Woody Allen famously asks how Abraham knew it was G-d (and not, say, his neighbor who likes practical jokes) who ordered him to kill Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham certainly does appear to be quite certain about the source of the awful command. In fact, the episode of Akedat Yitzhak (the Binding of Isaac) is often understood as a testament of Abraham’s faith and certitude despite the terrible consequences of following through with G-d’s command. However, I would like to posit that there was something that Abraham was unsure about: He knew it was G-d who commanded him, but he was not sure exactly what G-d had actually commanded.
This episode was the first time Abraham (or anyone in the Torah) was faced with an open contradiction between two separate divine commands. On one hand, he was previously told by G-d to continue his family line through Isaac and not Ishmael (his son with Hagar the concubine) or Eliezer (his №1 servant). On the other hand, he was subsequently commanded to bring up Isaac as sacrifice. Abraham now had to figure out how to reconcile these two commands.
Following a single command typically does not require study — it simply takes obedience. The need for study only arises once there is a need for clarification, and the teacher is not around to spoon-feed the answer. In facing the two contradictory commands with dire consequences and G-d apparently being unavailable for discussion, Abraham was tasked with the need to study his prior communications with G-d and grasp clarification on his own. Thus, the test of Akedat Yitzhak was, in essence, the first act of Limmud Torah (Torah study).
I believe that much of the narrative of Akedat Yitzhak reflects the Limmud going on within Abraham over the course of his test, and that Abraham passed the test at least in part because he successfully engaged in his first, and extremely high-stakes, act of Limmud Torah as a Yirat Elokim — one who fears G-d (Bereshit 22:12)
-Kenichi Hartman
*Version control: Originally published in Medium.com on August 26, 2016 (link)
Akedat Yitzhak Takes 