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HAPPY
NEW YEAR

Commentary from page 117

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have wavered, or cried, or been
who read it in Coptic, or in Aramaic,
struck dumb by Isaac's question,
Greek or Latin, all sitting together
"Where is the lamb?"
and comparing notes on what it
But Abraham showed no change
means.
of color, no weakening of soul. He
Over in one corner, you see a new-
remained as steadfast as ever and did comer from the religion of Islam who
not waver, as befits a true stoic.
carries a book called the Koran with
For Pseudo-Philo and for the sec-
him that says that it was Ishmael,
ond Book of Maccabees, Abraham
not Isaac, who was bound upon the
was the prototype for those parents
altar; and in another corner, you can
who surrendered their children
eavesdrop on a midrashic sage who
to martyrdom in the time of the
firmly believes that Sarah should
Hellenists.
have been informed
For the early
of what was going
Christians, the
on, and that when
story became a
the Satan told her,
But
preview of the
she was so upset
story of Jesus.
that she had a heart
In Sarah, they
attack on the spot.
where
saw Mary. In
In the center of
Abraham's willing-
the room sit the
is the
ness to sacrifice
sages of the Talmud,
his son, they saw
who insist that the
lamb?
God's willingness
Binding of Isaac
to sacrifice His.
was
an achievement
(iotdomn
In the three-day
that God promised
journey, they saw
He would always
a prefiguration of
remember, and that,
the three days from
because
of what
A new look at an old story
the crucifixion to
Abraham and Isaac
the resurrection.
did that day, God
In Isaac's carrying
would always care
of the wood, they
for His people.
saw Jesus carrying
Near them sit
the cross. In God's
the poets of the
promise to provide
Crusades, who dare
the lamb, they saw
to say that Isaac
the lamb of God.
really died on the
In the ram caught
altar that day, but
in the thicket, they
then came back to
saw the crown of
life.
thorns.
The book goes
In the whole
on
and on, letting
Author James Goodman
story, they saw the
us in on the con-
supremacy of faith,
versations of Soren
and themselves as the new Israel that Kierkegaard, Wilfred Owen, Shalom
Spiegel, A. B. Yehoshua, Bob Dylan,
replaced the old one.
Yitzchak Lamdan and others closer
Generation To Generation
to our own time.
Goodman's book goes on, chapter
It is enough to say that this book
after chapter, teaching us what the
is a must-read for all of us who want
generations read into and out of the
to appreciate the High Holidays, and
Binding of Isaac tale.
that I think that Goodman's charac-
As Goodman says, when you read
ter, G, would be both surprised and
this book, you feel like an observer
pleased with what readers will dis-
who has been privileged with a seat
cover in his story.
at a great convention, at which the
I come away from this book with
scholars and sages of all the gen-
a sense that the conversation about
erations are sitting together and
the Binding of Isaac is not over yet. In
exchanging insights into what the
synagogue this Rosh Hashanah, who
ancient tale means to them.
knows what we may yet find in this
You look around the room, and
fascinating tale that we have read so
you see people who told the tale with often, but that has within it the capac-
an emphasis on Isaac's courage, and
ity to surprise us and enable us to see
sitting near them you see people
new things each time we read it. ❑
who focused on Sarah and what she
Rabbi Jack Riemer writes frequently for
would have said if she could have
journals of Jewish and general thought in
spoken.
America and abroad.
You see people who read the story
in Hebrew sitting next to people

•

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August 29 • 2013

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