Vayera

Adam Overlander-Kaye

This week's Torah portion, Vayera, is a fascinating parasha – full of well known and interesting narratives such as the "argument"  between God and Avraham over the righteous of S’dom and Amorah, and that of Lot and his daughters. However it is probably known best for containing Akeidat Yitzchak, the Binding of Isaac, and rightly so. This tale of faith/passion/belief/attempted murder/ deceit is one that has challenged, fascinated, disturbed and excited all those who have read it and re-read it. The commentators, both modern and classical have a wide range of opinions and thoughts on the parasha, its meaning and relevance.

In addition, coming at this time of year when we remember the actual murder of another Yitzchak, the late Prime Minister, Yitzchak Rabin z’l, the parasha allows us another layer of meaning, conversation and learning.

But for now I'd like to draw our attention to what happened on the mountain to Isaac. Not what happened during the Akeidah, not how Isaac may have felt as he was bound by his father, or what thoughts must have entered his mind as he saw the knife, but what happened afterwards, once the angel has appeared and the ram saves the day (we’ll come to the ram at the end of this!).

We are told in Bereishit 22:5-6 that: "The boy and i will go up there; we will worship and we will return to you... And both of them went together." We know what happens during the next few verses, but then Avraham alone returns to his servants (Bereishit 22:19). So what happened to Isaac?

It might not be that surprising that father and son need some space after the events that have just taken place. You cannot really imagine there being an easy, pleasant conversation taking place if they were to go back down the mountain together... "So, you got any plans this evening son?" "Nothing really ... maybe I’ll see if there are any psychologists in Beer Sheva. You?" Their relationship is fundamentally changed forever, it has to be. We know that Avraham journeys on to Beer Sheva, but Isaac?

The commentators are divided. However, below is a selection of opinions that I think shows the creativity and insightfulness of our tradition and I hope allows you to study and learn. Enjoy...

Rabbi Berekiah reported in the name of the masters there that (immediately after the Akeidah) Isaac’s father had sent him off to study with Shem... In the same way Abraham said to himself: 'Everything I gained only because I engaged in the study of Torah and in carrying out God’s commandments. That is why I do not want such practice  to leave my seed.' Thereafter Isaac passed three years in the Great Study House of Shem and Ever. (Genesis Rabbah 22:19)

Isaac's father had sent him home to Hebron by another route to bring the glad tidings to Sarah and to relieve her of her sorrow. (Abarbanel Gen 22:19)

And Isaac, where was he? The Holy One, blessed be He, brought him into the Garden of Eden, and there he stayed for three years. (Midrash HaGadol  Gen 22:19)

No wonder Rebecca fell from her camel (Gen 24:64) because she saw Isaac coming down from paradise, and he walked the way the dead walk, head down and feet up. And what was he doing all that time in Paradise? They were healing him there. When was that? After the incident on Mount Moriah: And the angels bore him to Paradise where he was for three years, to be healed from the wound inflicted upon him by Abraham on the occasion of the Akeidah. (Shalom Spiegel, The Last Trial - Legends of the Command to Abraham to offer Isaac as a Sacrifice)

Where was Isaac? Estranged from his father? Menachem Mendel of Kotzk taught that although it was hard for Abraham to bind Isaac on the altar, it was just as hard to release him. For Abraham realised that Isaac, for the rest of his life, would remember that his father had almost killed him. (Etz Chayim Chumash, Torah & Commentary, UCSJ, pg. 121)

One last thought on the ram courtesy of the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai:

The real hero of the Isaac story was the ram,
who didn’t know about the conspiracy of the others.
As if he had volunteered to die instead of Isaac.
I want to sing a song in his memory –
about his curly wool and his human eyes,
about the horns that were so silent on his living head,
and how they made those horns into shofars when he was slaughtered
to sound their battle cries or to blare their obscene joy.
I want to remember the last frame, like a photo in an elegant fashion magazine:
the young man tanned and manicured in his jazzy suit
and beside him the angel, dressed for a party in a long silk gown,
both of them empty-eyed, looking at two empty places,
and behind them, like a coloured backdrop, the ram,
caught in the thicket before the slaughter.
The thicket was his last friend.
The angel went home. Isaac went home.
Abraham and God had gone long before.
But the real hero of the Isaac story
was the ram.

Yehuda Amichai, The Real Hero, 1983