Tag Archives: Chessed

Did Abraham Pass the Test?

This week’s parasha, Vayera, contains one of the most difficult passages in the entire Torah, the Akedah or “Binding of Isaac”. Just about everyone reading this narrative will inevitably ask: how could Hashem have commanded child sacrifice? Even though He stopped it from happening, and Abraham didn’t go through with it, how could this have even come up? How is it that Abraham is seemingly blessed for “not withholding” his son from Hashem (Genesis 22:12)? Does God really want child sacrifice, or demand that level of obedience? Is it even morally acceptable? Many more questions emerge from the narrative:

Why is it that here, with the Akedah, Abraham does not question God at all? Previously, when God tells Abraham that He is about to obliterate everyone and everything in Sodom, Abraham challenges God. Yet here, Abraham is silent. Why is that the Torah says “Abraham returned to Beer Sheva” (22:19) but Isaac is not mentioned? In fact, Isaac doesn’t go to Beer Sheva at all, but lives in a totally different place in Be’er Lachai Roi (24:62). We don’t see Abraham and Isaac speaking ever again, and strangely Abraham does not even bless Isaac on his deathbed, as we find with all the other forefathers. It’s not only Isaac that seemingly never speaks to Abraham again, but neither does Sarah, who tragically passes away immediately upon hearing of the incident. Finally, we don’t see Hashem ever speaking to Abraham again either! It begs the question: Did Abraham really pass the test?

Of course, the Torah explicitly tells us that he did, and that God blessed him for it. The Mishnah in Avot adds that Abraham passed all ten of his tests (5:3). But we also know that there is a difference between passing a test with a C grade, and passing with an A+. Surely and undoubtedly, Abraham was a huge tzadik and beloved by Hashem, as the Torah repeats multiple times. That said, many of our Sages questioned the whole Akedah episode, and struggled with its mysteries and implications. The Midrash (Beresheet Rabbah 56:8) states that Abraham misunderstood the test:

Rabbi Aha said: Abraham began to express his confusion, [saying to God]: “These events are nothing short of bewildering! Yesterday, You said: ‘For it is through Isaac that will be called your descendants’ (Genesis 21:12), then You said: ‘Take you your son […and offer him up]’ (Genesis 22:2), and now You say to me: ‘Do not extend your hand against the lad’? This is bewildering!” The Holy One blessed be He said to Abraham: ‘“I will not violate My covenant, nor alter the utterance of My lips’ (Psalms 89:35) – when I said to you: ‘Take you your son,’ I did not say: ‘Slaughter him,’ but rather, ‘elevate him.’ I said this to you in affection. You have elevated him and fulfilled My word, now take him down!”

The Midrash points out that God never told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac; He literally just said to “elevate” him! Of course, there was never any intention of an immoral child sacrifice. The Midrash continues:

They said a parable; this is analogous to a king who said to his friend: “Bring your son up to [eat at] my table.” He brought him to him, knife in hand. The king said: “Did I say to bring him up in order to eat him? I said: Bring him up out of affection for him!” That is what is written: “[They built altars on which to burn their sons and daughters in fire, something that I never commanded] and which never entered My heart” (Jeremiah 19:5) – this refers to Isaac.

When Jeremiah, like many prophets, critiques the idolaters for their cruel pagan child sacrifices, he quotes Hashem as saying that such “devotion” never entered God’s heart. The Midrash says this refers to Isaac himself, and God never wanted nor commanded a child sacrifice. Abraham misunderstood the assignment. Yes, he passed the test on one level, and showed his unwavering devotion. But that wasn’t quite the point. The point was to recognize that God would never demand an immoral child sacrifice. It was to realize that Judaism is not pagan, and would never involve any kind of human sacrifice, God forbid. Even if God Himself commands a person to do something like this, the correct response is to refuse! This is similar to the way Moses refused God’s offer to expunge the Israelites following the Golden Calf and make a new nation out of Moses. Moses boldly countered: “Erase me, then, from Your book!” (Exodus 32:32)

It is also similar to Rabbi Yehoshua’s bold reply to the Bat Kol during the incident of Tanur shel Achnai. Even when God’s own voice resonated through the study hall to insist that Rabbi Eliezer was correct in his halakhic ruling, Rabbi Yehoshua looked up and said lo bashamayim hi, “It is not in Heaven!” (Deuteronomy 30:12) The rabbis overruled God. When Rabbi Natan later met Eliyahu and asked how God had responded up in Heaven, Eliyahu related that God laughed and said nitzchuni banai, “My children have overruled Me!” Our rabbis passed the test by refusing to heed the Bat Kol! Moses, too, passed the test by refusing God’s offer. God gave us a divine intellect and commanded us to use it wisely. He made us His partners in Creation, and wants us to think for ourselves. We are not meant to be brainless drones. This is the very meaning of the name Israel, “for you have struggled [sarita] with Elohim and with people, and prevailed!” (Genesis 32:29)

The Role of Satan

The Zohar (I, 10b) takes a very different approach to the Akedah, and suggests that the whole thing was a punishment:

Whom do we have in the world greater than Abraham, whose benevolence extended to all creatures? However, on the day that he prepared a feast—as it is written: “And the child grew, and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned” (Genesis 21:8)—to that feast Abraham invited all the great men of the age. Now we have been taught that whenever a banquet is given, that “Accuser” [Satan] comes to spy out whether the host has first dispensed charity and invited poor people to his house. If he finds that it is so, he departs without entering the house. But if not, he goes in and surveys the merry-making, and having taken note that no charity had been sent to the poor nor had any been invited to the feast, he ascends above and brings accusations against the host.

Thus, when Abraham invited to his feast the great men of the age, the Accuser came and appeared at the door in the guise of a poor man, but no one took notice of him. Abraham was attending on the kings and magnates… The Accuser then presented himself before the Holy One, blessed be He, and said to Him: “Master of the world, You have said “Abraham is My beloved”, yet he has made a feast and has not given anything to You nor to the poor, nor has he offered up to You so much as one pigeon…

Said the Holy One, blessed be He: “Who in this world can be compared to Abraham?” Nevertheless, the Accuser did not stir from there until he had spoiled all the festivity; and God then commanded Abraham to offer up Isaac as an offering, and it was decreed that Sarah should die from anguish on account of her son’s danger—all because Abraham did not give anything to the poor!

The Zohar states that both the Akedah and the death of Sarah was because of a lack of kindness and charity on the part of Abraham, who was usually the very epitome of kindness and charity. It appears the test itself came much earlier, at the weaning feast of Isaac, and Abraham the paragon of Chessed was tested with Chessed. The Zohar suggests Abraham failed this test, and the punishment was the Akedah!

It is worth noting that the ancient apocryphal Book of Jubilees has a similar suggestion, saying that the whole Akedah was Satan’s doing. In Chapter 17, Satan (called “Mastema” here) comes before God and questions Abraham’s devotion. The passage is reminiscent of the way Satan appears before God in the Book of Job, and gets permission to harm and test Job. Satan suggests the Akedah to prove that Abraham’s devotion is complete. Apparently, it was Satan’s idea! That would explain both the Midrash quoted above where God says He never commanded the Akedah (and it never “arose in His heart”); as well as the well-known Midrash that Satan tried to stop Abraham from going up to the Akedah, including by creating a mirage of a raging river to block Abraham’s journey. Satan had to do what he could to stop it, since it was his idea to begin with, and he thought Abraham would never go through with it!

A Diversity of Perspectives

While we commonly hear rabbis praising Abraham for being so devoted to Hashem that he was willing to sacrifice his own son, others were far more critical. Perhaps the most explicit statement came from the Rosh (Rabbeinu Asher ben Yechiel, c. 1250-1327), in his comments on the verse “Jacob is God’s own allotment” (Deuteronomy 32:11). The literal reading of the verse, Ya’akov chevel nachalato, implies that Jacob is the start of God’s “rope” of inheritance. The Rosh asks: why Jacob? Why not Abraham, the first patriarch? And he says it is because “Abraham was cruel [akhzari] to want to sacrifice his son and not pray for him instead… But Jacob had compassion for all of his children.” Jacob thus merited to be “Israel”.

Indeed, the Tanakh speaks out so many times against cruel human and child sacrifices, and calls out the wicked Canaanites, Moabites, and others for engaging in these practices and sacrificing children to their gods Molech and Chemosh. It is one of the 613 commandments not to sacrifice a child or “pass a child through a flame” (Deuteronomy 18:10). So how could God ever demand such a thing, and how could Abraham ever think to go along with it?

Some rabbis held that the whole Akedah episode must have only been a dream, and didn’t physically happen. (This was explored fully in Garments of Light, Volume Two, in the chapter titled ‘The Shocking Opinion that the Akedah Never Happened’.) According to this view, Abraham only saw the Akedah in a vision, and proved his devotion virtually. Of those who held this view, perhaps the most notable is the Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, 1138-1204) who, as a general rule, believed that any time an angel is mentioned in the Torah, it must be a dream. The Rambam wrote that “in the case of everyone about whom exists a Scriptural text that an angel talked to him or that speech came to him from God, this did not occur in any other way than in a dream or in a prophetic vision.” (Moreh Nevukhim, Part 2, Ch. 41)

Yet a third approach holds that the test was not Abraham’s at all, but Isaac’s! Targum Yonatan records:

And it was after these things that Isaac and Ishmael contended; and Ishmael said: “It is right that I should inherit what is our father’s because I am his firstborn son.” And Isaac said: “It is right that I should inherit what is our father’s, because I am the son of Sarah his wife, and you are the son of Hagar the handmaid of my mother.” Ishmael said: “I am more righteous than you, because I was circumcised at thirteen years; and if it had been my will to hinder, they should not have delivered me to be circumcised; but you were circumcised a child eight days; if you had knowledge, perhaps they could not have delivered you to be circumcised!” Isaac said: “Behold, today I am thirty-six years old; and if the Holy One, blessed be He, were to demand my whole body, I would not delay.” These words were heard before the Master of the Universe, and the Word of God immediately came to Abraham, and said to him: “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am”…

The Targum suggests it was Isaac’s test more than Abraham’s, to prove his devotion to God and to prove himself more worthy than his half-brother Ishmael.

Whatever the case, what we can say for sure is this: the Torah explicitly forbids child sacrifice, and it is one of the 365 prohibitions of the 613 mitzvot. God does not demand such cruel obedience, and never did. Judaism is a religion of life, not death. Unlike other religions that glorify death and martyrdom, Judaism’s highest value is life. The Torah is a “tree of life for those who grasp it” (Proverbs 3:18). Abraham may have passed the test and showed his unwavering devotion, but as the Midrash states, he seems to have misunderstood the whole assignment. It is Jacob that ultimately merits to become Israel, embodying our mission to “wrestle with Elohim, and with people, and prevail.”

For a deeper understanding of sacrifices and further discussion of the Akedah, see the following class:

Kabbalah of the Omer

What is the deeper significance behind the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot? Why do we count the days, and what is their mystical connection to the Sefirot? Also, where did “mourning” during Sefirat haOmer really originate, and what is the proper way to approach these customs? Find out in this eye-opening class as we dive into Sefirat haOmer and explore what it takes to become a complete, refined human. Plus, the primordial elements associated with the Sefirot, and a Kabbalistic look at Yom ha’Atzmaut, Yom Yerushalayim, and Yom haShoah.

 

The Hidden Geometry of Pirkei Avot

Between the holidays of Pesach and Shavuot it is customary to read one chapter of Pirkei Avot on each of the six Sabbaths. While the plain text of the Mishnaic tractate Avot is already full of significant statements that can be meditated on at length, a closer look reveals much more beneath the surface. One thing that becomes clear is that each chapter has its own unique structure and essence. When it comes to Chapter One, we find an obvious pattern—a hidden geometry based on a fundamental Kabbalistic principle. As is well-known, the central concept of Jewish mysticism is the framework of the Ten Sefirot. These are arranged in three columns, and in three rows:

The most important of the three rows is the middle one; composed of Chessed on the right, Gevurah on the left, and Tiferet in the centre. In fact, mystical texts often see the entire right column as an extension of Chessed, and the entire left column as Gevurah, and the entire middle column as Tiferet. The dichotomy between Chessed and Gevurah permeates Jewish writings, both mystical and plain. For example, in Jewish law one must put on their right shoe first and their right sleeve first, and just about everything is done with the right side first—to favour the side of Chessed, kindness. This is also why the right tefillin strap is longer than the left, and why we wash the right hand first in netilat yadayim. We favour the right because the left is Gevurah, “restraint” or “severity”, also known as Din, “judgement”. The left is a more “negative” quality, and is also associated with the impure forces of the Sitra Achra, along with the evil inclination. We favour the right in order to overpower the left.

Balancing these two is Tiferet in the middle, also referred to as Rachamim, “mercy” or “compassion”, as well as Emet, “truth”. Too much Chessed is not good, just as too little Gevurah is not good. A person should judge themselves regularly in order to iron out their own weaknesses and improve. And a person should not be too kind and easy-going, for then they might become a pushover and get taken advantage of. The true path is Tiferet, where severity is mitigated by kindness—hence the term Rachamim, or mercy (for more, see ‘The Meaning of Tiferet’). This is actually where many practices in Judaism come from.

For example, it is customary to add a few drops of water to the Kiddush cup of wine. This is because the red, bitter wine represents Gevurah, while the clear, life-giving water represents Chessed. Adding water serves to “sweeten the judgement”, and brings balance to the opposing forces. For the same reason, Israel has three patriarchs: first came the overly hospitable and generous Abraham, who was Chessed; then came the tough, reclusive Isaac (whose relationship with God is described as pachad, “fear”), who was Gevurah; only then came the wholesome Jacob to balance the previous two. Due to his measured approach, it was Jacob who merited becoming “Israel” and fathering the nation. Abraham leaned just a bit too far to the right, while Isaac was just a bit too far on the left. In Jacob, God had the perfect balance. Fittingly, our tractate is called Avot, literally “patriarchs”, so there is an obvious allusion to our three patriarchs here. Indeed, we find that the first chapter is built all around such threes.

Truth in Threes

The Kabbalistic trifecta described above is not just a mystical idea, but is seen as the foundation for all of Creation. It represents the cosmic balance of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Three is a most special number, and the Talmud (Shabbat 88a) points out that God “gave a three-fold Torah to a three-fold people through a third-born, on the third day, in the third month.” There are three parts to the Holy Scriptures (Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim), and three parts to the Jewish people (Kohen, Levi, Israel), and Moses was a third-born child (after Miriam and Aaron), and the Torah was given on Sinai after three days of purification, in the third month of Sivan. All of these threes reflect the mystical trio of Chessed, Gevurah, and Tiferet.

Similarly, we see that many statements in Pirkei Avot are relayed in three clauses. In fact, every single verse in the first chapter of Pirkei Avot is split into three. When further examining each verse, we see how the Sages clearly paralleled each of their three clauses to one of the three Sefirot. The first teaching comes from the men of the Great Assembly who taught: “Be cautious in judgement, raise many disciples, and make a fence around the Torah.” The first explicitly speaks of din, “judgement”, referring to the Sefirah of Gevurah. The second is about having many students, just as Chessed represents abundance (while Gevurah is restraint), and just as Abraham was famous for having many students (while Isaac, our Sages say, only had one). The last clause is about the Torah, and the Kabbalists always speak of the Torah as emanating from the central Sefirah of Tiferet, or Emet.

In the next verse, Shimon haTzadik teaches that “the world stands on three things: on the Torah, on the service of God, and on acts of kindness.” Once more, the parallel to the three Sefirot is clear: kindness is Chessed, service (avodah, literally “labour”) is Gevurah, and the Torah is Tiferet. Shimon’s student Antigonus taught: “Do not be as servants who serve their master for the sake of a reward; rather, be as servants who serve their master not for the sake of a reward; and may the awe of Heaven always be upon you.” The one who serves his master (or Master) only out of obligation and fear is in the difficult realm of Gevurah, while the one who serves his master out of love is, of course, in Chessed. Whatever the case, one should never forget the truth of who the real Master is, and have the awe of Heaven upon them (Tiferet).

Then comes Yose ben Yoezer: “Let your home be a meeting place for the wise; dust yourself in the soil of their feet, and drink thirstily of their words.” The wise, like the Torah, stem from the Sefirah of Tiferet. One should roll around in the dust of their feet (meaning to humble one’s self before them, which is Gevurah) and drink thirstily (evoking water and abundance, both symbolic of Chessed).

His partner, Yose ben Yochanan, taught: “Let your home be wide open, and let the poor be members of your household, and do not engage in excessive conversation with the woman…” To have one’s door open is to be hospitable—Chessed. To remember the poor, who are undoubtedly experiencing tremendous din upon them, is Gevurah. We have already discussed in the past the real meaning of not speaking excessively to “the” woman. Rabbi Yose explains that this will ultimately lead a man to “neglect the study of Torah”—Tiferet.

Yehoshua ben Perachiah then famously says: “Assume for yourself a master, acquire for yourself a friend, and judge every man to the side of merit.” One’s master will (hopefully) lead them to the balanced life and teach them truth—Tiferet; a friend is a companion in Chessed; judging others favourably is the right way to approach Din and Gevurah.

Nitai haArbeli speaks next: “Distance yourself from a bad neighbor, do not cleave to a wicked person, and do not abandon belief in retribution.” While one should always be kind to their neighbours, they should also be weary of the bad apples. Remember, too much Chessed is not a good thing! One should certainly distance from the wicked person (who is attached to that negative Left Side). And no matter how hopeless it may seem (especially now with what’s going on in the world), there will in fact be a great reckoning to come, just as the Torah promises—do not lose hope in this truth! The “era of Tiferet” will soon be upon us, so don’t abandon belief in divine retribution.

Yehuda ben Tabbai then says that one should not act like a lawyer (Chessed), and one should be neutral when judging (Gevurah), and once judgement is passed one should see both litigants as righteous since they have accepted the truth (Tiferet). His colleague Shimon ben Shetach similarly teaches that a judge should be diligent in questioning witnesses in order to reach the correct verdict (Chessed), though a person should be restrained in their speech and careful with every word (Gevurah), lest their speech lead to the proliferation of falsehood (the opposite of Tiferet and Emet).

One can continue in this manner for the rest of the chapter and unravel the three-part structure of every phrase, with clear allusions to Chessed, Gevurah, and Tiferet each time. The very last verse mirrors the first, and gives the most explicit reference to these three Sefirot. In the beginning, Shimon haTzadik told us that the world stands on three things, and now at the end Shimon ben Gamliel tells us the world endures through three things: Din, Emet, and Shalom, three alternate names for Gevurah, Tiferet, and Chessed, respectively. In this way, we can understand each line of the first chapter of Avot on a far more profound level.

Shabbat Shalom!