This week’s parasha [Torah reading] is Vayera [Genesis 18:1 to 22:24], most famous for describing the Akedah, or “binding of Isaac”. As is well known, God seemingly commands Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, with no clear reason why He wants this. Later, the text suggests that it was a test of Abraham’s devotion to God: how much was Abraham willing to give up in his service of the Divine? The test seems quite cruel. How could God command a person to do something as abhorrent as sacrificing a child? Of course, child sacrifice is itself totally forbidden by Torah law, and God never intended for Abraham to hurt Isaac. In that case, why command such a thing in the first place?
Many interesting answers have been presented to deal with this. A careful analysis of the text shows that God never actually commanded Abraham to kill Isaac. Rather, he said to take him to Mt. Moriah and, literally, “elevate him as an elevation”. It is assumed that the word “elevation” (olah) is a “burnt-sacrifice”, since this is how the term would be used many times later in the Torah. However, this is not necessarily the case.
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Keywords: Binding of Isaac, Isaac, Abraham Isaac, Abraham sacrifices Isaac, Abraham sacrifices his son, Abraham told to kill Isaac, Slay Isaac, Akedah, Aqedah, Child sacrifice, Infanticide, human sacrifice, Vayera, Mt. Moriah, Mount Moriah
Bible reference(s): Gen 22
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