“Ayei ha’seh l’olah?” Yitzchak asks Avraham Avinu. Where is the sheep for the offering? The Alshich quotes a Midrash Rabbah (ch 96) that Yaakov did not want to be buried in Mitzrayim because Yisrael is called a “seh,” a sheep –- “seh pezurah Yisrael” (Yirmiyahu 50) –- and Egyptians worship the seh. What Yitzchak was asking is if he is schechted, then how will there ever be a Yaakov Avinu, the seh? How will the mesorah of the Avos continue?
Forget how will there be a Yaakov Avinu – if Yitzchak is shechted, how will there be a Yitzchak Avinu?!
What makes the Avos into Avos is that there is no concern for self. The concern is always for the future, for the continuity of Klal Yisrael. “Avos – m’chlal d’ika tolados.” (B"K2)
"Where is the sheep for the offering?"
ReplyDeletewhere is the "sheep" to offer* the olah tamid ("continuity"; l'dorosam).
but "seh" can mean either sheep or goat (Rashi, Shemos 12:5c). and goat gets us sa'ir gets us se'ir, the address of hairy Eisav. Yitzchak preferred Eisav; he couldn't see the problem with blessing his firstborn. nor could he physically see as Yaakov received from him that very blessing. so Avraham answers, 'Hashem will >see< for Himself' (22:8) which seh-line will offer the continual olah, starting some centuries hence...
*to offer an olah, but not to BE one: if his son were to be consumed by fire, how would Yitzchak (Avraham) generate (great-)grandsons?
{the flesh-eating knife (first Rashi) mentioned along with wood and fire in pasuk 6, is missing from our pasuk 7. yet it is Avraham's sending his hand to that knife (va'yishlach...es-yado, :10) in order that it eat his son's flesh, that effects a tikkun for the expulsion from gan eiden: lest man send his hand to the tree of life and eat and live forever (pen-yishlach yado..., Bereishis 3:22). to settle in the new garden of Israel [forever, continuosly, l'dorosam], Avraham would have to be willing to 'eat' by knife his son of the covenant: to send his hand** to 'eat' --to kill-- and forever die. Yitzchak is silent about the knife because it answers (as balanced against Bereishis 3:22) the very continuity he questions: the first couple were expelled because they might eat a fruit and live; Israel will be installed because Avraham might kill['eat'] his son and die.
**reach for the knife, then reach with it to 'eat' Yitzchak [the latter action prohibited by the angel, 22:12] = reach for the tree of life, then withdraw that fruit-filled hand to the mouth to eat-- two stage/actions each}