#1 - Can you explain the Akaida Yitzchok to me?

In Vaikrah 26-42 the verse says: ”Then I

will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also

My covenant with Abraham I will remember”. A Midrash and Sifra quoted in

Rashi explain: “Why was there not stated “remembering” in reference to Isaac?

However the ashes of Isaac appear before Me, heaped up and lying on the altar”.

There is another version to the Sifra

which includes the word “Keilu”, “as if” it were heaped, but not in reality, as

Isaac survived the ordeal (see: Beur Stumoth Rashi p.219). Another more common interpretation is that it

refers to the ashes of the ram, who took Isaac’s place as an offering on that

altar. Some add that: “Shelucho shel odom kemoto”, “An agent acting on ones

behalf, is like oneself” (ibid.) so the ram was seen as Isaac himself, though

it would be questionable to apply that principle to animals.

Another Halachick principle quoted is “Kol

Haomed Lisrof Kesaruf Domi”, “Anything that stands to be consumed by fire is

like it has been consumed already” (Ikahen Peer, Vayerah). A term used thorough

the Talmud, so halachakly, Isaac was seen as already consumed by the fire.

A more spiritual interpretation is given in

the Zohar: “When Isaac was offered on the altar his Neshamah (soul) of this

world departed. But as Abraham recited the Bracha of “Mechaiei Hametim”, a new

Neshamah of the World to Come was given to him”. So in that sense, Isaac did

depart partially from this world. (Bosee Learmonee p. 100)

On that line, Maharam M’pano (Chikur Hadin

2-8) adds: that from the departing soul of Isaac the ram acquired a physical

entity. As this ram was formed at the

very end of the days of creation (see Pirkei Avoth ch. 5), it originally had

only a potential existence, it materialized during the Akeidah in conjunction

with the departing Neshamah of Isaac, so the ashes were in that sense actually

Isaacs. This gives special meaning to the Midrash quoted by Rashi (Bereshit

22-13) that: “On every service (on the ram done by Abraham), he would pray and

say: let it be Your will, that this (service) should be considered, as if it

was performed on my son”

Rabbi Boruch M. Ezrahi (Birchas Mordechai –

Bechukotay) construes the following elucidation: “This (the ashes of Isaac that

appear before Hashem) teaches us that sacrifice creates its own reality. Isaac’s selflessness, abnegation, and will to

sacrifice, even if it did not materialize, generated a new certainty by

itself. It is that spiritual

reality what appeared before Hashem.