{"id":37543,"date":"2018-08-12T15:16:44","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T12:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=37543"},"modified":"2022-03-06T17:28:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-06T15:28:32","slug":"the-willingness-to-sacrifice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-willingness-to-sacrifice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Willingness to Sacrifice"},"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":[418,387],"acf":{"old_id":"37543","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33859,"related_cahpter":"22","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"To obey the call to desist was no less of a test of Abraham","content":"

Sacrifice is something of a dirty word these days, and all the more so when speaking of sacrificing <\/span>someone else<\/span><\/em> based on your own religious convictions. And rightfully so. We’re living in a world in which that sense of human sacrifice takes lives on a daily basis, and faith communities must be especially horrified at this corruption of religion. But if we want to understand this as a “corruption”, what do we do with the command to sacrifice Isaac in chapter 22?<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a chapter that has challenged readers of Torah for thousands of years, and which has inspired countless interpretations. It is far beyond the capacity of these short lines to even scratch the surface of that literature. But any reading that wants to be fully faithful to the text needs, at least, to recognize the religious import not only of the Divine call to sacrifice at the beginning of the chapter, but equally of the Divine call to desist at the story’s end. To obey the second call was certainly no less of a test of faith for Avraham, and perhaps even a greater one. Ultimately, what was demanded of Avraham, was the <\/span>willingness<\/span><\/em> to sacrifice everything, not the act of sacrifice itself. To demand that Avraham be <\/span>willing<\/span><\/em> to sacrifice his son is to send the message that survival and continuity are not concepts that are inherently meaningful. They do not justify themselves. It isn’t enough to live. We must live for something, and that means that we must be willing to ascribe greater value to that something than we do to life itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The paradox of the two Divine calls of chapter 22 is that the only way to live a life of meaning is by committing to a transcendent value for which we’d be willing to sacrifice for that life, and even to sacrifice life itself. But the call of the Torah is ultimately to live that paradox, not to die or kill for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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