Shabbos Parashas Vayeira - 5777

Shabbos Parashas Vayeira - 5777

Rabbi Hal Miller

And He said, "Please take your son, your only one, whom you love, Yitzchak, and go to the land

of Moriah and offer him up there as a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I shall

tell you." [Bereishis 22:2]

We know that this story is about the near-slaughter of Isaac. The word olah in this context

is usually translated as burnt-offering, and this incident was a test of Avraham to see whether

he would sacrifice his beloved son on G-d's command.

But the nisayon, the tests, are not for G-d's benefit. He knows outside of history what is

going to occur. The beneficiary of this kind of test is the person to whom it is applied, in this

case Avraham. It is to prove to Avraham, not to G-d, what Avraham was capable of doing. In

which case, Yitzchak was never in any danger of being slaughtered and becoming a

korban sacrifice. If so, what does the word olah mean here?

We know that Yitzchak was perfect and pure. If Avraham had "failed" this test, does it mean

that Avraham would have committed murder of a pure person? Worse yet, at G-d's

command! There has to be more to the story than the simple meaning.

The Brisker Rav, Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, gives us a way to avoid our questions entirely.

He notes that G-d told Avraham to "alah" Yitzchak on the altar, meaning to bring him up.

He never told Avraham to sacrifice him, thus once Avraham brought Yitzchak up, he could

bring him right back down, which is exactly what happened.

Rav Hirsch looks at the word olah. In Judaism, it refers to something "above" as opposed

to "below", typically in the sense of heavenly versus earthly. He says that breaking away from

materialism is an elevation of a person to his G-dly purpose. By this, Avraham was bringing

Yitzchak out from the lowly to the divine.

Malbim tells us that the Akeidah is a comparison between the love for another human

and the love for G-d. Avraham was given here an opportunity to express his love for G-d.

Malbim notes that "ha'aleihu", used here as "bring him up", is never used in the Torah to

refer to bringing an offering. He also notes that the prefix in "l'olah" is unusual, and that

together, they mean "set him aside for the possibility of becoming an offering", which is

precisely what the Brisker Rav is saying.

So what does olah mean? There are numerous definitions and relationships to similar

words. The most common are "offering" and "immigrant", but it also can mean "ascending"

or "injustice". We could quickly jump onto the last one, and say that the Akeidah was

unjust to Yitzchak, but there are many arguments against that position. The one most

commonly applied is "offering", as noted above.

But, being an immigrant to Israel myself, I think of that application of the word. When we

drive to Yerushalayim and our little car struggles mightily to climb Highway 1 from below

sea level, we understand the "ascending" definition as well. How do these definitions apply

to the Akeidah?

We could read our verse to say, "bring him up as an immigrant on one of the mountains

that I shall show you." Now, Yitzchak didn't get a Teudat Zehut (Israeli identification

papers) as an immigrant, so what does this mean?

We know that Yitzchak is the only one of the Patriarchs who never left the promised land.

His connection was far more solid than that of his ancestors or his descendants. How did

that happen? The Akeidah, which was Avraham bringing Yitzchak to G-d to have his

passport stamped as a permanent resident.