Derasha
No parent has an easy time with the Akeida. I find that, over the years, I speak about it less. But it is foundational, the basis of all of our worship, so delve into it we must.
At the end of the Akeida, Hashem says, “now I know that you fear Elokim.” That’s what it was about -- fear. And we built the Beis HaMikdash on this spot because of this.
But R’ Moshe Hauer, the head of the OU, asked a question about this when he visited here four years ago. If you want fear, he pointed out, there is another place in the Parasha: Sdom. That’s where real fear takes hold. There is no more frightening episode -- that is where Hashem’s wrath flashed with a vengeance. If what you want is fear, R’ Hauer said, the Beis HaMikdash should be built by the side of the Dead Sea.
What was the fear in the Akeida? It is tempting to say that being afraid is what drove Avraham to embark on this journey. That’s how popular culture sees it -- like Bob Dylan sang,
G-d say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
Next time you see me comin', you better run"
Abe said, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
G-d said, "Out on Highway 61"
But if it’s that type of fear, then, again, Sdom should be the source. It must be that this fear is not about being scared. For a child, there is such a phase. But that’s not for an adult. Sometimes the more developed fear of an adult is called “awe.” That too is hard to comprehend practically.
I had a friend for decades who passed away a couple of years ago. HIs name was R’ Mattisyahu Rosenblum, z’l. He was the salutatorian of my class at Yale, whip smart and wickedly funny. He used to joke that he was probably the only secular Jew in history to become observant because of fear of divine punishment. He enjoyed Shabbat as much as the next guy, and looked forward to establishing a family. But, he said with more than a touch of seriousness, it was fear of Gehinnom that made the breath catch in his throat.
But that kind of visceral fear was not the full measure of what was contained in his joke. What he really possessed was a natural reticence, a reticence about claiming he knew more than he knew, or was any more sure than was absolutely justified. It fueled a Bakashas Haemes, a search for truth, that pushed him to work harder and harder to refine his understanding. This is a fear which I would translate as a very healthy respect, a sincere deference, for Hashem and His Torah. What flowed from this was a respect for precise approximations of truth, because that is the stamp of Hashem. It also meant a ready willingness to admit when one did not know, and a resulting reluctance to say too much. (R’ Rosenblum has a book of brilliant essays, published posthumously, called Rays of Wisdom (Eshel Publications), which is more than 500 pages long. How he came to express that much is a story for another day.)
The Ramban says in the Chumash that positive commandments draw on one’s love of Hashem. Fear, on the other hand, is expressed in refraining from something. When one is pursuing an activity, it is never clear if one is obeying someone else or following one’s own sense. It is in refraining from what one would want to do that one expresses the type of fear I’m talking about.
Where does Avraham pull back? The angel who calls off the offering of Yitzchok at the last moment says, Al Tishlach Yadcha, V’al Ta’as Lo M’uma -- do not send forth your hand and don’t do anything to him. The first statement stops Avraham from doing anything. But what prompts the second statement? Rashi says that the second statement is aimed at what Avraham wanted to do -- to shed just some of Yitzchok’s blood. He wanted to show that he had not come to the mountain in vain. In obeying that command, in holding back, he showed his ability to surrender his intellect.
The word Nisayon, or “test,” shares the root for Ness, or “flag.” Avraham Avinu’s tests are a flag to the world. They show off for all to see the potential to surrender to something wiser and more comprehensive, if at times inscrutable.
The reason we built the Beit HaMikdash in Yerushalayim and not in Sdom is because that is where this act of surrender took place. It belongs in the place where Avraham conceded that he did not understand, but that he could not presume to substitute his understanding or his will for Hashem’s.
