After Rabbi Schacter's talk last week, Ayala Carl and I had a conversation in which she advanced the theory that Avraham had failed the nisayon of the akeida, in that he should have refused to slaughter Yitzchak. I responded that while I don't find it convincing (difficult from both a peshat and hashkafa perspective), I recalled that a prominent Rabbi had made the argument and that she was in good company.
In responding to Mrs. Herzog's question I (re)discovered that Rabbi Shlomo Riskin was the one who argued that Avraham failed, and Rabbi Mayer was also unconvinced (see below).
So what do you think? Did Avraham pass the ultimate (or penultimate) test? Do you agree with me & Rabbi Mayer or Rabbi Riskin and Ayala?
1 comment:
Rabbi Riskin and Ayala have a strong point: Avraham refused to let the people of Sdom be killed without first talking out their case with Hashem and yet his son he was willing to sacrifice in pure dedication to Hashem? What does that mean?
Rabbi Sacks puts a spin on this point in "To Heal a Fractured World". He says Hashem's point here is that Avraham NOT sacrifice Yitzchak. As opposed to other nations that thought sacrificing your son to the gods made sense, Hashem says, "Do not do molech" "do not serve me by killing your offspring". "Serve me," G-d says, "by having your offspring live."
Avraham, in doing everything short of the slaughtering of Yitzchak, showed he would do whatever Hashem would tell him but Hashem would not ever tell him or want him to actually kill Yitzchak.
I think this reframing is interesting, though, like R' Besser's issue with the failure interpretation, I'm not sure how straightforward it is in the text.
Post a Comment