Thread by @JustSayXtian

This is a popular exegetical take in progressive Judaism - I hold by it for sure - and a good example of both projecting contemporary socio-religious ideas backward AND grounding them in the actual text.

https://twitter.com/NestaNBM/status/1436076406958604293

To start off, there's the examination of how it fits in the narrative. At first glance, it seems counter-intuitive, right? God flat out says "Because you have done this ... I will bestow my blessing upon you". Seems straightforward enough. But then what *happens*?

After the Akeidah, God never speaks to Abraham again. The story tells us that *Abraham* returned to his servants and *Abraham* stayed in Beer-Sheba. Not Abraham and Isaac - just Abraham.

Then we hear that Sara dies in Kiriath-arba. Not in Beer-Sheba, which is where we were told Abraham is. Later, when Abraham is dying, he tells his servant to seek a wife for Isaac - but where *is* Isaac? We learn that he has settled in the Negeb.

By the plain text, after Abraham's test he never speaks to God, or to his wife, or to his son ever again. This doesn't seem like the story of a man who has done well and earned praise for his actions.

But then, if Abraham *didn't* do well, if he *didn't* pass the test, why does God say "because you have done this ... I will bestow my blessing on you"?

Rabbi Paul Kipnes likens it to a parent reacting to a child who wrote "I love you Daddy" in crayon on a freshly painted wall. How do you react to an expression of love, made in a way that is objectively destructive, bad behavior?

Maybe, in the moment, you take a deep breath and just say "I love you too. Thank you for doing such a generous, loving thing for me." And then *later* you deal with the consequences for making a big, expensive mess.

And then there's the ambiguity in the text - what was it, exactly, that Abraham was told to do? The Hebrew word, which certainly *can* mean a burnt offering, can also literally be translated as "bring him up to ascend". It's the same root word as 'aliyah' - to go up to the Torah.

Rashi points this out in his commentary - God does not actually say "sacrifice Isaac". Bereshit Rabbah expands on the same observation, with God telling Abraham directly "I said 'take your son', I did not say 'slaughter him'".

So if God decided to test Abraham, and God said "take Isaac up", but God did NOT say "and slaughter him", and then Abraham *assumed* that he should sacrifice the child that God had previously promised would be the continuation of the covenant ... isn't that failing the test?

And then, looking really closely at the word choices - the Akeidah starts with a phrase that is often translated as "some time afterward". Literally it's "and it happened after these things/words". The phrase 'these things/words' is "h'devrim h'elah". Which might sound familiar.

It's said every day as part of the Shema - 'v'hayu *h'devrim h'elah* asher anochi mitzavcha h'yom' - 'and it will be that *these things/words* that I command you today'. In that context "these things/words" is pretty clearly the Torah itself.

And there are lots of other places where that same phrase - h'devrim h'elah - is used to refer to the teachings that God is conferring to the Israelites through Moses.

In Exodus 34:27, when God says to Moses 'write down these commandments, for with these commandments I make a covenant' the Hebrew is "h'devrim h'elah" for both instances of 'these commandments'.

What I'm getting at here is that there's the simple reading of "after these things" that just means "later on", but maybe there's a deeper meaning. Maybe it's "after God imparted these commandments with which God makes a covenant to Abraham".

Or, put another way - after Abraham really should've known better. After Abraham had heard all the parts about not passing your children through the fire to Moloch.

If Genesis 22:1 is "and it came to pass after these commandments, God put Abraham to the test" then the test is implicitly "how well do you understand the mitzvot I'm giving you? Are you picking up what I'm laying down?" It seems like the answer to that would be "Not entirely".

YES. The wording is parallel as well. God's instruction to Abraham is "v'haelehu" - and bring him up. What Hannah does is "v'taelehu" - and brought him up.

https://twitter.com/1n1m1/status/1436129238160191489?s=20