{"id":37540,"date":"2018-08-12T15:13:35","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T12:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=37540"},"modified":"2022-03-06T15:09:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-06T13:09:44","slug":"the-akeidah-binding-of-isaac-a-secular-interpretation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-akeidah-binding-of-isaac-a-secular-interpretation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Akeidah (Binding of Isaac): A Secular Interpretation"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[418,375,436],"acf":{"old_id":"37540","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37441,"related_cahpter":"22","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Staging a drama to insure continuity - whether it makes sense or not","content":"

The common ground of all Jewish identities are several foundational stories that have shed their obvious historical signs of time and place and have become myths. These myths have become the components of the infrastructure of both religious and secular Jewish consciousness and identity, and have effectively preserved the identity of many Jews over thousands of years.<\/span><\/p>\n

I dare to say that the myth of the Akedah (\u201cThe Binding of Isaac\u201d) is more important to Jewish consciousness than the myth of crucifixion to Christians. For although the myth of Jesus\u2019 crucifixion is a cornerstone in the religious consciousness of Christians, the myth of the Akedah is of great importance and meaning both in the religious realm and in the Jewish national realm.<\/span><\/p>\n

The heart of the story raises serious moral problems, and here I do not have much new to add. If I were a religious person, that is, someone who believed in the existence of Divine Providence, and in the existence of a God who actually spoke to Abraham, the story of the Akedah would have been morally damaging to my religious faith. Abraham’s behavior is morally egregious. The opening sentence: “God put Abraham to the test” (Genesis 22:1) softens the cruelty of God, for there was no intention here to carry out the inexplicable slaughter of Isaac but only a test of the power of Abraham’s faith. God clearly signifies here that he can be absolutely unjust. \u00a0And without regard to Abraham’s actual response, the very willingness of God to subject Abraham to such a test is a sign of a moral flaw.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abraham’s moral fault is more severe than God\u2019s. Without advancing arguments, questions, or objections, Abraham is willing to fulfill a completely inscrutable and unjust divine command. And in order to prove the extent of his faith and trust in God, Abraham is prepared to abandon logic and sense of natural justice and to actually kill an innocent human being.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems to me that it is possible to partially salvage the morality of this story by understanding it from a purely secular perspective that asserts that there is no God, and that Abraham’s actions are completely autonomous. That is, he made them based on his own calculations and out of his own free will.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a mature age, Abraham left his father Terah\u2019s house for the sake of a new faith. Now, at the end of his life, and after he finally had a son from his wife Sarah, he could well imagine that his son might do to him what he had done to his father. How could Abraham ensure that such a thing did not happen to his son?<\/span><\/p>\n

Abraham tries to ensure the continuity of his new faith by engraving it in the chain of generations that will be born of his descendants. He thus stages a drama through which he will try to ensure the continuity of his faith in his son Isaac. \u00a0In other words, he wants to embed in Isaac the continuity of his faith in the One God not only intellectually but in an existential way. It is as if he says to Isaac: \u201cWhether or not you like this God of mine, whether this belief system makes sense to you or not, you must ensure its continuity and accept it, for all your existence and life have been given to you by virtue of it. If you do not believe in my faith, you will die out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to this secular interpretation, Abraham did not intend to kill Isaac at first, but only to threaten him and frighten him. Thus, Abraham is innocent of murderous intent or blind obedience to a “divine” command to commit murder. But he is not exempt from the fear of Isaac. Indeed, the concept of “Isaac\u2019s fear\/terror” (see Genesis 31:42) is a dominant concept born from the story of the Akedah and is found in our prayers and in our medieval religious poetry. This is the case even if he did not intend to kill but only threaten Isaac. And it, too, is morally problematic.<\/span><\/p>\n

(This essay is a summary of a longer article by the same title which can be found in Hebrew at<\/span> www.929.org.il\/page\/22\/post\/678<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":87308,"id":87308,"title":"ps94-bind bound chain","filename":"ps94-bind-bound-chain.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-bind-bound-chain.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/binding-and-bonding\/ps94-bind-bound-chain\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps94-bind-bound-chain","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":87298,"date":"2021-01-21 17:20:50","modified":"2022-03-06 13:09:41","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":1121,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-bind-bound-chain-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-bind-bound-chain-300x263.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":263,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-bind-bound-chain-768x673.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":673,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-bind-bound-chain-1024x897.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":897,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-bind-bound-chain.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1121,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-bind-bound-chain.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1121,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-bind-bound-chain-1200x1051.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1051,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps94-bind-bound-chain-480x420.png","home_baner-width":480,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Akeidah (Binding of Isaac): A Secular Interpretation","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Staging a drama to insure continuity - 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