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Rabbi Michael S. Beals October 3, 2024
Temple Beth El Newark, DE
Rosh Hashana 5785 Day Two
Did Abraham Fail the Test
Shanah Tovah.
How many of you recognize these lyrics?:
My child arrived just the other day He came to the world in the usual way But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay He learned to walk while I was away And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it And as he grew, he'd say "I'm gonna be like you, Dad You know I'm gonna be like you"
If you guessed Cat’s in the Cradle, you’d be correct. And if you guessed the song’s composer, Harry Capin, more points to you. And the year? 1974. I was 11. I remember learning how to play the song in my junior high school guitar class back in Southern California.
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At the time, I am sure I did not fully understand what the song was about. But as I have gotten older, had two kids of my own, and tried, often unsuccessfully, to balance work with family, I DO understand the words.
I have done my fair share of funerals during my rabbinate. It has always been striking to me that as adult-children reflect on their childhood with their now deceased father, the observation is often the same. Dad was never home. He sacrificed so much for our family with those long hours at work. But unbeknownst to their dad, he also sacrificed his role as a parent when their kids needed him most.
Sacrifice. That’s the key word in this morning’s Torah reading for the Second Day of Rosh Hashana. Why on earth do we read such a horrific story of a father willing to murder his defenseless son atop a lonely mountain for our scriptural reading today?
Our tradition praises Abraham for being so faithful to his God. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only begotten son, well, his only begotten son by his wife, Sarah, to satisfy the command of the Almighty.
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And we hope that God will be so impressed with Abraham’s fidelity that, as the Children of Abraham, his merit will rub off on us, and we will be forgiven for our own sins, even if we did not personally deserve the special consideration. There’s a modern Israeli word for this: protexia. It follows the logic of “it’s not WHAT you know, rather, it’s WHO you know.” And we know Abraham. In Rabbinic Hebrew it’s called Zechut Avot, the merit of our ancestors.
But what if our tradition has it all wrong? Rather than passing the test of child sacrifice, what is Abraham actually FAILED the test?! Rather than saying “YES” to the command to sacrifice Isaac, what if Abraham was supposed to say “NO” ?! It’s a very chutzpadik thing for me to suggest. I know.
But think about it. After this terrible story, the text of the Torah does not record anybody who Abraham cared about speaking to him ever again.
Consider Isaac: The text records Isaac and Abraham walking up the mountain, pre-sacrifice , together. They even chat with one another.
“My father,” says Isaac.
“Hineini,” “Here I am ready to do whatever you need,” responds Abraham.
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Isaac asks: “Behold the fire and the wood; but WHERE is the lamb for a burnt-offering?”
Does Isaac KNOW what’s going on here. Does he know HE’S the one who is going to be the burnt-offering and he just wants to make his father admit it? Or does he really NOT know what’s going on?
Abraham answers opaquely: “God will provide Himself the lamb for the burnt-offering, b’nee, my son.”
After this near-child murder, Abraham, and Abraham ALONE comes off that mountain. The next time the Torah records Abraham and Isaac being together is when Isaac, along with Ishmael, BURIES Abraham.
Consider Sarah: After this terrible incident, Abraham goes to dwell in Beersheva, in the northern Negev. Five verses later, we learn that Sarah dies, NOT in Beersheva, with her husband, but 43 miles to the north east, in the West Bank town of Hebron. In the story, Abraham never consults with Sarah, who birthed that child at age 90. Midrash, the great compendium of biblical back stories, states that Satan told Sarah that Abraham actually killed Isaac. And the three-fold shevarim or broken note of the Shofar blast is supposed to represent Sarah’s last three cries before she dies of a broken heart.
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And consider God! According to our sacred texts, GOD never, EVER speaks to Abraham again. The God of Abraham, who said Lech L’cha, “Get thee out,” who promised to make Abraham a great nation and give him a Promised Land, God who once had SO much to say to Abraham, has absolutely nothing to say to him after this story is over.
We certainly learn from this story that God absolutely never, EVER wants us to sacrifice our children. In fact, the closest name we have for hell in Judaism is Gehennem, which is a corruption of two separate words: Gay and Chinam, the Valley of Chinam, an area just south of ancient Jerusalem, where, in the days long before King David, the pagans of the area threw their baby children down into a valley to honor their god, Molech. Because of this gruesome story, Jews could never accept the central core story of Christianity: “God sacrificed His only begotten son, Jesus, for the sins of humanity.” Afterall, what type of meshuggenah father would sacrifice his only begotten child?! I say this, NOT to insult Christianity, God-forbid, but rather, to explain why Jews, to the dismay of the Church throughout the centuries, were not easily converted to Christianity.
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One might want to say, well, come on Rabbi, how do you honestly expect Abraham to say “NO” to the Almighty? But it’s not like Abraham was unaccustomed to taking God on. When Abraham learns of God’s plan to kill the people of S’dom and Gemorrah, Abraham cheekily asks God: “HOW could YOU, Judge of the Earth, not do justice by willingly kill the righteous along with the guilty?” And then Abraham resorts to shouk-like bargaining with God. If you find 50 will you spare the city? “Yes,” answers God. “50, 50, do I hear 45? 45, 45, do I hear 40? 30? 20? How about 10? SOLD to the man with the camel. “I will not destroy it for the sake of 10,” says God.
Where was that fighting spirit for his son, Isaac? For murderers, thieves and rapists, Abraham is willing to go to bat, for not for his own boy?! The Rabbis who gave us Midrashim couldn’t bear it. Just couldn’t bear it.
So, this is what the Rabbis do to try to redeem their man, Abraham. Let me give you the text straight, first (Genesis 22:2). “And God said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and get thee to the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering.” Now here it is, once again, with a little rabbinical assist in favor of Abraham.
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And God says: “Take now you son.”
And Abraham says, “I have TWO sons.”
And God says, “Whom you love.”
And Abraham says, “They are both loved equally by their respective mothers.”
And then finally God is forced to blurt out “even Isaac.”
This is the rabbis trying to show Abraham’s reluctance in sacrificing Isaac. But, frankly, I don’t buy it. It’s a noble effort. But I think Abraham got this wrong.
Children do not ask to be brought into this world. So, if we adults choose to bring children into this world, we owe them EVERYTHING. We must protect them from harm. And if we truly must choose between work and family, we must choose family, because we can always get another job, but we cannot get another family. Abraham’s job was doing God’s bidding. That was his business. And that worked just fine until Abraham became father to Ishmael and then Isaac. Then it was Abraham’s duty to put his kids first, no matter what.
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So, if this story is not about Abraham doing the right thing, then WHY on earth are we still telling this story every Rosh Hashana?
I think it’s naïve to think that every memorable story in the Torah is there because we are supposed to emulate it. If that were truly the case, then just as we killed all the Midianites in the Book of Numbers, or the failed attempt to kill all the Amalekites in Exodus and reiterated in Deuteronomy, so too, genocide can be justified in certain instances. But we KNOW that’s not true. Genocide can NEVER be justified under any circumstances. Six million of our brothers and sisters bear witness to this eternal truth. These stories come to teach us NOT to commit genocide.
Maybe we are supposed to read the story of Akeidat Yitzhak, the attempted murder of Isaac by his father, so we learn the importance of putting our kids before our work, even when it’s hard. And, really, how much harder could it be when it’s the Almighty giving the order?
If you remember nothing else from my first Temple Beth El High Holy Day sermons, remember this: YOUR FAMILY COMES FIRST. BEFORE YOUR JOB, BEFORE YOUR HONORS, BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE! And the cost of getting this one lesson wrong is just too high to pay.
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It will mean your children saying over your grave, I loved him, but you know, he was never there for me when I was a kid.
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man in the moon "When you comin' home, Dad?" "I don't know when But we'll get together then You know we'll have a good time then.