As is brought
down in Talmud Yerushalmi (Ta’anit Chapter two), HaShem told Avraham Avinu: you
saw the ram trying to untangle his horns from the thicket – but in the end he arrived
on the altar, the purpose for which he was ultimately created. Just like this ram tried hither and there to
become free – your offspring will go through many trials and tribulations,
which they will have to contend with but ultimately they will be freed from all
of them.
So here we
have the remedy to the Jewish people’s problems – all the way back since
creation.
Yitzchok ran
to his father (See 9 in
the References Appendix) but when he realised that there’s no lamb coming up
with them, all his limbs were shaking.
He strengthened himself and stoically joined his father in fulfilling
his G-Dly mission –as is alluded to in the repeated verse “and they both went
together”.
Question:
Yitzchok only died once but throughout the long Jewish history many people
lived Al Kiddush HaShem like the Hasmoneans, Marranos Cantonists, Refuseniks,
to name but a few?
Yitzchok’s
resolve in face of such as test, resulted in his having sacrifice seared into
their DNA; his progeny became infused with a strength of faith when all
throughout the generations we have to face the impossible choice between living
a dead faith or dying Al Kiddush haShem.
The wood
Avraham took
with him wood, as is clearly written that he chopped wood. When they arrived at the foot of the
mountain, Avraham took the wood off the ass’s back and placed it on his son’s
shoulders. The Midrash quips “like the
man on death row carrying the crucifix on his shoulder” (Rabbah Bereishis
Chapter 56).
Ma-acheles
A knife – as
we can see that he threw his arm to grab hold of the Ma-acheles.
The Midrash
says that the word “Ma-acheles” is not mentioned anywhere else in the
Torah. Why then was the word “Sakin” not
used? They answer that this alludes to the merit that we the Jewish people have
since the time when Avraham Avinu wanted to slaughter his son as an up offering
to HaShem. The word Ma-acheles is etymologically
connected to the word “Ma-achal” = food, as if we ‘eat’ from this merit up
until this day (Rabbah Bereishis Chapter 56).
Where did the
fire come from?
The journey to
the Akeyda:
The Soton
accosted them on the way to Har HaMoriyoh and first tried to talk to him, then
to his son and then put a number of obstacles in their way to stop them from
reaching their destination
Finding the
place - וירא את המקום מרחוק:
HaShem said to
Avraham “go to the place that I will show you”; when you will see my Holy
Presence = Shechinah, this will be your sign where to go to. Avrohom Avinu saw a cloud on top of one of
the mountains, which wasn’t visible to the two servants Eliezer and Yishmael.
Apparently, the cloud resulted from the smoke that rose from a fire that was
burning there ([i])
How to
delegate
Rabbi
Yechezkel Abramsky ZTz”L explains why Avrohom Ovinu placed the wood on
Yitzchok’s shoulders, whilst he himself took the fire and the knife. Avrohom Ovinu felt that his responsibility to
carry out HaShem’s directive would be diminished (?) if he let Yitzchok carry
the fire and the knife – the two items that weren’t readily available on the
mountain. There was plenty of wood, so
even if Yitzchak misplaces it, they’ll be able to procure replacement wood
locally.
מזבח
עליו הקריב אדם הראשון
Avraham built
the altar, as is written “Vayiven es HaMizbe-ach” – again we can see the letter
Heh preceding the word Mizbe-ach, to allude that this altar is the one which is
famous from before. Odom horishon
offered his Atonement on this Mizbe-ach.
It seems that over time the Mizbe-ach fell into disrepair and therefore
Avraham had to re-build it (Bavli Sanhedrin 38/2).
Kayin and
Hevel also offered their presents to HaShem on the same Altar, as did Noah
after the flood. He would have travelled
all the way from the Kurdish mountains to Yerusholayim, a distance of about
1,600km…
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