The Genesis of Justice (18 page)

Whatever interpretation the reader ultimately finds meaningful, one conclusion is clear: No one can read the story of the
akeidah
literally and accept it as a clear guide for human action. It cries out for explication, for disagreement, for reflection,
and for concern. It provides no answers, only eternally unanswerable questions, and in that respect it is the perfect tool
for teaching the realities, limitations, and imperfections of both divine and human justice. The story of Abraham and Isaac
is real life writ large, with all of its tragic choices, ambiguities, and uncertainties.

1.
22:5.

2.
Midrash Rabbah
, vol. 1, p. 492, n. 6.

3.
Weissman, Moshe,
The Midrash Says
(Brooklyn, NY: Bnai Yakov, 1980), p. 205.

4.
Quoted in Leibowitz, Nehama.
Studies in Bereshith (Genesis)
. 4th rev ed. (Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization, Department for Torah Education and Culture, 1985), p. 189.

5.
See Dershowitz, Alan, “Good Character Without Threat or Promise,” in
The Power of Character
, ed. Michael S. Josephson and Wes Hanson (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1998), pp. 268-75.

6.
Twersky at p. 83. It is interesting to contrast Maimonides’ sexism in comparing women to children with his progressive attitude toward a husband’s obligation to satisfy his wife sexually—except if he is a scholar!

7.
Midrash Rabbah
, vol. 1, p. 376.

8.
This is one of the rare instances in which an angel of God appears to a woman, Hagar. A midrash draws interesting parallels between the Isaac and Ishmael stories:

and the Lord’s messenger called out to him from the heavens
. This is nearly identical with the calling-out to Hagar in 21:17. In fact, a whole configuration of parallels between the two stories is invoked. Each of Abraham’s sons is threatened with death in the wilderness, one in the presence of his mother, the other in the presence (and by the hand) of his father. In each case the angel intervenes at the critical moment, referring to the son fondly as
na’ar
, “lad.” At the center of the story, Abraham’s hand holds the knife. Hagar is enjoined to “hold her hand” (the literal meaning of the Hebrew) on the lad. In the end, each of the sons is promised to become progenitor of a great people, the threat to Abraham’s continuity having been averted. Alter, Robert,
Genesis
(New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996), p. 106.

9.
See Finkelman in Dershowitz, Alan, “The Case of the Speluncean Explorers: A Fiftieth Anniversary Symposium,”
Harvard Law Review
, vol. 112, no. 8, June 1999, p. 1906.

10.
Dershowitz, Alan,
Taking Liberties
(New York: Contemporary Books, 1988), p. 119, 271.

11.
New York Times
, April 7, 1999, p. 1.

12.
Kierkegaard, Soren,
Fear and Trembling
(New York: Penguin, 1985), p. 60.

13.
Leviticus 20:2-6, Exodus 13:11-16, Numbers 3:44-51.

14.
Some rabbinic commentators try to have their theological cake and eat it too in this regard. Sometimes they argue that the patriarchs knew the Torah (see B. Rabbah), and other times they argue that they did not.

15.
Levenson, Jon D. “Abusing Abraham: Traditions, Religious Histories, and Modern Misinterpretations,”
Judaism
47 (Summer 1998): 259-77.

16.
Levenson at p. 274.

17.
Levenson at p. 268. This is Kierkegaard’s concept, which Levenson also criticizes as an incomplete justification.

18.
“All along he had faith, he believed that God would not demand Isaac of him, while still he was willing to offer him if that was indeed what was demanded.” Ibid at p. 65.

19.
See Rabbenu Nissim, quoted in Leibowitz, Nahama, at p. 188 and Maimonides, quoted in Leibowitz, pp. 188-89.

20.
Bodoff at p. 80.

21.
Ibid., quoting sources.

22.
Maimonides.

23.
Maimonides, quoted in Leibowitz at p. 191.

24.
Ginzberg at p. 282.

25.
Rabbi Kook, quoted in Leibowitz at p. 204.

26.
Bodoff at p. 71.

27.
Bodoff at p. 76.

28.
Baba Metzia, 59b.

29.
One traditional answer is that the rabbis refused to listen to God’s interpretation after He had given them the Torah, while Abraham’s encounter with God preceded the Torah and came at a time when God gave orders orally.

30.
One midrash suggests that Abraham should have made a different argument to God: “When You commanded me to sacrifice Isaac, I should have replied: ‘Yesterday You told me: “In Isaac shall thy seed be called . . .” Nevertheless, I restrained my impulse and did not reply. . . .’” See also
Midrash Rabbah
, p. 498.

31.
Midrash Rabbah
, vol. 1, p. 494.

32.
Schulweis, Harold,
For Those Who Can’t Believe
(New York: HarperCollins, 1994), p. 81.

33.
Ginzberg, pp. 283-84.

34.
For an interesting parallel between the law of attempts and halakah, see Nachshoni, Y.,
Studies in the Weekly Parashah
(New York: Mesotah, 1998), pp. 96-98.

35.
Locus penitente is defined as:

a place for repentance; an opportunity for changing one’s mind; an opportunity to undo what one has done; a chance to withdraw from a contemplated bargain or contract before it results in a definite contractual liability; a right to withdraw from an incompleted transaction.
Morris
v.
Johnson
, 219 Ga. 81, 132 S.E. 2d 45, 51. Also, used of a chance afforded to a person, by the circumstances, of relinquishing the intention which he has formed to commit a crime, before the perpetration thereof. Black, Henry Campbell,
Black’s Law Dictionary
, 6th ed. (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1990), p. 941.

In the law of attempts, locus penitente refers to that point in time after an attempt has technically occurred when the defendant can undo that crime by changing his mind and removing the danger.

36.
Genesis 22: 2.

37.
Genesis 22:12, 16.

38.
My student Meron Hacohen suggested this interpretation.

39.
Armstrong, p. 69.

40.
Shlomo Riskin, a modern Orthodox rabbi, was criticized for suggesting that Abraham should have argued for the life of Isaac and that he may have failed the test. Riskin at p. 13.

41.
Ginzberg, p. 286.

42.
Bodoff, p. 86, note 4.—The mass suicide at Masada exemplifies this perspective.

43.
The Reconstructionist
, New York, March 5, 1943, pp. 23-24. See also Brownmiller, Susan,
Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape
(New York: Simon & Schuster), p. 332. Some historians have wondered whether this incident occurred as described, though no one doubts that Jewish women were raped during the Holocaust or that references to the binding of Isaac were common during periods of Jewish victimization. See Baumel, Judith Tydor,
Double Jeopardy, Gender and the Holocaust
(London: Valentine Mitchell, 1998), pp. 117-38.

44.
Riskin at p. 17.

When her days were fulfilled for bearing, here: twins were in her body!

The first one came out ruddy, like a hairy mantle all over
,

so they called his name: Esav [Esau in English]/Rough-One
.

After that his brother came out, his hand grasping Esav’s heel
,

so they called his name: Yaakov [Jacob in English]/Heel-Holder…
.

The lads grew up:

Esav became a man who knew the hunt, a man of the field
,

but Yaakov was a plain man, staying among the tents
.

Yitzhak grew to love Esav, for [he brought] hunted-game for his mouth
,

but Rivka [Rebecca in English] loved Yaakov
.

Once Yaakov was boiling boiled-stew
,

when Esav came in from the field, and he was weary
.

Esav said to Yaakov:

Pray give me a gulp of the red-stuff, that red-stuff
,

for I am so weary! ..
.

Yaakov said:

Sell me your firstborn-right here-and-now
.

Esav said:

Here, I am on my way to dying, so what good to me is a firstborn-right?

Yaakov said:

Swear to me here-and-now
.

He swore to him and sold his firstborn-right to Yaakov. Yaakov gave Esav bread and boiled lentils;

he ate and drank and arose and went off
.

Thus did Esav despise the firstborn-right
.

G
ENESIS
25:24-34

Now when Yitzhak was old and his eyes had become too dim for seeing
,

he called Esav, his elder son, and said to him:

My son!

He said to him:

Here I am.

He said:

Now here, I have grown old, and do not know the day of my death.

So now, pray pick up your weapons—your hanging-quiver and your bow
,

go out into the field and hunt me down some hunted-game,

and make me a delicacy, such as I love;

bring it to me, and I will eat it,

that I may give you my own blessing before I die.

Now Rivka was listening as Yitzhak spoke to Esav his son,

and so when Esav went off into the fields to hunt down hunted-game to bring [to him],

Rivka said to Yaakov her son, saying
:…

Pray go to the flock and take me two fine goat kids from there
,

I will make them into a delicacy for your father, such as he loves;

you bring it to your father, and he will eat, so that he may give you blessing before his death
.

Yaakov said to Rivka his mother:

Here, Esav my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man
,

perhaps my father will feel me—then I will be like a trickster in his eyes
,

and I will bring a curse and not a blessing on myself!

His mother said to him:

Let your curse be on me, my son!

Only: listen to my voice and go, take them for me.

He went and took and brought them to his mother, and his mother made a delicacy, such as his father loved.

Rivka then took the garments of Esav, her elder son, the choicest ones that were with her in the house,

and clothed Yaakov, her younger son;

and with the skins of the goat kids, she clothed his hands and the smooth-parts of his neck
.

Then she placed the delicacy and the bread that she had made in the hand of Yaakov her son
.

He came to his father and said:

Father!

He said:

Here I am. Which one are you, my son?

Yaakov said to his father:

I am Esav, your firstborn.

I have done as you spoke to me:

Pray arise, sit and eat from my hunted-game,

that you may give me your own blessing.

Yitzhak said to his son:

How did you find it so hastily, my son?

He said: indeed, YHWH your God made it happen for me
.

Yitzhak said to Yaakov:

Pray come closer, that I may feel you, my son
,

whether you are really my son Esav or not
.

Yaakov moved closer to Yitzhak his father
.

He felt him and said:

The voice is Yaakov’s voice, the hands are Esav’s hands—