For people who follow contemporary Jewish orthodox scholarship on the Akeidah, Prof. Aaron Koller’s new book “Unbinding Isaac: The Significance of the Akedah for Modern Jewish Thought” has been generating a lot of interesting discussions. One of the better ones is a response by Rabbi Zach Truboff in Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill’s (always awesome) blog, in which he presents a summary of Rabbi Yishai Mevorach’s psychoanalytic approach to understanding the Akeidah.
This part in particular caught my eye:
“As Koller mentions in his interview, Jews have long understood the Akedah as an act of love on the part of Avraham, the Rabbis even stating in regard to Avraham’s actions that “love makes a person do crazy things” (ahava mekalkelet hashura). Whereas Koller mentions this only in passing, Mevorach’s contends that the craziness of love cannot be separated from how we understand the story. Further than that, the attempt to neutralize this dimension fundamentally misunderstands what it means to be human.”
The entire response in the blog is worth checking out for those interested in this topic.
Prof. Koller’s book also looks fascinating, and is now top in my reading list.
Akedat Yitzhak Takes 