2003-10-04 - 9:53 p.m.
WHAT OF ISAAC?
Last week, during the Rosh Hashana service, our assistant rabbi gave a sermon. Usually, her sermons are banal. She is nice. She is thoroughly nice---and she is thoroughly uninteresting. But this time, somewhere inside the sermon she actually gave, was an interesting sermon fighting to get out. Too bad it never made it (or that I never perfected my uncle's trick of sleeping from the first word to the last but no longer.) Still, it was enough to start me thinking.
As happens every year, the text for the sermon was the binding of Isaac. If I only had her High Holiday sermons to judge her ability on, fairness would require me to note that there are only so many themes one can draw from a very, very familiar story. But I attend often enough to know that most of the time she either cannot or will not stray from the ordinary. This time, however, one of her musings was not ordinary although she did not develop it or really think about it herself.
She asked the question and then she moved on as if she never had asked it at all. What was the story to Isaac? It seems fairly clear from the text that Abraham did not tell Isaac what he had in mind. What would have happened if he had?
You can cite parental authority for his failure to discuss the situation with Isaac and, given the culture of the time, perhaps Abraham had no need to discuss it with Isaac, even though it appears that Isaac was thirty or so at the time. Certainly, it does not appear that Abraham discussed finding a wife for Isaac with Isaac. There is no indication that the two of them regularly sat down and discussed much of anything.
Still, what would have happened if he had? Would Isaac have said, �Okay, Dad, I trust your discussions and your God? I will go.� Would he have said, �Don�t you think that if God wants my life, God should ask me?� Would he have simply said, �No way, Dad?�
And perhaps it goes one step further. The more interesting question may be whether Isaac was Abraham�s to sacrifice at all. Sure, God asked Abraham to do it. But on other occasions, Abraham argued with God. He argued with God over Sodom and Gemorrah and God seemed pleased with Abraham. Many people see Abraham as having passed the test when he was willing to sacrifice Isaac but perhaps he failed it. Maybe God was waiting for Abraham to argue for Isaac�s life and maybe God was disappointed when he did not.
Then again, perhaps the rabbi did not follow up because it would not lead to tidy answers? And isn�t it the job of religion to give us tidy answers?
IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM:
Getting Along
Judith
Toehold
I am Afraid
Wanting to Want
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
