Parashat Vayera

The binding of Isaac, which we read about this Shabbat, is among the most difficult and profound peaks of the Torah, and Rav Kook's reflection on this portion reveals the foundation of his unified conception of reality and of the service of God. Abraham, the herald of faith in one God in a world full of idolatry, reaches in the trial of the binding the pinnacle of his faith. According to the plain meaning of the verses and Rav Kook's interpretation, Abraham does not waver, hesitate, or tear himself apart; he goes to the mountain in absolute devotion, filled with the complete conviction that this is the will of God.

But it is precisely here that the revolution is revealed. A moment before the act, the cry is heard, 'Do not raise your hand against the boy,' and it turns the new command into an essential message that changes the world. Rav Kook describes the ancient idolatry, in which the savage human figure saw in the sacrifice of children a summit of devotion, until cruelty overpowered parental compassion. This was the reality in the days of Abraham and of our forefathers; the sacrifice of sons to Molech was an expression of boundless spiritual addiction, one that lost its morality and trampled human nature.

This moment on Mount Moriah makes clear to Abraham, and to his way after him and to the entire conception of Judaism, that the service of God does not stand opposed to natural morality but rests upon it and sanctifies it. Divine fervor detached and alone, without a human heart and without compassion, is not desired. The binding is not the nullification of feeling, but its repair; the transformation of total devotion into a force connected to goodness, to life, and to the righteousness of God.

Were it not for the moment of the binding and the divine halt, Rav Kook writes, humanity would have remained either savage, removing every boundary in the name of the divine, or cold and lacking moral vitality. It is precisely the ability to hear the voice of the angel at the very height of a journey of absolute devotion that is the great victory of divine morality, which continues to pulse to this day.

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