The Akedah:a perspective.

Rambam in MN 3:24 analyzes four cases composed of six instances where the word Nissayon is used. All are interpreted to mean demonstration rather than test. One of the four cases is the Akedah. Here is how I understand the story based on my reading of Rambam.

According to Rambam’s understanding of prophecy, the conversation between Avraham and God are all internal experiences triggered by the prophet’s speculation about God and His actions. If we try to visualize the story, Avraham, the great philosopher and man of action, whose whole purpose is to create a nation that will carry forward his insights about the Divine, concludes in a moment of contemplation, that his devotion to God is still faulty and inadequate. He asks himself what would happen if his plans were thwarted by a decree from God. Would he acquiesce and give all his ambitions up? Is his own ego invested in this whole nation building enterprise? Is he really truthful to himself and doing this for God’s sake or for his own satisfaction? He experiences a prophetic vision where he sees himself told to sacrifice his son. His devotion tested to the limit he sees himself able to acquiesce and go through with this impossible decree until he is finally dissuaded by an angel. Ultimately human sacrifice is an abomination and God does not require it even in a dream or vision.

When seen in this context the historicity of the story is irrelevant. The idea of human sacrifice is an abomination in the Torah. When the Rabbis tell us that the patriarchs kept the whole Torah, are they insinuating that we have to look at this story in a non-literal way? There are tantalizing clues in Rambam that he might have felt that way. Professor Avraham Nuriel presents some compelling evidence to that effect. Ramban, though not explicit in this case, seems to read Rambam the same way (see first Ramban in Vayerah). Ibn Ezra on Jonah 1:1 clearly holds that it was nothing more than a vision.

The Torah refers to this story as Nissayon – “Veha’elokim Nissah et Avraham” –because it is a teaching for future generations. In a tantalizing comment Rambam notes that this was a private affair between Avraham and Yitzchak which we know about because the Torah decided to tell us about it. Although Rambam uses this argument in another context it also supports his position that it is a lesson rather than a test. Rambam says that it teaches two important lessons in religious thought: The level of devotion to God a man can reach and the power of prophecy.

“First, it shows us the extent and limit of the fear of God. Abraham is commanded to perform a certain act, which is greater than any surrender of property or any sacrifice of life, because it surpasses everything that can be done, and belongs to the class of actions which are believed to be contrary to human feelings. He had been without child, and had been longing for a child; he had great riches, and was expecting that a nation should spring from his seed. After all hope of a son had already been given up, a son was born unto him. How great must have been his delight in the child! How intensely must he have loved him! And yet because he feared God, and loved to do what God commanded, he thought little of that beloved child, and set aside all his hopes concerning him, and consented to kill him after a journey of three days. If the act by which he showed his readiness to kill his son had taken place immediately when he received the commandment, it might have been the result of confusion and not of consideration. But the fact that he performed it three days after he had received the commandment proves the presence of thought, proper consideration, and careful examination of what is due to the Divine command and what is in accordance with the love and fear of God. There is no necessity to look for the presence of any other idea or of anything that might have affected his emotions. For Abraham did not hasten to kill Isaac out of fear that God might slay him or make him poor, but solely because it is man's duty to love and to fear God, even without hope of reward or fear of punishment”

He then goes on to explain further:

“The second purpose is to show how the prophets believed in the truth of that which came to them from God by way of inspiration. We shall not think that what the prophets heard or saw in allegorical figures may at times have included incorrect or doubtful elements, since the Divine communication was made to them, as we have shown, in a dream or a vision and through the imaginative faculty. Scripture thus tells us that whatever the Prophet perceives in a prophetic vision, he considers as true and correct and not open to any doubt; it is in his eyes like all other things perceived by the senses or by the intellect. This is proved by the consent of Abraham to slay" his only son whom he loved," as he was commanded, although the commandment was received in a dream or a vision. If the Prophets had any doubt or suspicion as regards the truth of what they saw in a prophetic dream or perceived in a prophetic vision, they would not have consented to do what is unnatural, and Abraham would not have found in his soul strength enough to perform that act, if he had any doubt [as regards the truth of the commandment].”

The fact that Avraham could imagine himself following such a decree perceived in a vision proves how powerful a prophetic experience is. The prophet is so certain about his vision that he can act on it.

I always struggled with the idea of the Akedah. It always seemed to be so against all the Torah teaches repetitively about human sacrifices. It also went against all ides we have about what is decent and right and what is perverted and wrong. Seeing it in this light, as an internal struggle, a dream of a vision it is a very powerful statement about what devotion to God is and ultimately a negation of fundamentalism. Even in a dream one may not visualize human sacrifice. God does not require such sacrifices. I can now understand why this story takes such a central place in Jewish thought, so central that it entered the daily liturgy for those of us who say the Korbanot and Rosh Hashana Mussaf in the Zichronot section.

Shavua Tov.