Rabbi Menahem Mendel Schneerson: “Now I know that you fear Gd” as consolation

Bereshit 22:12 states:

וַיֹּ֗אמֶר אַל־תִּשְׁלַ֤ח יָֽדְךָ֙ אֶל־הַנַּ֔עַר וְאַל־תַּ֥עַשׂ ל֖וֹ מְא֑וּמָּה כִּ֣י ׀ עַתָּ֣ה יָדַ֗עְתִּי כִּֽי־יְרֵ֤א אֱלֹהִים֙ אַ֔תָּה וְלֹ֥א חָשַׂ֛כְתָּ אֶת־בִּנְךָ֥ אֶת־יְחִידְךָ֖ מִמֶּֽנִּי׃

And he said, “Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear Gd, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.”

Rashi here brings a Midrash that places Gd’s statement as part of a much longer exchange with Abraham, in which Abraham, remarkably, argues with Him.

כי עתה ידעתי. אָמַר רַבִּי אַבָּא, אָמַר לוֹ אַבְרָהָם אֲפָרֵשׁ לְפָנֶיךָ אֶת שִׂיחָתִי, אֶתְמוֹל אָמַרְתָּ לִי כִּי בְיִצְחָק יִקָּרֵא לְךָ זָרַע, וְחָזַרְתָּ וְאָמַרְתָּ קַח נָא אֶת בִּנְךָ, עַכְשָׁו אַתָּה אוֹמֵר אַל תִּשְׁלַח יָדְךָ אֶל הַנַּעַר? אָמַר לוֹ הַקָּבָּ”ה, לֹא אֲחַלֵּל בְּרִיתִי וּמוֹצָא שְׂפָתַי לֹא אֲשַׁנֶּה (תהילים פ”ט); כְּשֶׁאָמַרְתִּי לְךָ “קַח”, מוֹצָא שְׂפָתַי לֹא אֲשַׁנֶּה – לֹא אָמַרְתִּי לְךָ שְׁחָטֵהוּ אֶלָּא הַעֲלֵהוּ, אַסַּקְתֵּיהּ, אַחְתֵּיהּ.

FOR NOW I KNOW—R. Aba said: Abraham said to Gd, “I will lay my complaint before you. Yesterday (on an earlier occasion) you told me, (Genesis 21:12) “In Isaac shall seed be called to thee”, and then again you said, (Genesis 21:2) “Take now thy son”. Now you tell me, “Lay not thy hand upon the lad”! The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, in the words of Psalms 99:35, “My covenant will I not profane, nor alter that which is gone out of My lips”. When I told you, “Take thy son”, I was not altering that which went out from My lips, namely, My promise that you would have descendants through Isaac. I did not tell you “Slay him” but bring him up to the mountain. You have brought him up — take him down again” (Genesis Rabbah 56:8).

This is a fascinating midrash on many levels, but for me there’s was a glaring question: Why is Rashi bringing this extended conversation at all? It presumably comes to explain why Gd said “Now I know that you fear Gd”. However, it’s not at all clear how this Midrash serves as an explanation.

None of the usual supercommentaries (Mizrachi, Sifsei Chachamim, Gur Aryeh) addresses this question. It was at this point that an old Chabadnik friend introduced me to the Sichot of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, which I found out spends a lot of time explaining various Rashis on the parsha. (See this article from chabad.org about the Rebbe’s unusual focus on Rashi in his shabbat afternoon lectures.)

My friend pointed me to a particular sicha (lecture) in which my exact question was raised. The following is an abbreviated translation/adaptation (although I really recommend anyone who can to read the original in the link above).

Why did Gd have to tell Abraham that he passed the test (even without the slaughter of Isaac) and say “Now I know that you fear Gd”?

Abraham did not challenge Gd’s providence when He commanded him to “Please take your son” and he hurried to keep the commandment without seeking explanation or excuses. So too, when Gd commanded him again “Do not lay down your hand”, surely there was no need to explain to Abraham the reason for this (that even without the slaughter of Isaac he already passed the test and “I know that you fear Gd.”)!

We need to say that the words “because I now know” did not (only) come to explain to Abraham the purpose of the Akedah. Rather, these words were also Gd’s response to Abraham’s thoughts: Abraham at the time mistakenly thought that he did not fear Gd and that the purpose of the test was not fulfilled (that is, he had failed the test). To this mistaken thought, Gd responded to Abraham telling him ” now I know that you fear Gd.”

That is to say, it seems to me that when Abraham heard the command “Do not send forth your hand and do nothing to him” even though Gd previously commanded him “Please take your son Gd and raise him as an offering”, Abraham concluded from this that perhaps Gd prevented him from completing the sacrifice because he no longer deserved to do so. Therefore Gd answered him “now I know that you fear Gd”.

This means that Gd intended to say the following: “I didn’t command you to desist from the sacrifice because you were somehow lacking as you suppose. In fact it’s the opposite of what you are thinking – now I know that you fear Gd! The reason why I stopped you from killing Isaac is because I never wanted the killing in the first place. Remember, I told you to “bring him up”. I never said to kill him!“

What the Rebbe is doing here is that he is bringing the extended conversation of the Midrash to illustrate the mindset of Abraham at this specific point in the narrative. Gd didn’t tell Abraham “Now I know that you fear Gd” in a vacuum. Rather, He told “now I know that you fear Gd” to console him when he was disappointed that Gd told him to stop the sacrifice and thought that this new “cease and desist” command from Gd meant that he had failed the test.

I’d like to go a bit further now.

One might have thought that Abraham would have been immediately relieved to hear the cease-and-desist order. However, this was not the case according to Rashi (according to R’ Schneerson). Abraham was at this point so committed and so eager to consummate the sacrifice that he was disappointed when Gd told him to stop and even thought that he had therefore failed.

R’ Schneerson doesn’t explicitly explain what Abraham thought was lacking in him to cause Gd to abort the test early, but I think he provides a hint when he said “Abraham at the time mistakenly thought that he did not fear Gd“. This implies that Abraham thought he exhibited a lack of Yirat Hashem during the Akedah. When did that happen? After all, R’ Shneerson already says that Abraham didn’t challenge Gd’s providence during the Akedah!

I’d like to propose that, according to Rashi, even though Abraham never openly challenge Gd during the Akedah, Abraham did express hesitation and reluctance many times during the 3 days. (See my earlier post, where I present a Sefaria sourcesheet identifying those instances). It was this hesitation that Abraham saw in himself, which led him to mistakenly think that he failed the test and disqualified himself from the “honor” of sacrificing his son.

Therefore, Gd’s consolation of “Now I know that you fear Gd” actually goes much further than simply confirming Abraham that he had passed the test. Gd is also comforting Abraham, reassuring him that a Yirat Hashem is not a robot that mindlessly obeys His will, but rather a human being that strives to do His will even through bouts of doubt and hesitation. “Do not beat yourself up over this, Abraham. You think you failed because you hesitated and you thought you could figure out a way out of this? You think you have to be a cold-hearted killer, dissociate yourself from your natural love for you son, and let go of all personal hopes and dreams to serve me? Don’t think that! You’re here up on the mountain with Isaac aren’t you? You could have argued with me but you didn’t. You could have ran the other way when you saw the mountain, but you didn’t. I was in no place to threaten you, Abraham – I was already commanding you to kill the son you love and destroy your future! If I threatened to kill you for disobeying me, you would have welcomed it. I’m telling you right now that you, as you were throughout the 3 days I tested you, with all of your hopes and dreams and all of your doubts and hesitation, nevertheless deserves the title of “one who fears Gd”.