![]() It has been suggested that Genesis 22 contains an intrusion of the liturgy of a rite of passage, including mock sacrifice, as commonly found in early and preliterate societies, marking the passage from youth to adulthood. ![]() The thought of actually killing Isaac never crossed their minds. Though readers of this parashah throughout the generations have been disturbed, even horrified, by the Akedah, there was no miscommunication between God and Abraham. Citing the Prophet Jeremiah's exhortation against child sacrifice (Chapter 19), they state unequivocally that such behavior 'never crossed Godâs mind', referring specifically to the sacrificial slaughter of Isaac. This is precisely how the sages of the Talmud (Taanit 4a) understood the Akedah. God's commandment to Abraham was very specific, and Abraham understood it very precisely: Isaac was to be 'raised up as an offering', and God would use the opportunity to teach humankind, once and for all, that human sacrifice, child sacrifice, is not acceptable. Rabbi Ari Kahn (on the Orthodox Union website) elaborates this view as follows: Isaac's death was never a possibility â not as far as Abraham was concerned, and not as far as God was concerned. ![]() In The Binding of Isaac, Religious Murders & Kabbalah, Lippman Bodoff argues that Abraham never intended to actually sacrifice his son, and that he had faith that God had no intention that he do so.
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