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Essay
The Binding of Isaac: Event and Edifice
by
Yanki Tauber |
Thirty-seven
hundred years ago, a Jerusalem hilltop was the scene of one of the
most dramatic moments in human history. Centuries later, the event
assumed physical form in gold and stone
Thirty-seven hundred years ago, a Jerusalem hilltop was the scene
of one of the most dramatic moments in human history. There Abraham
built an altar, bound his son Isaac, and was prepared to offer him
as sacrifice to G-d. Three days earlier, G-d had spoken to Abraham
and commanded him: "Take your son, your only son whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah; and raise him as an offering atop
the mountain which I will tell you."[1]
G-d was testing Abraham, establishing the depth of the commitment
upon which the nation of Israel would be founded. No sooner had
Abraham arranged the firewood on the altar, taken the knife and
stretched out his hand to slaughter his son, than "an angel
of G-d called out to him from the heavens... 'Lay not your hand
upon the lad, neither do anything to him; for now I know that you
fear G-d, as you have not withheld your only child from Me... Thus
I shall bless you, and multiply your descendants as the stars of
the heaven, and as the sand that is at the shore of the sea...'
"[2]
Maimonides[3]
explains that the akeidah (the "binding [of Isaac]") served
to establish two key axioms of the Jewish faith:
a) the extent of man's capacity to love, fear and serve G-d;
b) the principle of "prophecy" - the fact that G-d communicates
His will to man.
By binding Isaac upon the altar, Abraham demonstrated that man is
capable of a love and awe of G-d that surpasses his every other
feeling or commitment. For what greater love is there than the love
of a parent for his child? What greater fear is there than a parent's
fear for the life of his child?[4]
With the akeidah, Abraham set his commitment to G-d above these
most basic truths of human nature, establishing it as the all-surpassing
consideration in the life of man.
Beyond the Most Unreasonable Doubt
The second truth established by the akeidah is the principle of
prophecy.
There are many levels and degrees of human communion with the divine,
from the scientist's contemplation of G-d's creation, to the Torah
sage whose interpretation and exposition of Torah is guided and
molded by divine inspiration (ruach hakodesh).[5]
Prophecy, however, is the ultimate divine communication - a revelation
that completely transcends the equivocality and subjectivity of
its human perceiver, so that its truth is absolute, incontestable
and immutable.
A fundamental principle of the Jewish faith is that G-d communicates
to man in this manner.
When Abraham was told to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to G-d, this
was contrary to everything Abraham was and stood for, contrary to
everything he knew and believed about G-d, and contrary to what
G-d Himself had said to him.
Abraham was the epitome of loving-kindness, of whom the divine attribute
of chessed (benevolence) said, "As long as he was around, there
was nothing for me to do, for he did my work in my stead";[6]
he knew and related to G-d as "the merciful and benevolent
One, slow to anger, great in kindness."[7]
The prohibition of taking a human life is one of the seven basic
laws of civilization communicated by G-d to Adam and Noah (the "Seven
Noachide Laws") which Abraham had been laboring for many decades
to instill in a world where murder and promiscuity were the staples
of religious worship. And G-d had promised Abraham that Isaac (unmarried
and childless at the time of the akeidah) would father a great nation
who would carry on Abraham's work of conveying the truth of the
One G-d to the world.
So when Abraham heard the words "Take your son... and raise
him as an offering," he had many reasons to doubt their divinity,
to surmise that not G-d but some malevolent voice had uttered them
in his soul's ears. Had his certainty that G-d had spoken them been
an iota less than absolute, he would not - indeed, could not - have
acted on them.
Thus, concludes Maimonides, the akeidah is the ultimate exemplar
of the principle of prophecy - that G-d communicates His will to
man in a manner that leaves no doubt as to its origin, meaning,
or manner of implementation.
The akeidah, then, was a double milestone in the history of man's
relationship with G-d. It set a new standard regarding the priority
that the love and awe of G-d can achieve in the life of man; and
it raised to unprecedented heights the absoluteness of G-d's
communication and self-revelation to man.
Altar and Ark
For many centuries, the event saturated the space and soil of Mount
Moriah. Then, in the year 2928 from creation (833 BCE), King Solomon
gave physical substance and form to the akeidah, erecting the Beit
Hamikdash (Holy Temple) on the very spot where Abraham had built
his altar and bound his son as a sacrifice to G-d.[8]
Solomon's Temple embodied the two principles implicit in the Binding
of Isaac: man's supreme commitment to G-d, and G-d's unequivocal
revelation of Himself to man.
The Beit Hamikdash was the center of the universe in all that regards
man's service of G-d. Here was the altar on which were brought the
daily and seasonal offerings in which every individual was a partner.
Here the farmer brought the first fruits to ripen in his orchard
and the shepherd brought the first-born of his flocks.[9]
If a person had a sin to atone for, a personal salvation to be thankful
for, a vow to fulfill, or the simple desire to contribute something
of his heart and fortune to the Almighty, he came to the Beit Hamikdash.
Today, when prayer has taken the place of the offerings, the Beit
Hamikdash remains the "gate of heaven"[10] toward which we thrice
daily direct our lips and hearts.
The Beit Hamikdash was also the center of the universe in all that
regards the revelation of G-dliness in our world.
Following the akeidah, Abraham named Mount Moriah Har Hashem Yeira'eh
("The Mountain on which G-d Shall Reveal Himself"),[11]
and from the Temple that Solomon built on the site "the divine
light emanated to the entire world."[12] This was G-d's "home,"
the place where He chose to house His manifest presence in the physical
world.[13]
Ten regularly occurring daily miracles attested to its divinity,[14]
and three times a year the entire nation made a pilgrimage to Mount
Moriah to "see and be seen by the face of the L-rd."[15]
At the heart of the Beit Hamikdash was the "Holy of Holies,"
the chamber that housed the "ark of testament" containing
the divine communication to man;[16] a place so suffused with the holiness
of G-d that it was "spaceless space" - not physical, not
metaphysical, but neither and both in one,[17]
reflecting G-d's simultaneous transcendence of, and immanence within,
the physical reality.
The Beit Hamikdash had two primary components, the altar and the
ark, each the axis of one of the Temple's two elementary functions.
The altar was the heart of the Temple's definition as "a chosen
house in which to serve G-d" and "a house for G-d in which
to offer the korbonot (sacrifices)."[18]
The ark, which was the sole object in the Holy of Holies, defined
the Beit Hamikdash as "the dwelling place of the divine presence,"
and "the place from which He spoke to Moses[19] and commanded the
children of Israel."[20] Here was the akeidah
incarnate in gold and stone.
Object and Actor
In his discussion of the laws pertaining to the construction of
the Beit Hamikdash, Maimonides twice repeats the fact that the altar
in the Holy Temple stood in the exact spot on which the akeidah
took place.
In his Mishneh Torah (Laws of the Holy Temple, 2:1) Maimonides writes:
"The location of the altar is very exactly defined, and is
never to be changed... Isaac was bound on [the site of] the Holy
Temple."
The following halachah (ibid. 2:2) reads: "It is a commonly-held
tradition that the place where David and Solomon[21] built the altar [of
the Holy Temple]... is the very place where Abraham built [his]
altar and bound Isaac upon it..."
Maimonides' codification of Torah law is known for its concise and
exact language, which begs the question: Why does Maimonides repeat
himself, and in two consecutive halachot at that?
But upon closer examination we find a couple of significant differences
between the two statements.
In the first halachah, the akeidah is described in terms of the
fact that "Isaac was bound"; in the second halachah, the
emphasis is on Abraham's deed - the specialty of the site being
that it "is the very place where Abraham built [his] altar
and bound Isaac upon it."
Another difference is that despite the fact that the first halachah
begins by speaking of the location of the altar, it concludes with
the general statement that "Isaac was bound in the Holy Temple"[22];
only in the second halachah is specific mention made that the akeidah
took place precisely where the Holy Temple's altar was located.
These differences reflect the two distinct elements in the akeidah
and Beit Hamikdash: their role as vehicles of divine revelation
and as monuments of man's commitment to G-d.
The first halachah relates to the element of "divine revelation,"
which is a product of the event of the akeidah - the fact that Isaac
was bound as a offering to G-d; the second halachah alludes to the
tremendous love and awe of G-d implicit in Abraham's deed.[23]
Thus, the revelation of G-dliness derives primarily from the object
of the akeidah (Isaac), while the service of G-d it exemplifies
derives from the actor of the akeidah (Abraham).
Accordingly, the first halachah relates not to the altar per se,
which is the hub of the "divine service" dimension of
the Temple, but to the altar as a component of the "other"
Beit Hamikdash - the Temple as revealer of the divine, centered
on the ark and the Holy of Holies.
In the second halachah, it is significant that Abraham bound his
son on the site of the future altar, destined to embody the human
commitment in the relationship between man and G-d.
Based on the Rebbe's talks on various occasions[24]
Reprinted from The Week In Review Vol VIII No 8
[3] Guide for the Perplexed, part III, ch.
24.
[4] Thus Abraham's demonstration of faith
far exceeds that of Isaac, for the sacrifice asked of Abraham
"has no compare, not in the giving up of wealth, nor in the
giving up of [one's own] life, but is the ultimate of all possible
sacrifices; one can not even conceive that human nature would
acquiesce to such a thing"
(ibid.).
[5] It is said in the name of the Baal Shem
Tov that the works of the Torah authorities of all generations
up to, and including, the Maharsha, (1555-1631) were written with
ruach hakodesh.
[6] Sefer HaBahir, cited in Pardes, portal
22, ch. 4.
[8] Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Holy Temple,
2:1-2 (see below). 9 . Bikkurim (Deuteronomy 26:1-11).
[9] Bechorot (ibid., 15:19-20).
[11] Ibid., 22:14, as per Rashi (see note
16 below).
[12] Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 4:5. Thus
while windows set in thick stone walls are built narrow on the
outside and broad on the inside in order the maximize the amount
of light coming into the room, the windows of the Holy Temple
were constructed the other way around - narrow on the inside and
broad on the outside - to express the idea that it is a source
of luminescence to the world, rather than its recipient (Rashi,
I Kings 6:4).
[13] Exodus 25:8; I Kings 8:13; et al.
[14] Ethics of the Fathers 5:5.
[15] Exodus 23:17. According to the Talmud
(Chagigah 2a), the word yud, resh, alef and heh - in this verse
is to be read both as yir'eh (see) and yeira'eh (be seen), as
in Genesis 22:14, cited above. Indeed, the Talmud's basis for
this interpretation is the verse in Genesis (Yad Ramah on Talmud,
Sanhedrin 4b), further emphasizing the correlation between the
"revelation" of the akeidah and the "revelation"
of the Temple (see also Kli Yakar on Genesis 2 2:14).
[17] The Holy of Holies measured twenty
cubits (approx. 30 feet) by twenty cubits. In its center stood
the ark, also of a specified size ("two cubits and a half
should be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit
and a half its height" - Exodus 25:10). Nevertheless, the
ark did not occupy any of the space of the chamber that housed
it, so that the distance from each of the ark's outer walls to
the interior walls of the Holy of Holies was ten cubits. In the
words of the Talmud (Yoma 2 1a), "The area of the Ark was
not part of the measurement." This was more than mere transcendence
of the physical: the ark did possess physical area (indeed, its
spatial dimensions were prescribed by law and integral to its
status as a holy object), yet at the same time, it did not occupy
any of the area of the Holy of Holies. Thus it demonstrated the
truth that G-d simultaneously transcends and pervades the parameters
of His creation.
[18] Maimonides (Book of Mitzvot, positive
mitzvah #20; Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Holy Temple, 1:1).
[19] The ark held the two tablets on which
G-d had inscribed the Ten Commandments, as well as a Torah scroll
written by Moses. In the Mishkan (the temporary and portable forerunner
of the Beit Hamikdash that served the people of Israel during
their journey in the desert), Moses would hear the divine voice
issuing from atop the ark (Exodus 25:22, et al).
[20] Nachmanides' commentary to Exodus 25:1.
The question as to which of these two aspects of the Beit Hamikdash
is the more basic one is a subject of dispute between these two
great sages: Maimonides emphasizes the altar and man's service
of G-d, while Nachmanides sees the ark and divine revelation as
the more fundamental element.
[21] King David dug the foundations of the
altar.
[22] In certain editions of Mishneh Torah
there is a gloss that suggests that the word bamikdash ("In
the Holy Temple") should be amended to "in the place
of the altar." The Yaavetz, however, rejects this suggestion,
maintaining "Rabbi Moses [Maimonides]' wording is extremely
exact" and that the author of this gloss "simply did
not understand its meaning."
[24] Likkutei Sichot, vol. XXX, pp. 68-75;
ibid., vol. XI, pp. 116-126.
Reprinted with permission from The
Week In Review
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