D'Var Torah on the Akeida, Rosh Hashana 5766

By Dolfy Freinquel
October 5, 2005

We have just read from the Torah the traditional portion that is read during the second day of Rosh Hashanah:

Abraham is asked by G-d to bring his son to the top of Mount Moriah and to offer him as a sacrifice.

Abraham accepts G-d's request and sets on a journey to fulfill G-d's will.

When the moment of performing the sacrifice arrives and Abraham stretches his hand and takes the sacrificial knife, an angel appears and tells him not to cause any harm to Yitzchak.

Abraham raises his eyes and sees a ram ensnared within the bushes by its horns.

Abraham takes the ram and offers it as a burnt offering.

There have been many interpretations on these passages, from different points of view, opposite in nature and very much influenced by the values of the writer.

The focus on these interpretations may be placed on G-d, on Abraham, on Yitzchak, on Sarah who is behind the scenes, and even on the ram who ends up being used as the sacrifice, but for the sake of brevity, I am going to focus on Abraham and the challenge that he faces.

Drawing ideas from mystical sources like the Zohar, from "Etz Chayim" by Reb Yitzchak Luria, from "Likutey Moharan" by Reb Nachman of Breslov, and from contemporary authors like Joel Ziff and Reb Zalman Shachter, I would like to offer one of those perspectives.

I would like to focus today on the subject of tests.

Even though the type of test to which Abraham was exposed was big and difficult in nature, I would like to present the idea that we all as individuals, as families, as institutions and communities and even as countries, are subject to tests similar in nature to the one of Abraham.

The pattern that I have observed is the following:

At a very important moment of growth we are presented with a test that is totally opposite to our basic nature, to our core beliefs, to the main skills that we have developed in our lives.

For example, if we are very generous with our time we are tested in a situation where we need to act selfishly and need to say no.

Another example: if we are very protective of our children, knowing that it is so important to provide a safe environment, we are tested in a situation where we really need to let go and be trusting…and so on.

So, we're presented with the test that is opposite to our nature. And we know in a deep place that it is time for us accept this test. We get ready to face it and we brace ourselves for the worst. But once we take that leap of faith, because it is all about faith, the ram appears in the thicket and we realize that the end result is good beyond our expectations.

According to our sages there are two main ways in which we connect to life, to the universe, to the small everyday picture, and to the larger picture of our existence. These two main processes give origin to the basic ways in which we think, feel and act, and each of us as individuals, but also as families, communities, etc., tend to have more affinity towards one than towards the other.

These two aspects are chesed and gevurah…also known as ahavah and yirah.

The main meaning of chesed is love, lovingkindness, and as Reb Zalman defines it in a very poetic way, "when the baby cries, and the milk in the nursing mother lets down…that is chesed"... a sense of goodwill that cannot wait to give. Chesed is unconditional love, acceptance, outgoing flow…Seeing each situation with a YES.

Gevurah, on the other hand, is a withdrawal of forces, restraint, control, saying NO. Containment coming from a sort of fear or caution and awe. It is Force and strength under discipline.

Both elements are required for wholeness, both are needed when used in the proper way, none of them is better than the other, and each of us tend naturally more to one side than to the other…and this is perfectly acceptable.

For example, if we are faced with the possibility to cut some old-growth trees in our backyard in order to develop the land for new buildings, some of us may decide not to do it out of the love that we feel for those trees. We just cannot do it because it is too painful. Others of us may decide not to do it because we know that if we cut those trees, during the next rainy season we will have to face the consequences of landslides…chesed and gevurah.

Abraham, in theory the first Jew, is recognized at every level as the archetype of Chesed. His relationship to life, to G-d, to people was a relationship of love, a YES of constant giving, hospitable to strangers: his tent was always open. He had an inner force of loving kindness that could not be stopped….. it is as if he did not know about Gevurah.

The tests that Abraham had to endure through his life and especially the binding of Yitzchak, where tests where he had to exercise the power of Gevurah, needing to display strength and determination under discipline. He had to be tested by life, by the universe by being placed in an excruciatingly difficult situation, going against the most core beliefs of his existence.

On the top of the mountain, with Yitzchak on the altar, Abraham gathers the strength and the courage, but mainly the faith to trust the fact that he needs to face the test and he lifts up his knife and expects the worst. The universe - the bigger reality - answers with the gift of surprise, with a gift full of mercy. The angel appears and he sees the ram that will replace his son as a sacrifice.

The tension gets resolved in a higher and more beneficial way than the way it would have been resolved had he not faced the test. He passes the test and becomes more whole, with the wholeness that he needed at his late stage in life.

When our intent is to grow, to develop our wholeness, when with faith we are open to face these difficult tests, the universe, the larger reality, G-d, react back to us with mercy and benevolence.

Reading this passage of the Torah on Rosh Hashanah stimulates us to remember:

• that there is a side in each of us (community, family, etc.) that needs to be developed in order to achieve wholeness.


• that many of the episodes when we missed the mark are related to our lack of familiarity and to our resistance to access this part in us.


• and that especially in these days when we are willing to reach to that place and act with faith, the universal energies, the bigger reality that surrounds us, G-d, are there to surprise us with an unbelievable amount of mercy, benevolence and understanding.

May the sound of the shofar this Rosh Hashanah help us all to wake up and to be reminded that when we go to that place of faith in order to look inside for those difficult to access aspects….and that when we make ourselves ready for the test…..the universe is ready to respond to us with benevolence and mercy in the same way that the Divine was ready to respond to Abraham.

Shanah tovah v’chatimah tovah.