't preach to him that's absurd so why did avraham protest the rest of the story god comes to avraham and says i'm going to destroy the people of saddam because they are exceedingly evil and avraham must have thought why are you telling me this you know do your thing you're god don't need my permission why why did god tell avraham that he's going to destroy the city of sudo avraham took that as a divine message god is telling me this so that i would defend them to the best of of my ability so that their guilty verdict would be clear you know due process and all of that in other words avraham argued because he knew that that's what god expected of him that makes it much greater every time we protest why do the righteous suffer why was there a holocaust are we are we justified in questioning god's justice we're not questioning we are doing exactly what god expects us to do and wants us to do and that is if we don't see the justice demand to see the justice it's not enough to believe that god knows what he's doing how do you live with what you think is evil just get used to it get jaded suffer silently what are you supposed to do with that yes i believe that god knows what he's doing i don't see the justice so there's there's like a little catch 22 here if i let it go i'm becoming insensitive and callous if i don't let it go i'm a heretic how does this work am i allowed to complain no you're not allowed to complain you're obligated to complain because you're not supposed to become callous and you're not supposed to become comfortable with what looks like injustice or even pain you should not be getting comfortable with people's pain even if it's just like the balchemter before he would slaughter a chicken to make it kosher he would wet the stone by sharpening the knife he would wet the stone with his tears so sad that the world works this way that to feed a human an animal needs to die so yes it's justified but no pain doesn't bother you that's why the ritual slaughterers in in jewish tradition had to be more sensitive more pious than the rabbi of the city because he could so easily become callous okay so the rest of the story take it a step further it was a test torah says it was a test what was the test for avraham what was the difficulty partying with his son waited a long time for that son but there's something even more more of a test and that is god told them that he would have grandchildren many many grandchildren from yitzhak the jewish people now god says sacrifice yitzhak and he's not married yet is that not confusing not confusing to a human being god's message god tells him he's going to have grandchildren from yitzchak and then god tells him to sacrifice him before he's married so it's not that we expected avraham to refuse to resist to argue against it didn't expect that at all avraham was a truly devoted servant of god and what god said would would not be questioned at all but god is contradicting himself so even without any selfish thoughts i want my son i want my future whatever it is even without that as selfless as avraham was was he not confused how did he handle this contradiction here we have a lesson on what it means to have faith it was avraham's faith that was being tested not his selflessness what was he thinking as he went to sacrifice his son now could be if he was human merely human he was thinking uh i don't know god promised me grandchildren but i guess nah not gonna happen so why did he promise me i don't know that would have been a human almost unavoidable conclusion not gonna have grandchildren so what am i gonna do with god's promise of grandchildren you know what can i do but that's not what he thought he went to sacrifice yitzhak knowing that he is going to have grandchildren from yitzchak how is that going to work that was not his problem if god says you're going to have grandchildren from yitzchak and god says sacrifice yitzhak both will come true how i don't need to figure that out god will god will make it happen you see that's what faith means faith means that you trust in what is supposed to happen even when it looks completely naturally impossible impossible so imagine if avraham thought the other way so i guess i won't have children do you see how nature dictates his thinking i mean nature is pretty awesome but it's not god so his thinking would have been you know if you sacrifice your son you're not gonna have grandchildren that's one of the laws of nature so if he had come away thinking that it would have prove it would have shown that he is a human being but one of the better nicer human beings his faith was such that as he was going to sacrifice yitzhak he was looking forward to the grandchildren but how is that possible well you're talking about god god runs the world not the laws of nature it probably helped that the birth of yitzhak was a miracle in the first place you know this whole thing is miraculous why stop now there was no way yitzhak could have been born but he was there's no way you can have children from a child from your grandchildren from a child who's no longer alive but who's to say what god can't do that's real faith that's real greatness one final thought i was curious about how would like [Music] i mean joshua was moshe's student what did he think of moshe it's fascinating to know what do very holy people think about very holy people you know we have no idea we can't imagine what it is aaron was very holy miriam was very holy mosha's brother and sister and they criticized moshe and god was upset their criticism was we're all holy why is moshe different why does he act different and god came to them and said don't start up with moshe he is different so it's fascinating to think how do very holy people look at very holy people what do they see what are they impressed with and so on the previous ones i think i think i read it or heard it but the previous rebbe made this observation the great thing about avraham was that when god said sacrifice your son he didn't ask whether he heard correctly you imagine god comes to you and says sacrifice your son is a did you say what i think you just said just checking i mean yeah fine i'll do it if i just want to make sure that that's what you said in other words how how clear how unmistakable was god's voice when he spoke to avraham that's a degree of prophecy many prophets received their prophecy in a vision that they had to interpret not the greatest prophecy when they interpreted it correctly it was recorded in the torah god approved say yeah you got that right to one prophet god said what do you see he described what he saw and god said you see well you got it right but with avraham he didn't even have to ask can you repeat that let me see did i get this right you said sacrifice my son he didn't have to do that in other words he didn't doubt his own perception now that is a very godly person how are you you know i do a lot of talking a lot of zooming many classes many subjects but that's all formal stuff hopefully good stuff but formal we also have a wednesday night meeting that's more informal and kind of um hamish if you want to join us for that kind of an event interactive time for questions and so on if you want to join us for this side of conversation click on the link below and join us every wednesday night at nine o'clock well maybe not every wednesday night but we try to make it every wednesday night at nine o'clock a more informal chat which can be more enjoyable at times than the formal stuff so check it out click on the link and join us try it you'll like it [Music] you

Channel: Rabbi Manis Friedman

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Length: 29min 40sec (1780 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 22 2020