…And the two of them walked on together. Then Isaac said to Abraham his father, ‘Father!’ and he answered, ‘Yes, my son.’ And he said, ‘Here are the fire and the wood; but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?’ And Abraham said, ‘God will see to the sheep for His burnt offering, my son.’ And the two of them walked on together. (Genesis 22:7-8)

This etching captures one scene of the story of the Binding of Isaac. God has commanded Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son on a far off mountain. Taking Isaac with him, Abraham sets off on the awful journey that will lead to the ruin of all his hopes and dreams. Rembrandt has chosen to emphasize Abraham’s assurance to his young son that ‘God will see to the sheep for His burnt offering’. Abraham’s finger points heavenward to direct Isaac to the ultimate answer to his query, ‘But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?’ The stern expression on the face of Abraham indicates the gravity of the situation. Isaac, holding the bundle of wood for the sacrifice, listens intently. His facial expression reflects consternation, leaving the viewer wondering whether he has become aware that he is to be the sacrificial offering.

The journey is like a silent progress through the indeterminate and the contingent, a holding of the breath, a process which has no present, which is inserted, like a blank duration, between what has passed and what lies ahead. (Erich Auerbach, ‘Odysseus’ Scar’)

The only words uttered on the three-day journey to Mount Moriah are this dialogue between Abraham and Isaac. They contain within them the inner voices of father and son, dared to rise to frightening heights of religious commitment.

Isaac’s first poignant words, ‘My father’ are met by Abraham’s heart-felt response, ‘My son’. No words could be more powerful in intimating the ultimate questions which Isaac is posing. Have you forgotten that I am your son, your only son, the one you loved? I am the child for whom you waited a lifetime! I am the key to your future. Without me all hope is lost. Abraham need only mouth the words ‘my son’ making it clear that he is fully cognizant that his past, present, and future will be instantaneously obliterated through one fateful action. Yet he reassures Isaac and unequivocally asserts his faith that God will provide the lamb for slaughter.

Scripture has framed the dialogue with the expression, ‘And they walked together’. Whereas initially this is a description of their perambulation, after this exchange they have achieved a tacit understanding; nothing more need be said. They are now together in spirit; as one, they submit to the will of God.

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac.

This detail, offered by the biblical text, seems straightforward enough. Abraham has chosen to leave his servants and the pack mule at the base of the mountain. He and Isaac will continue alone. No one else must know of the dreadful act that is to be performed. Abraham and his son will make the climb alone, Abraham carrying the firestone and the knife and Isaac the wood. 

The Rabbis, were not content to gloss over this detail. They suggested two possible interpretations. Under the view that this trial was Abraham’s alone, Isaac may be seen as bearing his own cross, unaware that he was on the way to his own execution. Alternatively, Isaac may be seen as an active player: he carried his own wood. Abraham went to offer the sacrifice and Isaac went to offer himself for slaughter. By this rendition they have transformed Isaac from a passive child into an active, responsible adult. The object has become the subject, and the ultimate trial of Abraham now contains within it the ultimate trial of Isaac.

The question of why an omniscient God need try Abraham has been investigated for centuries through many an interpretative prism. Rabbi Saadyah Gaon suggested that the trial was not that of Abraham alone but rather was a trial for four.

Firstly, the trial was for the Almighty: not to inform Him of anything unknown, but for His sake, to sanctify His great name in the world by demonstrating the commitment of His believers. God does not randomly select His chosen few. By withstanding trials, they merit election.

The second purpose was for Abraham himself. By aligning his will with that of his creator, Abraham rose to new spiritual heights and was assured great spiritual reward.

The third purpose was for Sarah. Saadyah notes that Sarah and Abraham worked as a team. Scripture implies that Abraham’s early morning departure was intended to make certain that Sarah would present no obstacles. Saadyah disagrees; he contends that she too was tested and withstood the challenge of transcending selfhood and motherhood. Her spiritual fortitude would also be rewarded.

And lastly, Saadyah claims that the purpose of this Akedah was for Isaac himself. Ishmael, the first-born underwent circumcision at age 13, but Isaac did so passively, as a newborn infant. In order to establish his dominant position as the spiritual heir of Abraham he had to withstand his own trial, the Akedah, sacrificing his entire body to God. Having been willing to do so, his primacy was assured. 

In Saadyah’s commentary, Abraham, Sarah and Isaac are all protagonists of the biblical drama.

Other commentators focus exclusively upon Isaac. He is portrayed in rabbinic literature as having taken an active part in the entire process. He busies himself with constructing the altar and has the presence of mind to suggest that his father bind him tightly so that he will not move, which might have caused the sacrifice to become blemished. But perhaps the most exalted description of Isaac’s stature can be found in Midrash Tanhuma:

On the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place from a distance. ‘Do you see what I see?’ Abraham asked Isaac. Isaac replied, ‘I see a beautiful and glorious cloud-capped mountain.’ At which point Abraham turned to his servants and asked them the same. They replied, ‘We see nothing but deserts.’ He said to them, ‘You sit here with the donkey.’

The other comments point to Isaac as an active player in the story, but this midrash highlights the long-range vision, which was required to achieve transcendence. The benighted servants were left far behind; only Abraham and Isaac possessed the clairvoyance and spiritual fortitude to make the existential trek to the numinous cloud-capped mountain as knights of faith in the service of the Almighty.

1. “Odysseus’ Scar”, p. 7, in Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: the Representation of Reality in Western Literature (New York, 1957).

2. Rabbi Saadia Gaon (882-942) was the greatest scholar and author of the geonic period and a seminal leader of the Babylonian Jewish community. He wrote a translation of the Bible into Arabic with a commentary called the Tafsir . The text on Genesis was translated into Hebrew by Moshe Zucker and is entitled Perush Rav Saadia Gaon l’Bereishit (New York, 1984).

3. The story of Abraham’s tenth trial is called the Akedah , literally the binding (of Isaac). The narrative, found in Genesis 21:1-19 tells of God commanding Abraham to take his son, his only son, his beloved Isaac and bind and sacrifice him. The act is prevented by the intervention of an angel and Isaac is spared. The story of the Akedah became a powerful symbol of self-sacrifice, obedience to divine will and martyrdom throughout the ages.

4. Midrash Tanhuma is a homeletical midrash containing many sayings and proems attributed to Rabbi Tanhuma.