Q: Can you explain the Akaida Yitzchok to me? I heard he did die but didn’t go to shamayim and came back to Avraham years later.
A: In Vaikrah 26-42 the verse says: ”Then I
will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also
My covenant with Abraham I will remember”. A Midrash and Sifra quoted in
Rashi explain: “Why was there not stated “remembering” in reference to Isaac?
However the ashes of Isaac appear before Me, heaped up and lying on the altar”.
There is another version to the Sifra
which includes the word “Keilu”, “as if” it were heaped, but not in reality, as
Isaac survived the ordeal (see: Beur Stumoth Rashi p.219). Another more common interpretation is that it
refers to the ashes of the ram, who took Isaac’s place as an offering on that
altar. Some add that: “Shelucho shel odom kemoto”, “An agent acting on ones
behalf, is like oneself” (ibid.) so the ram was seen as Isaac himself, though
it would be questionable to apply that principle to animals.
Another Halachick principle quoted is “Kol
Haomed Lisrof Kesaruf Domi”, “Anything that stands to be consumed by fire is
like it has been consumed already” (Ikahen Peer, Vayerah). A term used thorough
the Talmud, so halachakly, Isaac was seen as already consumed by the fire.
A more spiritual interpretation is given in
the Zohar: “When Isaac was offered on the altar his Neshamah (soul) of this
world departed. But as Abraham recited the Bracha of “Mechaiei Hametim”, a new
Neshamah of the World to Come was given to him”. So in that sense, Isaac did
depart partially from this world. (Bosee Learmonee p. 100)
On that line, Maharam M’pano (Chikur Hadin
2-8) adds: that from the departing soul of Isaac the ram acquired a physical
entity. As this ram was formed at the
very end of the days of creation (see Pirkei Avoth ch. 5), it originally had
only a potential existence, it materialized during the Akeidah in conjunction
with the departing Neshamah of Isaac, so the ashes were in that sense actually
Isaacs. This gives special meaning to the Midrash quoted by Rashi (Bereshit
22-13) that: “On every service (on the ram done by Abraham), he would pray and
say: let it be Your will, that this (service) should be considered, as if it
was performed on my son”
Rabbi Boruch M. Ezrahi (Birchas Mordechai –
Bechukotay) construes the following elucidation: “This (the ashes of Isaac that
appear before Hashem) teaches us that sacrifice creates its own reality. Isaac’s selflessness, abnegation, and will to
sacrifice, even if it did not materialize, generated a new certainty by
itself. It is that spiritual
reality what appeared before Hashem.
Important Numbers
