by Margo Schlanger
The traditional Torah portion for the first day of Rosh Hashanah is about the birth of Isaac and the near-death of Ishmael, Abraham’s son by a woman whose name we never find out – Hagar, the name given in the Torah, means “foreigner.” Ishmael, of course, is the father of the Ishmaelites. In the Muslim tradition, he is the Muslim patriarch, ancestor of Muhammed, and more generally of the Arab Muslims.
It’s the relationship between that first day’s parsha and the parsha for today, Rosh Hashanah’s second day, that I want to talk about. Today’s parsha is Akedah, the binding of Isaac. As we all know, it’s a difficult portion. If the project of our Torah reading is to find inspiration and edification, that’s a tough undertaking from a story that seems to portray just about everyone behaving badly.
How can we reconcile ourselves to a God who says to Abraham “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you”? And if the answer to that question is, it’s a test, then that raises another question: How can we admire an Abraham who is so bold, so compassionate, as to argue with God over strangers in Sodom and Gomorrah, but not bold enough and compassionate enough to argue with God about the command to murder his own child? If it’s a test, didn’t Abraham fail, when he set so silently to obey?
These are not new questions. [Read more…] about A D’var Torah about the Akedah
