Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Avos == there have to be tolados

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)

1 comment:

  1. "Where is the sheep for the offering?"

    where 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}

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