Rosh Hashana 5786 Day Two
Temple Beth El Newark, DE
Abraham’s Faithfulness and the Cost to Isaac
They arrived at the place of which God had told him. Abraham built an alter there; he laid out the wood;
V’ya’akod et-Yitzhak b’no.
He bound his son Isaac, he laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to slay his son. Then an angel of the Lord called to him from heaven: “Abraham! Abraham!”
Va-yomer: “Hinayni”
And Abraham said, “Here I am.”
And the angel said, “Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.” – Genesis 22:9-12
Whew! That was a close one. We came very near to not having a future as a people. Abraham was faithful, he was willing to turn over his favored son as a human sacrifice. And we read this story every Rosh Hashana because …. Because we want to terrorize our children with the threat of consequences for disobedience? NO!
We read this story every year so that if God does not feel we are worthy of being inscribed in the Book of Life, we can claim our ancestor, Abraham’s meritorious behavior to our own credit.
 
In fact, the ram which Abraham sacrifices in replacement of Isaac is one of the reasons we blow the shofar, the ram’s horn, at Rosh Hashana. With the shofar’s piercing sound, we want to not only remind each other to do teshuva, repentance, but also remind God of Abraham’s worthiness, and through extension, our worthiness as well.
And so we all live happily ever after….or do we? Isaac is never quite the same, is he? The text does not recall another interaction with either his mother, Sarah, who dies soon afterwards, nor Abraham. In the fact the next time Isaac and Abraham share a biblical scene together is when Isaac buries his elderly father many years later.
Not only that but Abraham endeavors to protect Isaac by never having him set foot outside of Canaan. What is Abraham afraid of? While Abraham travels great distances, from Ur to Canaan, then down to Egypt, then back up to Canaan, Isaac stays close to home. While Isaac’s son, Jacob, ends up revisiting the ancestral homeland of Padan Aram, and later Egypt, Isaac never travels anywhere. He had no hand in choosing his wife – Abraham’s servant, Eliezer takes care of it himself.
 
Later in life, the Torah states that Isaac is blind. A midrash, Genesis Rabbah, what a clever cousin of mine calls “Rabbinic fan fiction,” recalls Isaac lying on this back on the alter at the time of his binding, called the Akeidah. He glimpses the light of heaven when the angel appears to spare his life, and suggests that Isaac was never able to see events on earth clearly after that. It is not clear how old Isaac was when his life was almost forfeited for his father, Abraham’s religiosity. While some commentators suggest Isaac is a grown man, there are many others that suggest Isaac is quite young.
Based on studies which say that the most important growth in a child’s brain occurs in the first three years of life, I will embrace those interpretations which hold Isaac is no more than a little child. If those studies on early brain development are true, they could help explain Isaac’s arrested development. These studies would help explain that while his father, Abraham, and his son, Jacob, were wonderful travelers and inspirational leaders, Isaac is none of those things. When it comes to charting Esau and Jacob’s life paths, God does not waste his time with Isaac. Rather, God makes His wishes known to Isaac’s wife, Rebecca. In a patriarchal society, it is quite remarkable that God bypasses Isaac and goes directly to Rebecca to make His wishes known.
 
In my 21 years here in Delaware, I am quite convinced that God is making his wishes known through fellow Delawarean, octogenarian Sam Beard. He has been a lovely friend to me. Let me tell you a little about my friend Sam so you will know why I respect him so much.
Sam Beard has spent over six decades transforming ideas into far-reaching impact. Sam has created and implemented public service programs for eight American Presidents from Nixon to Obama. After completing his education at Yale and Columbia, Sam focused on social justice and elimination of poverty working with Robert Kennedy in Brooklyn in the mid-1960s.
Among his most noteworthy accomplishments include the creation of over ten million jobs in low-income communities. With Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Senator Robert Taft, Jr., Sam also launched the Jefferson Awards, an American “Nobel Prize” for public service and youth leadership training program (later renamed Multiplying Good). More than 35,000 students have been trained. Multiplying Good engages one million students per year.
 
Recently, he founded the non-profit organization GIFT to harness the full impact of the mindfulness and meditation movements to solve urgent global problems.
A few months ago, Sam came to me with a new project. Starting with Delaware, he wants to train parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, caretakers to take better advantage of brain development in children in the first three years of their lives. How children do in school, which universities they end up attending, even how much money they will eventually earn, can all be influenced in those first three years.
Sam asked if he could share some of his findings with you, along with concrete ideas each of us in this sanctuary can do to help ensure our children, ages zero to three, have the best chances of success.
I give you my friend, Sam Beard …
(Sam presents for about 7-10 minutes)
If only Isaac, the unsung hero of today’s Torah reading had had Sam Beard has an advocate. Imagine the adventures he could have had. Isaac’s life could have been so enriched.
 
While we cannot help Isaac, there are so many little ones we CAN help. May Sam’s vision inspire each of us to help our young ones, ages zero – three. Through intellectual and experiential stimulation, we can allow the youngest in our society to reach their full potential.
L’shana Tovah! May you, and especially your children and grandchildren, be inscribed for a good, healthy, and intellectually stimulating New Year.