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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