Parsha Vayera - the binding of Isaac (known as the Akedah)
Judy Jacobson
Genesis 18:1 – 22:24. Abraham and Sarah are promised a son. Sodom and Gemorrah, Lot’s wife looks back, Isaac is born. Hagar and Ishmael are cast out at Sarah’s demand but will be founders of another great nation. Abraham is ordered by God to sacrifice Isaac but at the last minute God rewards Abraham’s faithfulness by sparing Isaac.
The binding of Isaac, according to Bob Dylan:
God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but the next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, “Out on Highway 61.”
Immortal.
I have been thinking about this parsha for a few years - because of one word in Hebrew.
I studied Hebrew as an adult (since I forgot almost everything I previously learned). One way I studied was to read the Hebrew in the torah, and try to figure it out. When I got to the Akedah, in this parsha, I was struck by how clear and simple the language was, and how powerful the story was in the Hebrew. But one word caught me. Yechidha. It’s used in two places, in verse 2 and in verse 12.
Verse 2: Kach-na et bin-cha, et Yechidha, asher ahavta – et Yitzhak.
Verse 12: Ve-lo hsechta et bincha et Yechidha mimeni.
But – Yechidha has the root Echad, one.
Should the translation be “your only one”? But – Isaac is not Abraham’s only one. What about Ishmael? The Akedah follows the story where Sarah says “cast out Ishmael and Hagar” and Abraham does so, with God’s approval. God saves Ishmael and Hagar, Ishmael grows up, lives in Paran, gets married. The Akedah begins, “some time afterwards” – that is, after Ishmael’s story. Ishmael is gone but he’s still alive, and still Abraham’s son, at the time of the Akedah.
Etz Hayim translates verse 2 as “take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love” and verse 12 as “you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from me.” Favored one for Yechidha. Abraham favors Isaac over Ishmael.
But some translations do use “your only one.” The Plaut and Fox versions do.
Etz Chaim cites Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 89b: imagined dialogue of God and Abraham:
Take your son. … I have two sons.
Your only son. … Each is an only son to his mother.
Whom you love … I love them both.
Finally God is explicit: Isaac.
Rashi comment: God issued the command gently, step by step, to a reluctant Abraham.
Some Christian bibles “only son” - Abraham has just lost his son Ishmael, and now he is asked to sacrifice his remaining son. Isaac is Abraham’s only son now that Ishmael is gone.
Idiot’s Guide to the Bible: Ishmael can no longer be part of Abraham’s life, also, Isaac is the promised one, the heir by whom God’s other promises will be fulfilled.
How about the Islamic version?
Islam considers the almost-sacrificed son to be Ishmael, their ancestor - in the Koran, Isaac’s birth follows the story of the near-sacrifice. So, about Ishmael:
And when he became a full-grown youth, his father said to him, “My son, I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice thee; therefore consider what thou seest right.” He said, “My father, do what thou are bidden; of the patient, if God please, shalt thou find me.”
And when they had surrendered them to the will of God, he laid him down upon his forehead. We [God/Allah] cried unto him, “O Abraham! Now hast thou satisfied the vision.” See how we recompense the righteous. This was indeed a decisive test. And we ransomed his son with a costly victim. And we left this (salutation) for him among posterity, “Peace be on Abraham!” Sura XXXVII:100-109 (The Ranks).
My puzzling question actually relates to an Islamic/Jewish conflict: According to a critic of Islam, Robert Spencer, Islamic scholars say the use of “only” in the Hebrew Torah shows that the Jews corrupted the scriptures to suit their own purposes by claiming Isaac was the son who was almost sacrificed.
Spencer quotes a “venerable Koran commentator”, Ibn Kathir:
According to the Jewish torah, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son, and in another text it says his first-born son. But here they falsely inserted the name of Isaac.
This is not right because it goes against what their own Scripture says. They inserted the name of Isaac because he is their ancestor, while Ishmael is the ancestor of the Arabs. The Jews were jealous of the Arabs, so they added this idea and changed the meaning of the phrase “only son” to mean “the only son who is with you,” because Ishmael had been taken with his mother to Mecca.
But this is a case of falsification and distortion, because the words “only son” cannot be said except in the case of one who has no other son. And, the firstborn son has a special status that is not shared by subsequent children, so the command to sacrifice him is a more exquisite test.
A lot in a single word – all the way to Jewish/Islamic conflict. Shabbat Shalom!
Judy Jacobson
Genesis 18:1 – 22:24. Abraham and Sarah are promised a son. Sodom and Gemorrah, Lot’s wife looks back, Isaac is born. Hagar and Ishmael are cast out at Sarah’s demand but will be founders of another great nation. Abraham is ordered by God to sacrifice Isaac but at the last minute God rewards Abraham’s faithfulness by sparing Isaac.
The binding of Isaac, according to Bob Dylan:
God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but the next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, “Out on Highway 61.”
Immortal.
I have been thinking about this parsha for a few years - because of one word in Hebrew.
I studied Hebrew as an adult (since I forgot almost everything I previously learned). One way I studied was to read the Hebrew in the torah, and try to figure it out. When I got to the Akedah, in this parsha, I was struck by how clear and simple the language was, and how powerful the story was in the Hebrew. But one word caught me. Yechidha. It’s used in two places, in verse 2 and in verse 12.
Verse 2: Kach-na et bin-cha, et Yechidha, asher ahavta – et Yitzhak.
Verse 12: Ve-lo hsechta et bincha et Yechidha mimeni.
But – Yechidha has the root Echad, one.
Should the translation be “your only one”? But – Isaac is not Abraham’s only one. What about Ishmael? The Akedah follows the story where Sarah says “cast out Ishmael and Hagar” and Abraham does so, with God’s approval. God saves Ishmael and Hagar, Ishmael grows up, lives in Paran, gets married. The Akedah begins, “some time afterwards” – that is, after Ishmael’s story. Ishmael is gone but he’s still alive, and still Abraham’s son, at the time of the Akedah.
Etz Hayim translates verse 2 as “take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love” and verse 12 as “you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from me.” Favored one for Yechidha. Abraham favors Isaac over Ishmael.
But some translations do use “your only one.” The Plaut and Fox versions do.
Etz Chaim cites Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 89b: imagined dialogue of God and Abraham:
Take your son. … I have two sons.
Your only son. … Each is an only son to his mother.
Whom you love … I love them both.
Finally God is explicit: Isaac.
Rashi comment: God issued the command gently, step by step, to a reluctant Abraham.
Some Christian bibles “only son” - Abraham has just lost his son Ishmael, and now he is asked to sacrifice his remaining son. Isaac is Abraham’s only son now that Ishmael is gone.
Idiot’s Guide to the Bible: Ishmael can no longer be part of Abraham’s life, also, Isaac is the promised one, the heir by whom God’s other promises will be fulfilled.
How about the Islamic version?
Islam considers the almost-sacrificed son to be Ishmael, their ancestor - in the Koran, Isaac’s birth follows the story of the near-sacrifice. So, about Ishmael:
And when he became a full-grown youth, his father said to him, “My son, I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice thee; therefore consider what thou seest right.” He said, “My father, do what thou are bidden; of the patient, if God please, shalt thou find me.”
And when they had surrendered them to the will of God, he laid him down upon his forehead. We [God/Allah] cried unto him, “O Abraham! Now hast thou satisfied the vision.” See how we recompense the righteous. This was indeed a decisive test. And we ransomed his son with a costly victim. And we left this (salutation) for him among posterity, “Peace be on Abraham!” Sura XXXVII:100-109 (The Ranks).
My puzzling question actually relates to an Islamic/Jewish conflict: According to a critic of Islam, Robert Spencer, Islamic scholars say the use of “only” in the Hebrew Torah shows that the Jews corrupted the scriptures to suit their own purposes by claiming Isaac was the son who was almost sacrificed.
Spencer quotes a “venerable Koran commentator”, Ibn Kathir:
According to the Jewish torah, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son, and in another text it says his first-born son. But here they falsely inserted the name of Isaac.
This is not right because it goes against what their own Scripture says. They inserted the name of Isaac because he is their ancestor, while Ishmael is the ancestor of the Arabs. The Jews were jealous of the Arabs, so they added this idea and changed the meaning of the phrase “only son” to mean “the only son who is with you,” because Ishmael had been taken with his mother to Mecca.
But this is a case of falsification and distortion, because the words “only son” cannot be said except in the case of one who has no other son. And, the firstborn son has a special status that is not shared by subsequent children, so the command to sacrifice him is a more exquisite test.
A lot in a single word – all the way to Jewish/Islamic conflict. Shabbat Shalom!
