Parshas Vayeira - What Was the Test of the Akeidas Yitzchak?

00:00 The Alter Rebbe tells of people who came to Mezritch to learn Chassidus and the ways of Chassidus from the Maggid of Mezritch. Many Jews came to Mezritch seeking guidance in serving Hashem. The Maggid accepted a select few as students, but there were others whom he told they were not yet ready, or perhaps did not need it. The Maggid of Mezritch did not accept everyone as a student. Yet some of those he did not accept very much wanted to be near him and receive the benefit of his influence, purity, and holiness, and of his students as well. To be able to stay with the Maggid, some of them came and took on various jobs. Some would light the ovens, while others did different kinds of work so they could remain nearby, in the company of the holy Maggid of Mezritch and his students. The Alter Rebbe relates that once, three hundred Jews came there who very much wanted to be with the Maggid. They were exceptionally elevated Jews. Though they were not among the Maggid’s well-known students, they were very holy, elevated Jews. And he relates that there was

01:35 a story like this: Once, three hundred Jews came in and occupied themselves with stacking the wood and lighting the ovens. They were called “oven tenders,” and they did all the work needed to get the ovens going. Once, when the Alter Rebbe was lying down to sleep, he heard them talking among themselves. Three of the Jews were sitting there, having a conversation. One of them began: “I have a question. In Chumash, the Torah tells us the story of the Akeidah: Hakadosh Boruch Hu told Avraham Avinu to take ‘your son, your only one, whom you love, Yitzchak,’ and bring him for the Akeidah. And such a great deal is made of the test of the Akeidah—a whole story. It is the greatest test, and every day we study it and recite it in davening. On Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the year, we mention the Akeidah, the Akeidah of Yitzchak, in the Rosh Hashanah prayers, and we read the passage of the Akeidah. The Akeidah is treated as a major matter, something momentous.” One of the three asked: “I don’t understand. What is so remarkable about the test of the Akeidah? Any simple Jew, truly simple, if Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed Himself to him and asked him to face this test, would do it with great joy in order to serve

03:02 Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What is so great about it? What was the great test of the Akeidah?” They discussed it, and one of them said: “True, the test of the Akeidah was that Avraham Avinu was the first, and that he was Terach’s son.” There is another point: Every Jew today, as we say, is ready to give his life. The Jewish people have a rich history of mesirus nefesh. Jews endured suffering and gave their lives for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and mothers allowed their children to be taken—mesirus nefesh, Chana and her seven sons, and the like. As we see throughout the generations, Jews gave their lives for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What was new with Avraham Avinu was that he was the first Jew in the world, with no example to learn from. Not only that, he was Terach’s son, coming from such a home, and nevertheless he was ready to give his life. That is a very great thing. This explanation does appear in Chassidus; a number of maamarim discuss it. A maamar of Chassidus also uses the expression that Avraham Avinu “opened the channel” for mesirus nefesh. That is why it is considered one of the greatest tests: he was the one who opened the channel. Once he had opened the channel, it became

04:24 something within everyone’s reach. The second one began by saying that he did not accept this explanation: “I accept that Avraham was the first. But still, once Avraham Avinu recognized his Creator and knew there was a G-d in the world, was this a test? Once he recognized his Creator, it made no difference whether he was Terach’s son or whether he was the first. Well, he knew there was a G-d in the world, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu addressed him and asked him to do such a thing—of course he did it gladly and wholeheartedly. That is not a sufficient answer.” The second man said he thought the explanation was entirely different: “The explanation lies in Avraham’s eagerness. True, Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him, ‘Take, please, your son, your only one, whom you love, Yitzchak,’ but Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not tell him he had to go immediately. Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him he had to do it. Avraham Avinu has an only son, and he knows that, Heaven forbid, he is about to lose him. Surely he could delight in his company for a few days, spend time with him, enjoy being with him, and only go to the Akeidah several days later. But what does it say in Chumash? ‘Avraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey.’ He got up in the morning and immediately hurried to the Akeidah. That eagerness is what was new about Avraham Avinu; that is what was unique to Avraham Avinu, that...

05:45 This explanation is also found in Chassidus, in the discussion in Tanya, Igeres Hakodesh, section 21. The Alter Rebbe asks the same question and says that the test of the Akeidah itself is not the remarkable part. Avraham Avinu heard from Hakadosh Boruch Hu and obeyed, but what was truly remarkable about Avraham Avinu was that “Avraham’s eagerness is what stands in our merit”: Avraham Avinu acted with extraordinary eagerness, showing his desire and willingness. He went at once—“Avraham rose early in the morning”—and he himself “saddled” the donkey. That was the great test; that was the point. This is what the Alter Rebbe taught in Tanya. But the third man said he did not accept this explanation either: “If the Master of the Universe commanded me to do something, I wouldn’t want to wait until the next morning. I would run immediately, even in the middle of the night, to give my life.” That still does not adequately explain what was so extraordinary about Avraham Avinu. Finally, the third man said what he thought Avraham Avinu’s great test was, what makes the Akeidah so momentous: it lies specifically in the continuation of the story, in what happened after the Master of the Universe told him not to do it. When the Master of the Universe told

07:10 Avraham Avinu not to take his son, not to slaughter him. The wording of the verse, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Avraham Avinu what was so momentous about this, is: “Because you have done this thing.” What is “this thing”? “And you did not withhold your son, your only one, from Me.” He explains: What was the great test here? “And you did not withhold your son, your only one, from Me”; “For now I know that you fear G-d.” That is what was achieved: “Your son, your only one, from Me”—from Me. What does “from Me” mean? He explains it this way: An ordinary person, after the Master of the Universe had put him through this test and now told him, “No, I do not want you to slaughter him, only to bring him up,” would surely be overjoyed that, thank Hashem, the child was still alive. His son was with him, and he could rejoice with him—the joy of getting his son back. But the verse tells us what Avraham’s joy was: “And you did not withhold your son, your only one, from Me”—because Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded him not to slaughter him. In other words, Avraham Avinu’s whole concern and joy were not simply that he had gotten his son back, but “from Me”—because this was G-d’s will. He saw it as a mitzvah. Just as when Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded him to take his son to the Akeidah, he took him not because he wanted to,

08:43 G-d forbid, but because he knew it was a mitzvah. He understood that it was G-d’s will for him to take his son to the Akeidah. That is why he went with tremendous joy and eagerness: it was the mitzvah. And when Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him to take his son down from the altar, Avraham Avinu did so only because that was Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s will. He acted solely because of the mitzvah, for no other reason. That was the greatest test of the Akeidah. When he got his son back, he accepted him back solely because of the mitzvah, only because Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded him to. So it says in Kedushas Levi. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev explains that this was the test of the Akeidah. Interestingly, these three interpretations are found in different Chassidic works by students of the Baal Shem Tov and students of the Maggid of Mezritch; each gives one of the three interpretations. But the Alter Rebbe related that he had heard those three Jews there, those simple Jews, talking among themselves, each offering an interpretation. When the Alter Rebbe told the story years later, he concluded by saying that each of the three spoke from his own spiritual level. They were not merely offering three answers; each one personally lived up to what he said. In other words, these were not just interpretations they gave; each of them was on that level. The one who explained that the reason here

10:03 Abraham was the son of Terach, and yet he gave himself over completely—he himself withstood that test. That was his level: “I come from a home of idol worship, an idolatrous home,” and yet he reached an extraordinary level of self-sacrifice. For the second, it was the quality of alacrity. So he saw Abraham’s eagerness in the Akeidah, and that was what he lived with. The third lived with the understanding that we serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu not only when things are difficult: even when he does something he enjoys, he does not do it because he enjoys it, but only because that is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. When we speak about the Akeidah, the Alter Rebbe writes in the Shulchan Aruch: Why must we say the passage of the Akeidah every day? We say it at the beginning of the day, in the morning prayers. The Alter Rebbe says it is so that a person will bring his heart into submission to the service of Hashem, just as Abraham our forefather did when he took Yitzchak to the Akeidah. In other words, a Jew in everyday life, an ordinary Jew on an ordinary day, gets up in the morning and serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu: he brings his heart into submission to the service of Hashem; he subdues his yetzer. The fact that a Jew submits himself and

11:32 bows before Hakadosh Boruch Hu stems from the test of the Akeidah, from Abraham our forefather taking Yitzchak to the Akeidah. When you think about it, there is a great difficulty here: How can the two be compared? An ordinary Jew gets up in the morning, says these words in prayer, puts his heart into them, and brings his heart into submission to the service of Hashem—how can that be compared to the test of the Akeidah, which was so difficult? How can we say that it is on the same level, that it is the same thing? But this raises the question: At its deepest level, what was the avodah involved in the test of the Akeidah? When we reflect on the essence of that test and delve into it, we understand that this is the true point of the Akeidah, and it is reflected in every Jew. Every Jew has inherited this inner impulse from our forefathers. As we said, the test of the Akeidah itself was an immense test, with all the explanations and reasons that have been given for it. But what is its true point? As we said, we are speaking about Abraham our forefather, who was close to G-dliness. Where does the deeper meaning of the test of the Akeidah lie? When we consider what its deeper meaning really was, we can understand that in every Jew’s daily life there is an impulse like this, something of the essential point of self-sacrifice that Abraham our forefather had. And here comes...

13:01 a wonderful explanation the Rebbe gives of this entire matter: What was the test of the Akeidah, and what made it so great? First, another question. There is a Midrash that says that when the time came for the Akeidah of Yitzchak, Hakadosh Boruch Hu asked Abraham our forefather and said to him: “Abraham, please, ‘Take, please.’ I ask you to give yourself over completely in this test, because otherwise people will say that there was no substance to all the previous tests.” Abraham our forefather faced extraordinarily difficult tests: he was tested ten times. Let us begin with the first one we know from the stories of Abraham our forefather, Ur Kasdim. Abraham our forefather was the only Jew, the only person living with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Abraham the Hebrew”—the entire world was on one side. Nimrod stood with his whole kingdom, while Abraham our forefather stood against everyone around him, against the spirit of his time, and proclaimed that this world has an Owner, that the world has a Leader, that there is one and only one G-d; and he smashed all the idols. He was imprisoned for ten years, and they were about to burn him. Rachmana litzlan, could Hakadosh Boruch Hu say of the story of Ur Kasdim that it had no substance, that this was not yet self-sacrifice? Was it specifically the Akeidah that would show that all those acts of self-sacrifice really were self-sacrifice? The question is: What was

14:27 special about the test of the Akeidah? What did not count? Where was there not enough self-sacrifice—in the test of “Go forth from your land,” in the test in Egypt, in all the tests Abraham faced? What is it about the test of the Akeidah specifically that validates all those tests? In what way is it so much greater than they were? This brings us to the inner point, the depth underlying all the explanations found in the sefarim, as well as other explanations we have not discussed. And my Rebbe says that the maamarim of the Tzemach Tzedek bring an explanation in the name of Reb Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk. The Tzemach Tzedek brings it in Derech Mitzvosecha, in the maamar on “After Hashem your G-d shall you walk.” The Rebbe cites Reb Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, who asked the same question, and says: What is the point of the test of the Akeidah? “He did not question it.” The essence of the test of the Akeidah is that Abraham our forefather did not question it. What does “he did not question it” mean? Here comes the Rebbe’s explanation, which reveals the depth of the test of the Akeidah. Every act of self-sacrifice is something lofty. When a person gives his life for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, that truly is self-sacrifice. He gives up his life, his health, everything that matters to him, his money and his honor; he gives of himself, he gives

16:00 his life. But often, even in self-sacrifice, there can be a calculation. A calculation that it is worth giving his life; he calculates that it is worth devoting himself to this cause. And there are many levels to this, to the point that even among the nations of the world we find people willing to give their lives, rachmana litzlan. We see it throughout world history and today as well: there are people who do such things. They burn themselves, hang themselves for their false beliefs and their obsessions. They, too, sacrifice a great deal. Do we call that self-sacrifice? The answer is very simple. They have had it drilled into their heads that a great reward awaits them—a material reward, a spiritual reward, a reward in the World to Come, and so on. Or it is an ideology for whose sake a person destroys his life so that it will prevail. He has had it drilled into his head that its victory is so important that it is worth sacrificing his life and the lives of others. In that way, the truth, validity, and richness of that ideology will become more widely known. So he is prepared to sacrifice his life to show that this ideology is worth everything. That is a calculation. And there are all sorts of other calculations like it. As they tell in a story about the Alter Rebbe: Chassidim related that the Alter Rebbe spoke about a well-known philosopher named Socrates, one of the...

17:37 There were philosophers such as Aristotle and others, and there was Socrates, who began to speak about belief in one G-d. He was a non-Jew, rachmana litzlan, and he spoke about belief in one G-d, that there is one and only one G-d, and rejected all the other beliefs. The Alter Rebbe said—I do not know whether this is a story, a parable, or an illustration, or how to understand it—but the Alter Rebbe said that when Socrates was burned or killed, he ascended Above. When he arrived Above, he asked for a chair next to Abraham our forefather. He wanted to sit beside Abraham our forefather. They asked him, “Why?” He said, “Abraham our forefather gave his life for belief in one G-d. He gave his life for G-dliness. I too gave my life for G-dliness. Why shouldn’t I be together with Abraham our forefather?” They answered him, “No, that is something entirely different. Your self-sacrifice came from your own mind. Your philosophy, your life, your understanding—your self-sacrifice came from self-importance, from a sense of your own self, from the desire to prove that you were right. You were prepared to give your life to prove that you were right. Abraham our forefather did not think about himself at all. Abraham our forefather thought of only one thing. For him, there was only ‘He called there in the name of Hashem, G-d of the world’—‘Do not read “he called,” but “he caused others to call.”’ He knew that his mission in the world was to tell people that there is a G-d in the world.

19:06 He was not seeking reward or personal fulfillment through it. He did not want to prove a philosophy or a truth. That was not the point. It was about one thing alone: G-dliness. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants me to spread His name throughout the world; that is why I came into the world and why I live. That is my purpose in the world. That was the whole point. Your self-sacrifice came from your intellect; Abraham our forefather’s self-sacrifice came from G-dliness. And this became clear in the test of the Akeidah. Why was the test of the Akeidah necessary? At first glance, one could say, as in that story: Abraham gave his life, but who knows what lay behind it? Perhaps his self-sacrifice was meant to save his philosophy, to prove that what he believed was true; that it was worth giving his life so everyone would see the truth of his philosophy. Who says it was about G-dliness? Even if everyone wants to say so, the world did not recognize it. There could be other calculations. Then came the test of the Akeidah. What was the test of the Akeidah? It was exactly the opposite of that whole course of action. The Master of the Universe tells him that the Jewish people will arise through his son, and—

20:25 Through him, G-dliness would spread throughout the world. He would carry forward the Jewish people, the Torah, the mitzvos, Judaism, and G-dliness in the world, through “for through Yitzchak shall your offspring be called.” And now the Master of the Universe tells him, “Please take your son”—something that goes against the entire Torah, against his whole approach. He is about to destroy everything he has built. This is what he has lived for. That is the test. He could have questioned it. But Avraham Avinu did not even question it. He had no doubt, not even a question. He knew: the whole purpose is to spread G-dliness in the world, to obey Hakadosh Boruch Hu and serve Him without any calculations. And when Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells him this, he “did not question My ways.” This mesirus nefesh is a mesirus nefesh that brings no benefit. Because according to reason and the natural course of things, what Avraham is now about to do to his son serves no purpose. It is entirely for the sake of G-dliness. And how is this expressed in every Jew’s service in daily life? That is what we received from the test of the Akeidah. The test of the Akeidah also revealed, regarding the tests that preceded it, that Avraham Avinu’s mesirus nefesh in Ur Kasdim was for the sake of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It did not come from his own calculations, his understanding, his revelations, his understanding, or what he...

21:41 We learned that from it, but the main thing we received from it is that one does not do this merely because Hashem commanded it [unclear], but with mesirus nefesh, surrendering one’s very will. And Avraham Avinu passed this on to every Jew. This is what the Alter Rebbe says [unclear], that even [unclear], and he says in Tanya [unclear], that a person subdues his yetzer. In the simplest sense, in daily life—in simple iskafya, in ordinary daily prayer, in learning, in serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in conducting oneself modestly, and in being careful not to look where one should not look or think about what one should not think about, and in doing these things for the sake of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—all this is possible for every Jew, because this is what the Master of the Universe wants. Not because I want to receive something from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, not because I am seeking even personal perfection, not because I want even to be holier or more religious. After all, we are [unclear], truly a part of G-d above. And because Hashem has commanded it, I want to do it for the sake of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is the subduing of the yetzer, an impulse present in every Jew. We received this from the test of the Akeidah of Yitzchak. And this is what we say in the Rosh Hashanah prayers: “And remember the Akeidah of Yitzchak for his descendants today with mercy.” And every single day, as the Midrash says, Yitzchak’s ashes are heaped up and resting upon the altar. This is Hashem’s [unclear]; this light shines and is present in every Jew, in every [unclear].

22:59 In daily life, in the simple matters of serving Hashem, as the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, overcoming the yetzer day by day comes from the power of mesirus nefesh that Jews inherited from our forefathers. A Jew’s readiness to give up his life for Hakadosh Boruch Hu is what gives him the strength in his daily battle with the yetzer, to stand against it and overcome it at every moment. And through this [unclear], the victory in the battle will be absolutely complete. May all the blessings that the Master of the Universe promised Avraham Avinu be fulfilled: “I will greatly multiply your offspring like the stars of the heavens,” “and your offspring will possess the gates of their enemies,” and the true and complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach, speedily in our days. Amen.