At the end of Parshas Vayeira, Avraham was tested again. It involved the famous command for him to sacrifice his son Yitzchak to Hashem, though he would be stopped from going through with it. Despite his fatherly love, and the fact that he’d waited a century for that child, Avraham didn’t hesitate to carry out Hashem’s request, preparing and making the journey to what is today Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, to offer his thirty-seven-year-old son on the altar.
For his part, Yitzchak backed his father’s mission. Afraid that he would instinctively flinch or move and invalidate the slaughter, he requested that Avraham bind him with ropes. This was not part of Hashem’s original command, but rather was Yitzchak’s innovation. And this is what we recall – Akeidas Yitzchak, the binding of Isaac.
When we recall this as a merit for the Jewish People, on Rosh Hashana, daily in prayers, or any time, we must understand what the merit really means. No one can die as an atonement for other people’s sins, especially not before they’ve sinned. It’s not like a debt that someone else can pay. When a righteous person dies, it does atone for sin, but only because it makes the living reflect and introspect. They repent because they see that even the righteous die, and they consider how they are living their lives, as compared to the saint who just passed away.
But the true merit of the binding of Yitzchak is that it shows to what heights man can soar. He was willing to give himself up as a sacrifice because that’s what Hashem wanted. But it wasn’t even his commandment! It was his father’s. Nevertheless, Yitzchak wanted to enable his father to complete his mission, and he asked to be tied up lest he spoil everything even unwittingly.
When we look at that and seek to emulate it; to recognize that human beings are not bound to be corrupt and sinful, but can become greater than angels, then we have a reason to live. THAT is the lesson and the merit of Akeidas Yitzchak.
“An angel of G‑d called to him...And he said: ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad nor do anything to him.’”
The order to bring Yitzchak as a burnt-offering came directly from Hashem. Q: Why did the stop-order come from an angel rather than from Hashem? A: A Jew should never harm another Jew without a direct command from Hashem. To help another Jew, however, one needs no command. Therefore, to let Yitzchak live, the instruction of an angel sufficed.
