Chabad Jewish Center of Laguna Niguel

This week’s Torah portion, Vayeira, relates the story of the akeida,the Binding of Isaac. G-d said to Abraham, “Please take your son… and offer him there for a burnt offering.”

Abraham was tested by G-d ten times throughout his life. The akeida constituted the tenth and final test. 

The Talmud explains that G-d’s request was an entreaty — “Please take your son” — to express His wish that Abraham withstand the trial. “I have tried you many times, and each time you passed the test,” G-d said. “Would that you pass this test as well, that people not say the first ones were without substance.” 

Why was it so important for Abraham to pass the final test, and how would his failure to do so have invalidated the success of the previous nine? The akeida was certainly the most difficult trial, but even had Abraham not withstood it, why would the previous ones have been considered to be in vain? 

Another question: The first test was when Abraham was thrown into the fiery furnace after destroying his father’s idols. Wasn’t this test just as critical as the tenth one? 

The answer is: Sometimes, when a Jew is willing to give up his life for the sake of G-d, it is hard to distinguish if he is doing so solely because G-d wants him to, or because he himself understands that an act of self-sacrifice is required. 

For example, the argument could be made that because Abraham understood the necessity of spreading awareness of the one G-d throughout the world, he was willing to allow himself to be burned. In other words, self-sacrifice was a logical conclusion, arrived at by Abraham’s own intellect. 

The trial of the akeida, however, was entirely different. Withstanding the trial would not result in the public recognition of G-d’s Name, as no one else was present except for Abraham and Isaac. On the contrary, G-d’s request seemed to defy logic. Abraham wanted his son to continue spreading the belief in G-d after he was gone, yet here G-d was asking him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering! If Isaac were sacrificed, who would be left to continue his path? 

Thus the akeida constituted a test of Abraham’s willingness for self- sacrifice in a situation in which his own intellect led him to the opposite conclusion. His ability to withstand the tenth test thereby demonstrated that the first nine were not in vain, as it proved that he had acted out of love of G-d and not merely because his intellect compelled him to obey. 

This contains a lesson for each of us, Abraham’s descendents, in how to serve G-d. Rabbi Shneur Zalman writes: “It is good to recite the chapter of the akeida each day… in order to subjugate the [evil] inclination and serve G-d.” The power to do so comes to us from Abraham, the first to show us how. 

Shabbat Shalom, 
Rabbi Mendy Paltiel