Vayera

Dealing with Temptation - Gideon Sylvester

Gideon Sylvester is Adviser to the Minister for Israeli Society & the World Jewish Community, and rabbi of Tribe Israel.

When I was training to be a rabbi, my teacher, Rabbi Kruger warned us about the dangers of the job. He suggested that one of the most difficult aspects of the profession is that whilst your role is to act as a role model and to set the highest standards, you know that you too will also be tempted to do the wrong thing sometimes, making it hard to act as a genuine religious leader.

Our Sedra is about the ultimate religious idealist. According to the Midrash (traditional rabbinic narrative), Abraham carefully examined every religion until he determined that monotheism was correct. Having determined his path, he followed God with total dedication on a long and difficult journey. This week, we meet him at the ultimate trial of his commitment: the Akeda (the binding of Isaac).

The imagery is awesome. A father committed to killing his son for the sake of God, a young man willing to die at his father's hands for the sake of his beliefs. Abraham is super human; a man who is willing to make sacrifices which are beyond our comprehension. Yet, in its enormous power, the Akeda may seem very distant from us. How can a figure so distant from our own reality serve as our role model?

The Midrash offers a different and intriguing perspective. It describes the three day journey that Abraham and Isaac undertook on their way to the Akeda and the thoughts that entered their minds. It paints for us a complex picture in which both characters struggled with what they were about to do. Abraham considered the possibility that perhaps God did not want him to carry out the Akeda and would charge him with murder the next day. Even if the Akeda was God's intention, he wondered whether it would be the end of his trials or whether there would be another, yet more difficult test to follow. Would he ever satisfy God's requirements or should he give up trying?

The Midrash then shows us how Isaac also pondered the fate that awaited him. It describes how he considered whether his father was not answering the call of God but the call of insanity. Then in a stunning touch the Midrash suggests that Isaac wondered whether it was appropriate to go through with the Akeda since if he died his beautiful clothes would all be passed to his arch rival; his brother, Yishmael.

I love these Midrashim because they recognize the humanity of our ancestors. The Midrash suggests that at the moment when Isaac finally spoke to his father, he was on the brink of succumbing to his temptation to call off the whole thing. Jewish tradition is under no illusions that religious life is easy. On the contrary, our rabbis stated that the greater the person the stronger their temptation to do wrong. Abraham and Isaac were not robots or angels who performed God's will automatically. They were people of profound sensitivity, who thought about their actions and struggled with moral quandaries and personal agendas.

What makes our ancestors heroes is that despite the temptations, they still managed to hear and fulfill the divine call. Those are the marks of true religious leadership, but they are also the challenge for every Jew.