by Eliyahu Teitz
Parshat Vayera (Genesis 18–22) moves from the visitation of the angels to the destruction of Sodom, the birth of Isaac, the exile of Hagar and Ishmael, and finally the Akediah — the binding of Isaac. In October 1985, Eliyahu Teitz, a researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, posted a D'var Torah to the net.religion.jewish newsgroup focusing on that final, overwhelming chapter.
Teitz opens with a deceptively simple question: if we are told in Pirkei Avot that G-d never tests a person beyond their ability — and therefore already knows Avraham will pass — what is the point of the test? An answer attributed to Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein (Dean of Yeshiva Har Etzion) offers the key: the test is not for G-d's benefit but for Avraham's. A person may have the capacity to act with extraordinary courage or faith without knowing it until the moment of trial. The medals go out in wartime, but the courage existed before the war.
The essay then turns to a more searching question: what exactly was being tested? The standard reading — whether Avraham would sacrifice his beloved son — runs into difficulties. Yitzchak's birth was itself a miracle; another miracle was possible. And the earlier test of sending away Lot (according to Ramban) already established that Avraham could sacrifice his only inheritor. A duplicate test would be redundant.
Teitz proposes a different reading. Avraham had spent his entire life teaching monotheism in a pagan world. If he killed his son at G-d's command, his neighbors would not see a man of faith obeying G-d — they would see a man who had finally returned to the human sacrifice he had always preached against. His life's work would be destroyed. Even another miraculous son would not restore it. The test was whether Avraham cared more about doing G-d's will than about the cause he had built his life around.
There is a lot to discuss in this week's Torah reading but I will dwell on only one point. The twenty-second chapter of B'reshit (Genesis) starts out "And it was after these things and G-D tested (nisa) Abraham (Avraham)." The story progresses and we know it as the familiar story of the Akayda — when G-D told Avraham to take his son Yitzchak (Isaac) and sacrifice him to G-D.
We are told in Pirkei Avot (Morals of Our Fathers — a tractate in Talmud which relates how man should act) that G-D tested Avraham ten times and that he withstood all the tests. There is much debate as to the nature of the ten tests but the Akayda is counted as one according to all opinions.
Why Test Someone Who Will Pass?
Many questions arise. How exactly was Avraham being tested? Why was he being tested?
We are told that G-D does not test a person unless he can pass the test. If so, why was Avraham being tested at all? What is the purpose of a test that we know we will pass?
An answer is given that a person has the ability to pass a test — however, if a person is not tested he himself will not know that he has this ability. An example is in order: during times of war many people receive medals for bravery. During times of peace much fewer medals are given out. Does this mean that people are braver and more courageous in times of war than in times of peace? No. It is just that in times of peace the opportunity does not present itself. A person cannot see what he is made of unless the opportunity arises.
So too when G-D tests us. We have the ability to pass the test. We just don't have the opportunity to show ourselves what we are made of. When a person is in a position of danger he reacts. Before he was in danger he could have doubted how he would act. He couldn't be sure that he would act bravely or act cowardly. When put in the situation and the outcome is bravery then we know that the person could have withstood the test because he came through it.
So too with Avraham. He had the ability to pass the test. He just didn't know this himself. G-D put him in a position to show himself his loyalty. Once he passed the test, it could be said of Avraham that he would have passed the test. Avraham was tested to show himself his abilities. Had he not been tested he never would have known his potential.
(The previous idea was said by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, Dean of Yeshiva Har Etzion, in Israel.)
What Was the Test?
It is generally explained that the test was to see if Avraham would sacrifice his son. Avraham was 100 years old when Yitzchak was born. The story of the Akayda happens 36 years later. G-D tells Avraham to go and sacrifice the son he had been asking for for so long. This is a rather difficult test. Avraham is asked to sacrifice his inheritor. He is asked to show no compassion for his family's future.
There is another way of explaining the test, though, and it becomes necessary because of certain questions.
The birth of Yitzchak was a miracle. We are told in the commentaries to the Torah that Sara could physically not have children. She did not have the ability to conceive. G-D performed a miracle and she gave birth. If so, what did Avraham have to fear of G-D's request to kill his son? Maybe G-D would give him another son. After all he had already performed that miracle once — maybe it would happen again.
Another problem: one of the previous tests (according to Ramban, Nachmanides) was the sending away of Lot. In chapter 13 we are told of an argument between Lot's shepherds and Avraham's shepherds. Ramban explains that Avraham was being tested to see if he could send away the only relative he had at the time. He was sending away his only inheritor. Avraham did send him away. If this is the case, then how was Avraham being tested at the Akayda? We already know, and Avraham does too, that he can send away his only inheritor. So what would be gained by sacrificing Yitzchak? It would be a duplicate test, which wouldn't be necessary.
Sacrificing the Cause
If, however, we explain the test differently, these problems would not arise. The test was to see if Avraham was willing to throw away his life's work at G-D's say so.
Avraham had spent his whole life teaching monotheism and going away from paganism. If Avraham's neighbors would have heard that Avraham killed his son they would have said that he finally saw how foolish he was in his preaching monotheism, and that he had finally returned to the more sensible paganism. No matter how much Avraham would have protested that he was really serving G-D and that G-D told him to do it and that it was part of monotheism because G-D commanded him to do it, no one would have listened. Avraham's whole life's work would have been wasted. Even if Avraham would have had another son after Yitzchak it wouldn't have helped, because the cause Avraham was championing would have been forgotten.
G-D wanted to see how far Avraham was willing to follow Him. It would have been perfectly reasonable for Avraham to tell G-D that He would be setting his cause back generations by one small act. Better not to do it than to hurt the cause. But we see that Avraham didn't do this. He trusted that G-D knew what He was doing when He told Avraham to kill Yitzchak, so he didn't complain. This is what G-D wanted to see: to see that Avraham cared more about doing G-D's will than his own honor.
This is the lesson we should take from this week's Torah reading.
Colophon
Written by Eliyahu Teitz, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. Posted to net.religion.jewish, Monday, October 28, 1985. Article-ID: aecom.1985. Teitz was a regular contributor to the net.religion.jewish D'var Torah project; his earlier essays on Nitzavim and Kol Nidre are also in this archive.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].
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