Notes on the Akeda - The Binding of Isaac

Abraham builds an altar there, lies the wood in order
Binds Isaac his son and lays him on the altar
Abraham stretches forth his hand and takes the knife …
-- from Genesis 22

Not all images in scripture are pretty or easy to swallow. But if we put aside our old fix on it – if just for awhile – and open up to the possibility of new understanding and insight – then our psyche’s are open for renewal, healing and transformation.

Rabbinic sages selected this terrible/wonderful story, or set of Tarot images in Genesis (B’rei-sheet) – where the wise old mature patriarch goes up on the mount and offers his son as a burnt offering to God. Questions arise immediately: why would a loving and just God ask such sacrifice? How could a loving devoted father ever make such a sacrifice? What is happening to Isaac during this story? And what do these power images bring to our own hearts and psyches as we investigate this tale – with neutrality and an open mind?

See the story in Genesis; look it over. What happened just before with Hagar and Ishmael? What does Abraham have to “prove?” What do we each have to prove – and for what reason? Why is this in scripture?

Abraham’s will becomes one with God’s will; in blessing others, God is blessing through him, which is our destiny also and our heritage.

In truth there is no one correct meaning to this scriptural portion. In fact there is no one innate, unadulterated meaning to anything in the world or in life. Nothing has any innate meaning in and of itself; things just are what they are. “I am that I am,” God tells Moses and tells us. We put the meanings on everything. Since that’s so –- look to see a magnificent meaning to put on these images. Consider that you’re investigating a power dream and every character in the story here is a part of your own self.

Here are some meanings one might “try on.” But you too can and should try on some of your own meanings and share them with others. This is just to prime your pump:

Previously (Geness 21) Abraham is asked to let go his wife Hagar and their son, his first born, Ishmael and send them off into the wilderness with just a loaf of bread and skin of water. Sarah tells him to do so. He inquires of God and is told to do what Sarah says. It’s a sacrifice that is hard for him. He argues with Abimelek (desert chieftain and Father-King) about a well of water taken away from him. Abimelek says, consider it never happened. Hagar is called on by an angel of God. Her eyes are opened. She become enlightened, illumined, sees a well of water and raises her son as an archer to be a father of great nation. Abraham plants a tamarisk tree and passes onto us a new name and quality or attribute of God, symbolized by the tamarisk tree.

In this section Abraham uses an important Torah mantra three times, Heenayni. Here am I (being absolutely present, ready to hear and do immediately). The final test: let go your attachment to your most cherished one. If we would be truly free and achieve self-mastery, we can have no other attachments before our attachment to God.

Even so, we might well sacrifice self-mastery and freedom to spare the life of our most beloved. Probably Abraham, who has already gone through eleven earlier tests, has become so surrendered to God’s will by this point in the evolution of his soul – that his will is really merged with God’s will (but he doesn’t quite realize it yet) -- which is the only way, I believe, he could go through with such an awful, awe-filled test – and pass it. His faith, his active belief, is very mature. He has just seen that when he let go Hagar and Ishmael, which appeared to be cruel and unreasonable at the outset, it turned out that Hagar found her own faith and became illumined, and her son set off into his own noble destiny. The early rabbinic commentators all say one of the two young men who Abraham and Isaac left back with the donkey is Ishmael. Abraham has gotten back what he sacrificed. In fact, later we will see that after Sarah’s death, Abraham remarries Hagar who has matured to become Keturah and they have many children together.

Rashi reminds us that God never tells Abraham “to slaughter” Isaac, only to take him up to Moriah and offer him as sacrifice. Abraham tells the two young men: “We’ll worship and come back to you.” How does he know that? Hasn’t he been told to offer his son as a burnt offering? Probably this man of great faith, who has seen all his sacrifices return to him 100 times over, believes in the inexplicable and indefinable love and justice of this God he worships so full out.

Meanwhile, Isaac isn’t really a lad or a youth. Bible scholars counting genealogies figure Abraham is 134 years old when this happens, and Isaac is 34. He’s still a youth in the eyes of his father however – and that must be sacrificed utterly in order for Abraham to pass the baton, the torch of leadership, the robe and the bowl -- to the next patriarch. The patriarch Isaac is called forth in this section. His faith is tested also – and he too passes the test, which is why the rabbis call this section, the Akeda, or the Binding of Isaac on the altar.

When Isaac asks his father where is the sacrifice animal, Abraham tells him God will present one. This is when Isaac “knows,” say our sages, and immediately Isaac agrees. His father is also his teacher, his rebbe, and he aligns himself 100 percent with Abraham: “They both go together,” is repeated twice in this section.

Torah sages explain that when a name or word or line is repeated in scripture, it is a sign of great affection and love from God. When Abraham stretches forth his hand and takes the knife, an angel of God calls to him saying: “Abraham, Abraham.”

Isaac comes up the mountain as a mature disciple, and comes down a realized sage and patriarch of a great religious tradition. Yah (God) proves or tests Abraham, (tests, proves;NiSSaH) also means “uplifted.” Abraham was uplifted by his own power, which is the meaning of “the trial," as Midrash says (quoting Psalm 60.6): “You give those who revere you trials by which they uplift themselves as banners.” (They do it on their own...) When God calls to him later: “Abraham, Abraham,” [this shows] he now has become whole, cleaving to the root of that Abraham-above aspect [his true nature, his higher Self], which is why the sages say, “The patriarchs are the chariot” [our lower, human selves and personalities are “the seat” for our upper hidden Self. -- R’ Art Green].

The entire ritual is transformational for both Abraham and Isaac, which is offered to us in scripture for our own transformation. The offering by both of them takes them to another level of consciousness, into another realm, as it were, where everything in the world is visible, where everything we could ever want or need is visible and available to be taken and used. Thus Abraham sees a ram with its horns caught in a thicket, and substitutes that for his son Isaac. Historically one might say this is the moment when humanity wakens to a more evolved state and human sacrifice, which at one time was commonplace, is dropped altogether. Eventually, animal sacrifice is also replaced by prayer and self-sacrifice.

The life of Abraham as reported in scripture bestows upon us yet another attribute of God. Abraham calls this place, this awareness, Adonoi-jireh, the place where God sees, or the place where God is seen, or where everything is visible. God is invisible after all. But God can be realized. We can experience samadhi, super-consiousness. We enter a state of oneness at that level of consciousness and thus -- see through God’s eyes, as it were.