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The Binding of Isaac (in Hebrew, the Akeidah) is one of the most difficult stories in the entire Bible. Why does God ask Abraham to bind his son as an offering? How can Abraham even entertain the idea of killing Isaac? The Torah says that God is testing Abraham, but is this kind of blind loyalty really what God wants from us?
In this video, Rabbi Fohrman picks apart a brief dialogue that takes place between Abraham and Isaac as they ascend the mountain. This deeper look into the words exchanged by father and son – and the silences between them – points us to the crux of Abraham’s test and how he withstands it. You may well have been misunderstanding the binding of Isaac all of this time: It's about far more than Abraham’s obedience to God.