Akeda twist challenges paradigm

I have been learning about the parsha of the week since I was a kid, first at Shaarei Torah Primary school in Yeoville, continuing at Torah Academy. My teachers held me and my classmates spell-bound with these fascinating stories. Granted, this was at a time when the alternatives were Wielie Walie and Atari tennis. But what still fascinates me more than 40 years later is the fact that every week, I discover something in the parsha that I have never heard before. 

I challenge you to have a similar experience with any other book. How many times can you read Harry Potter and discover a new idea that you never thought of before? How many years can you study Shakespeare and find a novel concept that really blows your mind? 

This week’s parsha deals with the Akeda, the Binding of Yitzchak. Not only do we read it every year in the parsha, it’s the leining for the second day of Rosh Hashanah. 

I always learnt that Hashem was testing Avraham, and that it was his most formidable test among the other nine he was subjected to. I also learnt that Avraham passed with flying colours. 

However, a few weeks ago, I heard an amazing shiur by Rabbi Efraim Palvanov that suggested that Avraham actually failed the test! 

Because of the Akeda, Sarah, Avraham’s beloved wife, dies. Surely this was an indication that something went wrong? 

Also, Avraham was 137 years old at the time of the Akeda, and he died at the age of 175. In those almost 40 years, isn’t it strange that Hashem doesn’t speak to him ever again and the Torah doesn’t record any conversations between him and his son, Yitzchak, after this incident. Avraham merely returns to Be’er Sheva to live out the rest of his life. 

Rabbi Palvanov explains that Avraham’s “mistake” was that when Hashem asked him to perform an act of human sacrifice, which was quite in vogue, Avraham should have challenged Hashem. He was no stranger to putting right the moral bankruptcy of his time. 

When Hashem informed him about the destruction of Sodom, Avraham challenged Hashem and tried to save as many lives as he could. Avraham stands as the voice of morality for the world. But when Hashem asked him to do the most deplorable thing, Avraham didn’t fight, he didn’t argue, he merely acquiesced. Avraham missed the opportunity to tell the world that G-d wants you to live for Him, and not be a martyr. Service to Hashem can never be a death-cult. 

I was fascinated by this concept, and enjoyed the mental challenge of trying to digest something that shifted my paradigm and decades-long thinking. 

The lesson here for me is: don’t stop learning. Don’t stop discovering the beautiful lessons of the Torah, and don’t stop questioning and challenging a perceived wrong. If you upgrade your cell phone every year, why not upgrade your Torah knowledge every year as well. 

Shabbat shalom.