The Great Slaughter
The most important event in the history of the world – with the exclusion of Matan Torah – took place in a secluded spot, on an isolated mountaintop, with only two people present. Actually, not only was it the second most important event after Matan Torah but it was the preface and the reason for Matan Torah. Because of what happened on that mountain-top, the Am Yisroel merited to receive the Torah and to be chosen as the Am Hashem.
What event are we talking about? It was when Avraham Avinu stretched out his hand with a sharpened knife to cut the neck of his beloved son, Yitzchok. Now the fact that in the last moment Hashem said רַﬠַּנַה ל∆‡ך¿„ָי חַלׁ¿ ̆ƒ ̇ לַ‡ – Don’t send your hand against the young man (Vayeira 22:12), that doesn’t detract from the greatness of his intention. Avraham after all didn’t know Chumash; he didn’t know that he would be stopped at the last moment. As far as he was concerned he would be returning home without Yitzchok. He was going to fulfill the command of Hashem and cut through Yitzchok’s throat, the konoh and the veshet, a koshereh shechitah, and then he would burn him up as an olah offering to Hashem.
Now, what was Avraham demonstrating at that time? The highest level of ahavas Hashem; not only that he loved Hashem but that there was nothing in this world that he loved more than Hashem.
Now, we understand of course that Avraham loved Yitzchok with an intense love. He waited for him so many years – a hundred years! And finally when he came, he was such a beautiful boy. He had a beautiful mother so of course he was beautiful too. And he was wise and excellent in character; and it was his boy, his flesh and blood! And Avraham therefore let loose all the floodgates of love of which a father is capable; he burned with fiery passion of ahavah to Yitzchok. ר∆ׁ ֲ̆‡ך¿„יƒח¿י ̇∆‡ך¿נƒּב ̇∆‡ּ ̇¿בַהָ‡ – Your singularly special son whom you love (ibid. 22:2).
Finding True Love
But it’s much more than that. The truth is we have no idea how great was the passion of Avraham for his son because Yitzchok was more than a son – he was a nation, a dream.
I’ll explain that. You know, Avraham, our first father, had one consuming interest in his life. Wherever he went, ם≈ּׁ ַ̆ה ם≈ׁ ̆¿ּב ‡ָר¿ ̃ƒּיַו – he proclaimed Hashem (Lech Lecha 12:8). He put everything he had into this ideal, to be mefarsem in the world the knowledge of the Borei.
But he saw that it wasn’t sufficient because he’s only one person after all. And then his time would come to an end; and that was his great regret. Even when Hakadosh Baruch Hu promised him that „ֹ‡¿מ ה≈ּב¿רַהָך¿רָכ¿ׂ ̆ – “Your reward is very great,” Avraham said, יƒל ן∆ּ ̇ƒּ ̇ הַמ יםƒ ֹ̃ל¡‡ ם≈ּׁ ַ̆ה, – “Hashem, it’s nothing. What can You give me?!” (Bereishis 15:2).
What can Hashem give him?! He can give him very much. Very very much! Not only in this world. There’s no happiness that He can’t give Avraham in the Next World. And Avraham says, “What are You giving me?” It seems very ungrateful.
But יƒירƒרֲﬠך≈לֹהו יƒכֹנָ‡¿ו – “What have you given me if I’m going away childless!” (ibid.) That’s what Avraham was saying: “You have given me nothing if I am going away without any children from this world.”
A child? Why did Avraham need a child? Avraham lived most successfully even without children. He achieved everything! Did he want a little somebody to play with? To walk in the street with him?
A Dream Dashed
No. What Avraham desired was someone who would walk in his footsteps and carry on his great work.
Because Avraham had only one purpose in life – to make Hashem’s Name great – and that purpose could be carried out only if he would have children who would follow in his ways. Everything else that he had received up until now meant nothing unless he would have progeny, posterity who would carry on.
That was his all-consuming wish – to have very many descendants who would help him spread his message to the world. Like the Rambam says, the prime ambition of Avraham Avinu was הָּמֻ‡ „יƒמֲﬠַה¿ל ם≈ּׁ ַ̆ה ̇∆„∆בֹעו – to raise up a nation that would serve Hashem.
And because Hakadosh Baruch Hu knew that that’s what Avraham’s greatest desire was, that’s why He promised it to him again and again. Repeatedly He promised to him that he’s going to have a tremendous nation, an abundance of descendants, and descendants who would follow in his footsteps. And Yitzchok therefore was not only a beloved son but he was the fulfillment of that great life dream. In Yitzchok, Avraham saw his hope, his future, his everything!
Shechting a Nation
And so when he stretched out his hand to slaughter Yitzchok, he wasn’t only giving away his love for Yitzchok; it meant Yaakov and his sons too, the shivtei Kah. It meant the shishim ribo, the multitude that went out of Mitzrayim and received the Torah at Har Sinai. It meant Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon Hakohen and Miriam. It meant all the Nevi’im, all the Tannaim and Amoraim and Rishonim and Achronim.
When Avraham was looking at his son as he placed him on the mizbeach, he was looking at Rabi Akiva. In Yitzchok’s face he saw the Rambam and Rashi. He saw all the gedolei hadoros down to the end of all generations.
And because Avraham was the kind of father who loved not only with his emotions but with his seichel, so he loved Yitzchok not only as a most special son but also for all of his progeny too. Not like parents today who love their children, they love their grandchildren next, their great-grandchildren less and after that, it’s a question how much they love them. Avraham’s love was an almost infinite love. And now he was going to give away the love; he was going to sacrifice all of that love on the altar of love of Hashem.
From the Bottom of My Heart
That’s called ahavas Hashem; that’s the siman of a genuine oheiv Hashem, when your love for Hashem pushes out from your heart and mind the love for anything else. The Rambam says that in his Hilchos Teshuvah (10:6). He’s talking there about the mitzvah of loving Hashem ָך¿בָב¿ל לָכ¿ּב, with all your heart, and he says that there’s a certain condition that’s necessary: ‡ּהו¿ךּרוָּב ׁ ֹ̆ו„ָּ ַ̃ה ַ̇בֲהַ‡ ין≈‡ הָּנ∆ּמƒמ ıּחו םָלֹעוָּב∆ׁ ̆ הַמ לָּכ בֹזֲﬠַּי∆ׁ ̆ ... „ַﬠ םָ„ָ‡ ל∆ׁ ̆ ֹוּבƒל¿ּב ̇∆ר∆ׁ ̆¿ ̃ƒנ – “It is impossible to love Hashem if you have love of other things in your heart.”
‘All your heart’ means – you do not share the love of Hashem with anything or anyone else. He wants all of your heart and therefore a person has to drive out of his mind any kind of interests except ahavas Hashem.
It means, don’t become involved in love of anything else. Don’t become a lover of adventure, a lover of literature, a lover of art, of music, of travel; don’t become a lover of anything else in this world except Hashem.
If you love ‘nature’, then forget about loving Hashem. You love to go out in the fields and the forests? You love to go out camping? You’re thinking about what type of equipment to buy? Forget about it. You'll never love Hashem.
How to Love Nature
Oh, certainly nature is a very great step up to a love of Hashem. Certainly! If you'll always be looking at it for the purpose of recognizing the Creator, certainly. יָל¿‚ַר םֹו„ֲה ı∆רָ‡ָה – The world is a footstool to arrive at the greatness of loving Hashem (Yeshayah 66:1).
Certainly! I carry a seed in my pocket, an apple seed. I take it out of my pocket from time to time to admire it. Certainly, nature is a step up to emunah and to ahavas Hashem. No question about it! But when people fall in love with nature because they like ‘nature’, then forget about loving Hashem.
If you love ‘music’ then goodbye, forget about loving Hashem. You hear that? Now I know it's going to sound harsh to people who were brought up with American ideas, but there's nothing noble in music. Intrinsically it's nothing at all. Of course it can be utilized. Oh certainly; music can help you arrive at more ahavas Hashem. But if you love ‘music’ for itself, if you're a music enthusiast, then forget about it.
Familial Love
Even to love your own family! Don’t become a lover, even of your own family, unless it’s in connection with ahavas Hashem.
Your wife too! Now, when you are going to meet a girl, a prospective kallah, don’t tell her that because she will think that you won’t have any place in your heart for her. And if she’ll ever ask you this kasha; let’s say she heard this lecture and she says, “So, if you’re one of those who come to Rabbi Miller’s lectures, so you love Hashem and nobody else?”, so you say, “When I love Hashem with all my heart it means that I love my wife with all my heart too because Hashem said ֹפוּו‚¿ּכ ֹוּ ̇¿ׁ ̆ƒ‡ ̇∆‡ ב≈הֹו‡.”
And that’s the truth; a man loves his wife because Hakadosh Baruch Hu commanded him to. That’s the way a man demonstrates his appreciation for the gift that Hashem gave him. הָּׁ ̆ƒ‡ָה יƒ„ָּמƒע הָּ ַ̇ ָ̇נ רׁ∆ ֲ̆‡ - it is a gift that Hashem gives a man (Bereishis 3:12). And the wife of course goes b’derech haTorah and helps him carry out his ambitions to raise a Torah family, so he loves her because he loves Hashem.
When you love people because you love Hashem, that is something else. And therefore to love a son that is going to go b’derech hayashar is actually love of Hashem. And a son who is going even more in the ways of Hashem so you love him even more. A good child, a righteous child, deserves much more love – no question about it – because Hashem loves him more.
Limited Love
And chas v’sholom if a man has a son that goes off the derech hayashar and rebels against Hashem, so he stops loving him as much as he did previously. He doesn’t allow the animal feeling, the animal emotion to overcome his seichel; he loves only because Hashem said so. His heart has no room for any love except ahavas Hashem.
A woman spoke to me about her mother who was not living like a Jewish woman should live – she was living with a gentile – so I said, “She is not your mother.” She gasped. She was shocked. But she thought it over and she accepted it. She accepted because she accepted the mitzvah of loving Hashem with all your heart, that we have only one love in this world.
And our model is Avraham. Because his love for Yitzchok was such a great love, a stormy passion like the waves of the sea, endless; much more than this lady loved her mother. And so when he went through all the preparations, he was driving that love out of his heart before the love of Hashem. חַּ ̃ƒּיַו הָלֹעוָה י≈ˆֲﬠ ̇∆‡. He himself chopped the firewood in order to feel that he’s going to burn his son in the fire. He had plenty of servants but he did it himself because he wanted to feel how he’s doing it himself. Everything for Hashem! Nothing will be held back!
It was a feat of tremendous proportions, the greatest expression of ahavas Hashem to ever take place in the history of the world because it meant that Avraham was sacrificing his greatest love, his greatest hope and dream, before the love of Hashem.
