To all my brothers and sisters:
First, Happy New Year to you and your entire family.
I have listened to the same reading from the Torah on Rosh Hashanah every year, but I never felt that the interpretation of the “Binding of Issac” rang true for me.
Here are my thoughts, and I encourage your response.
There are three significant clues to the meaning of the section, traditionally titled “The Binding of Isaac”. The first clue is in the title. The title is not “Abraham’s obedience” or “God’s Test”. The title centers on Isaac. This section is not about Abraham; nor is it about the test or sacrifice, it is instead about Isaac.
The second clue is the opening line of the section: “After those things had passed, God spoke to Abraham...” This sentence refers to the preceding Torah portion and attaches that section to this one by including it in the same sentence as the conversation with God. Why? The preceding section speaks about an event concerning Abraham’s other wife, Hagar, with whom he had a son, Ishmael. Sarah has ordered Abraham to exile Hagar and Ishmael and Abraham has done that, sending them off a little water and food. The section describes that Hagar, believes she is going to lose her son to starvation and thirst and leaves him under a bush “a bowshot” away from her. She assumes that the boy will die, but God intercedes, and the boy is saved. The fact that this event is directly linked to the section in Genesis 22 and included in the sentence introducing the section directly implies that the two events should be viewed together.
The final clue is in the concluding paragraph of the section. It is true that this section includes the birth of Rebecca, Isaac’s future wife, but for me the section is far too extensive than acting as a screen for hiding that fact. The end of the section is a harvest of the first bloom that God has promised, the beginnings of the creation of a great people. And this cannot be true until AFTER the events of the section preceding it.
Taken together what can we learn from these clues?
The section is all about Isaac, it is how God saves HIS life and commits to the formation of a great people, much as he saves Ishmael and commits to the formation of a great lineage from him.
So, we can best understand this section of the Torah as a “transferal”.
Until then, Abraham is the committed believer in a single, all-powerful God. I am sure that we can assume that he has taught his beliefs to his son(s), but we also know how lessons taught to our children are often received but not internalized.
The issue for any new religion is: How will that religion continue after the death of the founder? If Abraham dies, how can we be sure that Isaac will follow his father’s beliefs? The transition from a single believer to the next generation is extraordinarily difficult. To convert Isaac from a passive acceptor of his father’s belief system to an active adherent, there needs to be a dramatic event that will cement that conversion. This is the binding and “staged” sacrifice of Isaac. Consistent with the words from Abraham to his servants that he and Isaac are going by themselves up the mount, and “we will return”. Abraham knew that they would return.
Only AFTER the conversion of Isaac to an understanding of the power of God and the covenant with his father, only after that event can the beginning of the story of a “people” begin, and that is why the final paragraph begins that story. This is consistent with the fact that after the binding event (binding Isaac to the belief in God) Isaac leaves Abraham to set off on his own life and Abraham, having uncaged the bird, settles down to rest in Beer Sheba. Isaac, no longer needing lessons from his father, enters the next chapter of his life and the beginning of the new generation.
In parallel, Ishmael is saved by God, and it is only after THAT event and demonstration that his “people” can begin.
For me, this entire portion is read because it is the actual beginning of the Jewish people. What could have died with Abraham has now been successfully transferred to the next generation, and the implications of that creation are evidenced by the concluding paragraphs.
The inclusion of this Torah section at the point in the year in which we focus ourselves on the beginning of the next year (I do understand that this is not “officially” the New Year) is particularly appropriate as it emphasizes the recommitment to God and the personal transfer of last year’s beliefs to this year’s goals.