30 | NOVEMBER 5 • 2020
W
hich of the two
major protagonists
of the akedah (bind-
ing of Isaac) suffered the greater
test: the father who had to sac-
rifice of his son or the son
who had to undergo the
anguish of being laid out
upon the altar?
Abraham received the
command directly from
God, but Isaac is even
more praiseworthy because
he only heard the com-
mand from his father yet
was willing to submit to
the sacrificial act. In doing
so, Isaac becomes the ideal
Jewish heir, continuing the
traditions of his father though
he himself has not heard the
Divine command.
But let us consider Abraham
himself. The Bible is unchar-
acteristically silent about why
God suddenly commanded
Abraham to leave Ur for
Canaan. Maimonides concludes
that Abraham must have
discovered ethical mono-
theism through his own
rational thinking and,
therefore, merited God’
s
election.
Consider, however,
that “Terah took his
son Abram … and
they departed from Ur
Kasdim to go to the
Land of Canaan; they
arrived at Haran and
they settled there … and
Terah died in Haran” (Genesis
11:31, 32).
Why tell us that Terah had
originally set out for Canaan
if he never reached it? The
Bible will soon record a meet-
ing between Abraham and
Melchizedek, king of Shalem
(Jerusalem, capital city of
Canaan). Is it not logical to
assume that there was one place
in the world where the idea of a
single God was still remembered
from the time of Adam, and that
place was Jeru-Shalem, Canaan?
If Terah had left Ur to reach
there, might it not have been to
identify with that land and with
that God of ethical monothe-
ism? May we not assume that
Abraham identified with his
father’
s spiritual journey?
We may now understand
why this story is followed by
God’
s command to Abraham:
Conclude the journey you began
with your father and reach the
destination and perhaps the
destiny which eluded him. God
also guarantees the patriarch,
“You will come to your fathers
in peace and will be buried in a
good old age.
” (Genesis 15:15)
To which of Abraham’
s fathers
will he come in peace after he
dies? According to the version
we have just suggested, it refers
to Terah.
Abraham, then, emerges
as the true continuator of his
father’
s mission. The biblical
message is that it behooves
us to continue in our parents’
footsteps and to pass down the
mission of ethical monotheism
from generation to generation.
Indeed, we must even attempt to
improve upon their vision and
accomplishments and to take
advantage of the new possibili-
ties the period in which we live
may provide for us.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor of
Ohr Torah Stone and chief rabbi of Efrat,
Israel.
Of Fathers & Sons
SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION
Rabbi
Shlomo
Riskin
Parshat
Vayera:
Genesis
18:1-22:24;
II Kings 4:1-37.
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