For more than a century, Avraham had taught the world of his compassionate God – a deity that demanded ethical conduct and loving kindness while eschewing human sacrifice. All of his life’s work and personal values were now threatened.
Yet to the very end, Avraham was God’s faithful servant, an obedient subject who would stop at nothing to fulfill His will. He took his beloved son on the three-day journey, one that must have felt like a decade-long odyssey for the aged man and his son.
At last they reached the designated spot, alone on a mountaintop overlooking the Judean Desert. Without hesitation, Avraham organized the wood and prepared his beloved son by binding his hands and feet behind him. Only as the cold metal blade met Isaac’s neck did a heavenly voice ring out, halting Avraham in his tracks. Isaac would, in fact, live on.
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Avraham was one of the great truth-seekers of all time. He was also famous for his kindheartedness, hospitality, advocacy, and self-sacrifice. But the attribute that truly epitomized his essence was his drive – the internal fortitude that allowed him to forge a lonely, dutiful path in an overwhelmingly pagan world. He was prepared to stand alone in a society that neither understood nor tolerated what he represented. And he was sufficiently convinced of the veracity of his position to die for it.
The Jewish people, his offspring, have followed squarely in his footsteps. They have stood alone for thousands of years, often in direct conflict with, and under uninterrupted attack from, the world around them. To dedicate oneself to the ultimate cause of perfecting the world, even at the cost of one’s physical and emotional wellbeing, requires tremendous resolve and strength of character. From Avraham onward, this idealism was clearly reflected in the drive of the collective Jewish personality, bequeathed, as it were, to future generations, as if through our genetic code.
In these weeks, as we are reconnected through the weekly Torah readings with Avraham, Sarah, and their illustrious progeny, let us reflect on the tremendous opportunity and obligation we have as their descendants. May their memory and example inspire us to reach deep within ourselves to realize our untapped potential, and in doing so may we achieve levels of greatness we never thought possible.
