The Ultimate Sacrifice
Sacrificing Yitzchak was the last and final test which Avraham was challenged with and was the ultimate trial that Avraham withstood to express his commitment to the Almighty. The following Sicha will discuss the significance of this test.
The mishna in Avos tells us:
Text 1
With ten tests our father Avraham was tested and he withstood them all—in order to make known how great was our father Avraham's love [for G-d]. G-d had Avraham go through various ordeals, hardships, and adversity to declare to all generations the great devotion that he had for the Almighty.
Avos 5:3
Figure 1
The Ten Tests
- Nimrod throws him into the furnace.
- The instruction to leave the land of his birth.
- The famine in the Land of Israel.
- Sara is taken by Pharaoh.
- The war against the five kings.
- The notification that his children would go into exile.
- The Bris Mila.
- Sara is taken by Avimelech.
- Throwing out Hagar and Yishmael
- The binding of Yitzchak.
When G-d desired that Avraham bring his son as a sacrifice before him, he instructed Avraham as follows:
Text 2
And He [G-d] said, "Please (na) take your son, your only one, whom you love—Yitzchak—and go away to the land of Moriah; bring him up there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I will tell you."
Bereishis, 22:2
Avraham was requested by the Almighty to take Yitzchak, the beloved child borne to him at an old age, and sacrifice him before G-d. Instead of this child being the progeny that he had wished for, he was to be an offering before the Almighty. G-d tells Avraham, “Please take your son.” The verse does not employ a language which expresses a command from the Almighty, it rather uses a word that connotes a request. G-d did not demand that Avraham offer his son before him, but entreated that he do so.
