The angel of Hashem called to him from heaven and said... “Do not stretch forth your hand to the youth.” (Bereishis 22:11-12)
Hashem told Avraham to take his son as a korban. But then He sent an angel to stop him from actually slaughtering his son. Why didn’t Hashem Himself speak this second command to Avraham? Why did He delegate it to a malach?
R. Chayim of Volozhin famously commented that to slaughter a Jew, a command straight from Hashem’s mouth is needed. But to save a Jew, it’s enough to hear it from an angel.
This is a wonderful insight, but it doesn’t answer our question. Hashem Himself could have told Avraham not to slaughter Yitzchak. Why did He send an angel to tell him? Here's a verse that mentions all the Avos, but with an important distinction between them.
י יתִרּת בֶף אַאְב וֹקוֲעַי י יתִרּת בֶי אִּתְרַכָזְ ו ץֶרָאָהְר וֹּכְזֶם אָהָרְבַי אִיתִרּת בֶף אַאְק וָחְצִ י רֹּכְזֶא – “I will remember My covenant with Yaakov, and also My covenant with Yitzchak, and also My covenant with Avraham will I remember, and I will remember the Land.”
The Midrash asks why it says “remember” in connection with Yaakov and with Avraham, but not with Yitzchak? The Midrash answers that Hashem doesn’t need to “remember” Yitzchak because his ashes are as if piled up on the Mizbeach, in plain sight. You don't need to “remember” something when you are looking right at it.
When Hakadosh Baruch Hu looks at the Akeidah, He sees Yitzchak slaughtered and burnt up and his ashes on the Mizbeach.
I think that if Hashem Himself would have said to Avraham not to slaughter Yitzchak, this Divine command would have removed all the hilchos korban from Yitzchak. It would have obliterated the memory of Yitzchak as one who was slaughtered and burnt on the Altar. Because there is, in fact, a halachah in the Torah that such a korban should not and cannot be. So a command coming from Hashem’s mouth not to offer Yitzchak would have precluded the spiritual reality of Yitzchak’s ashes being piled up on the Mizbeach.
This is why Hashem said וגו' ךְנִּת בֶא אֲח נַק הָלֹעְם לָׁשּהוֵלֲעַהְו – “Please take your son... and bring him up there as an offering.” As far as Hashem was concerned, this was the command, and it was fulfilled all the way. Practically speaking, the angel prevented Avraham from slaughtering Yitzchak, but in Hashem’s eyes, it is as if it was fulfilled. It is as if, in reality, Yitzchak’s ashes are piled up on the Mizbeach.
Just as there were a lot of obstacles that presented themselves on the way to the Akeidah, so an angel was sent from Heaven to prevent Avraham from offering up his son. But the command ךְנִּת בֶא אֲח נַק remained. Avraham carried through on his duty to the end. This is why we have, for all generations, the zechus of Yitzchak’s ashes.
We could also offer a deeper explanation. We merited all this because it is considered as if Avraham slaughtered Yitzchak. What if he really, truly would have done it? Or at least shed one drop of his blood, something that Avraham in fact asked Hashem for permission to do?
Then Titus and Nebuchadnezzar and Hitler and all the others would have drowned in that drop of blood. We would have been saved from all the troubles and slaughters that have pursued us throughout the generations.
That much we did not merit. But we do have the wondrous zechus of Yitzchak’s ashes being piled up on the Mizbeach.
1 Vayikra 26:42.
2 Vayikra Rabbah 26:5.
3 Bereishis 22:2.
4 Bereishis Rabbah 56:7.
