This
week we read the Akeydah. The Akeydah or binding of Isaac is something so
important to us that we recall it in detail in our daily prayers. We also
recall it specifically on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to protect, defend and
stand in merit for us.  

The
story we think we know: Hashem tells Abraham to take Yishak as an offering.
They go together to the mount. Abraham binds Isaac to the alter and at the last
minute is stopped by an angel. A ram is offered in Isaac’s stead. Hashem makes
a promise to Abraham and they return home.  

That’s
the story my 4 year old granddaughter will tell in Parsha with Orly Adele iin a
mix of Hebrew and English this week. And the story we heard at four is the one
we continue to hear, But there is much more to the story  

Many
questions are asked  

For
example at the end of the Akeyda the passuk tells us  

וישב
אברהם אל נעריו   

All
the commentators ask. And where was Yishak?  

There
are many Midrashim relating to the Akeyda  

A
famous one recalls Satan’s attempt to stop it. 

Realizing
the importance of the Akeydah to the future of Benai Yisrael and the merit and
protection it will provide, the midrashim expand on the attempt of the Satan to
prevent Abraham and Isaac from going through with the sacrifice.  

What
should have been an 8 hour walk from Hebron to mount Moriah, became a three-day
trek through impossible conditions brought on by the Satan. He tries
psychological arguments imploring Abraham that he could not have possibly heard
what he thought he heard.  

He
calls him a fool who dreamed up a god who would ask him to kill a son given to
him at 100 years of age. He uses an intellectual quarrel arguing that prophecy
is imperfect and there is room for interpretation. He threatens him that he
will be liable for murder.  

When
that fails, he turns to Isaac and pleads with him to come to his senses
explaining that his father is certainly senile if he thinks G-d would ask him
to sacrifice his only son. He tells Isaac to think of his poor mother. He
reminds him that Yishmael will become the heir in his stead.  

He
then turns to physical impediments including transforming himself into an
impassable river. Its only when the two of them attempt to continue on
regardless that the river gives up. But does the Satan give up? I would suggest
that he does not and fulfilling his role in challenging man uses even more
drastic attempts.  

There
is the Disney G rated version of the Akeydah where only the ram gets killed
(was Bambi G rated) and then there is an R rated version which we don’t usually
hear about unless we get deep into the mefarshim. This R rated version has
Satan continue his pressure and would come with a warning note for violence.  

I
first discovered this alternate version about 35 years ago. The Eben Ezra
comments on the verse: “And Abraham returned”: He questions that it does not
mention Issac …  

Isaac
is not mentioned because he was under Abraham’s care. Those who say that
Abraham slaughtered Isaac and left him on the altar and following this Isaac
came to life are contradicting Scripture. ttps://www.sefaria.org/Ibn_Ezra_on_Genesis.22.19.1 

And
I said to myself what? What is he talking about? Someone says he didn’t stop?
Someone says Abraham killed Isaac? I asked Rabbi Abittan for an explanation and
began delving into the opinion carried not just by one, but we saw, by many and
buried for various reasons which later became very obvious.  

But
it soon became apparent that this other opinion was not very well hidden. It
was more about being ignored as it was simply impossible to comprehend and we
preferred to stick with the kindergarten version. 

For
example, in the Meam Loez, a commentary on the Torah written specifically for
the religiously uneducated masses in 1730, Rav Yaakov Culi comments on this
same verse. “There is another opinion that Abraham did begin to slit Isaac’s
throat and actually perforated his windpipe. When Abraham looked up and saw the
ram, the angels swooped Isaac away, brought him to the Garden of Eden and left
him there until he was completely healed.”  

At
the time we discussed with the Rabbi that Isaac’s soul had a partial flaw in
that his mother laughed when she heard she would become pregnant. The mekubalim
also explain that his soul was completely bound to the side of gevurah or what
we call the feminine side and in order to correct his soul so that he could
have children, the soul needed to return to heaven and be repaired before
returning again. The repair including a meeting up with his mother Sarah’s soul
as she dies at the exact same moment. A piece of her soul went into Isaac and
another part went into Rebecca who was born at that same moment.  

About
fifteen years ago, I gave a version of a class on the subject on Shabbat
morning to a full house eating breakfast bringing the proofs simply from the
Torah and Rashi and it seems each year since then a little more of the puzzle
becomes uncovered. But people who were shocked at the end of that class still
come up to me so many years later and ask for further explanations.  

And
although I have given this class before and there is a podcast of it, I was
asked this week to please repeat it, but as noted each year, we learn more. So
we will add what we have learned.  

We
know that Abraham and Jacob both left the land of Israel. Isaac was not
permitted to leave the land for the impurities of exile as he was holy. I found
it interesting that Rabbi Pinchas Winston notes, “according to Kabbalah, the
whole point of decomposition (Of the buried body), ultimately, is to provide
the opportunity to rebuild the body in the period of resurrection free of the
spiritual 'filth' inflicted upon the Jewish people by the Original
Snake in the Garden of Eden, which, resulted in the inclusion of a yetzer hara
into mankind. This is something that is next to impossible to do in a lifetime,
and, requires decomposition to full achieve. 

Assuming
the same, the resurrected Isaac returns not only with a perfected soul, but
also with a perfected body, not tainted by sin. He truly is a man but beyond
this world. Thus he cannot allow perfection to be sullied in exile at all.  

One
might ask, how can there be two opposing versions of the same story? But we
must recall that the Torah has seventy faces and there truly can be seventy
versions of the same. We often see polar opposite opinions expressed in the
Talmud. They may be opposite, but there are 360 degrees to the circle.  

We
also must recall what the rabbi often stressed. The Torah not a story book and
we grow when are able to see things from a different perspective 

The
purpose of the discussion on different ways of seeing a story within the Torah
is not meant to convince you that something happens one way or the other way or
that what you always thought was true is not true. The purpose of our learning
is to remind us that we need to open our eyes and open our minds when we learn
Torah. We need to be willing to ask questions and from those questions we will
learn. The Talmud is 2711 pages of questions.  

Only
by asking can we begin to learn.