Days of Awe 5771

Rosh Hashanah

by Rabbi Russ Resnik

The sacrificed son

Every year at Rosh Hashanah we hear the story of the Akedah, the binding of Isaac, from Genesis chapter 22. We also hear the sound of the shofar, or ram's horn trumpet, which serves as a reminder of the story's climax, when God provides a ram, caught by its horns in a bush, as a sacrifice in place of Isaac (Talmud; Rosh Hashanah 16a). The same story is retold daily as part of the traditional Jewish prayers. Why is this story so central to our observance of the High Holy Days, and to the whole Jewish religious outlook?

In the Akedah, from the earliest times, the faithful obedience of Abraham and Isaac has stood as an example that all believers can strive to emulate. But as Rabbi Joseph Hertz wrote in his annotated siddur decades ago, "A new meaning and influence begins for the Akedah . . . with the Maccabean revolt, when Jews were first called upon to die for their Faith." In this reading, Isaac represents the generations throughout Israel's history who made the supreme sacrifice because of their faithfulness to the God of Israel, or in more recent times, simply because they were Jewish. Abraham is not alone in his sacrifice, but is the first of multitudes of parents who had to sacrifice their children in loyalty to God. And most of these parents, unlike Abraham, saw the sacrifice consummated. Hence, the power of the story throughout the generations.

Messianic Jewish author Julia Blum builds upon this traditional Jewish perspective to portray Isaac not only as a symbol of individual Jewish martyrs throughout history, but also as a symbol of Israel as a martyr people,

". . . continually horrified in his inability to comprehend what his Heavenly Father is doing with him, yet walking out the sorrowful path of his election as a sacrifice for the sake of other peoples. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote to the Gentiles: Enemies for your sake" [Rom. 11:28] (Julia Blum, If You be the Son of God, Come Down from the Cross, [Chichester, UK: New Wine Press, 2006], p. 31).

This reading of the Akedah seems to contrast with the usual Messianic reading that sees Isaac as a type of Messiah. But both applications—Isaac as a symbol of Israel the martyr people and Isaac as a symbol of Messiah to come—are rooted in the biblical text. In Paul's discussion of Israel in Romans 11, both these themes come together in a remarkable way. The sacrifice of Isaac, the chosen son of Abraham, foreshadows the sacrifice of Yeshua, the chosen son of the Lord, which is reflected in the sacrifice of Israel, the chosen people.

The key is Genesis 22:16, which is the dramatic summation of the Akedah. As Abraham takes up the knife to sacrifice Isaac, the angel of the Lord calls out to him from heaven to stop. Abraham raises his eyes and sees the ram caught by his horns in a thicket and sacrifices him instead. Then the angel calls out a second time, saying,

"I have sworn by myself—says ADONAI—that because you have done this, because you haven't withheld your son, your only son . . ."

"Withheld" here translates the Hebrew chasak, which can also be translated as "spared." The Septuagint, the ancient translation of the Torah into Greek, translates the word as eipheiso. In Romans, Paul employs this same Greek verb twice, first in Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare [ouk epheisato] even his own son, but gave him up on behalf of us all—is it possible that, having given us his son, he would not give us everything else too?" Paul is building upon the parallel between Yeshua's sacrifice and the Akedah. Abraham does not spare or withhold his own son, but delivers him up in obedience to God. Early Jewish commentators saw this act as providing merit for all Israel. In the same manner, the Lord does not spare his own son, but delivers him "on behalf of us all." If the Lord is willing to do in actuality what he prevented Abraham from doing, that is to bring the sacrifice to completion, how much more will he freely give us all things, as Romans 8 goes on to detail. Jewish scholar Shalom Spiegel writes,

As counterpoint to the Akedah Story, Paul placed the Golgotha Event at the heart of the new faith. If in the former there was something active for the merit of Israel, in the latter there was something active for the merit of the whole wide world, to redeem it from sin and deliver it from death . . . (The Last Trial: The Akedah [Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 1993] p. 82.)

Against this background, the second use of ouk epheisato in Romans is most striking. Paul is warning the Gentile followers of Yeshua not to become arrogant when they consider the majority Jewish rejection of Messiah. He writes, "For if God did not spare [ouk epheisato] the natural branches, he certainly won't spare you!" (Rom. 11:21). As in Rom. 8:32, this usage also suggests a parallel with Genesis 22. Just as Abraham did not spare his beloved Isaac, but delivered him up in an act of obedience that was to benefit all nations—"by your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you obeyed my order" (Gen. 22:18)— and the Lord did not spare his beloved son, but gave him up for us all, so the Lord did not spare Israel, but delivered it up to stumbling and alienation for the benefit of the nations (Rom. 11:11-15).

The parallels between these three beloved ones "not spared" are too rich to be fortuitous. Abraham did not spare his son Isaac but bound him to the altar, only to receive him back through God's intervention. God did not spare his son Jesus but offered him up to death for the world, then vindicated him through the resurrection. God did not spare his people Israel but broke them off like branches for the sake of the Gentiles; surely this is not the end of the story, "for if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" (Rom. 11:15). In each case, the rejection/acceptance pattern plays itself out to the vicarious benefit of others. (Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul [New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989] p. 62.)

This brings us back to Julia Blum's statement: "This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote to the Gentiles: Enemies for your sake." The Jewish majority's disbelief in Yeshua as Messiah is not the end of the story, but a stage in the journey toward redemption. Corporate Jewish enmity toward the gospel mysteriously works out for the benefit of the Gentiles. All Yeshua-believers today, like the Gentile Romans of Paul's day, need to be reminded that "stoniness, to a degree, has come upon Isra'el, until the Gentile world enters in its fullness; and that it is in this way that all Isra'el will be saved" (Rom. 11:25-26).

The Days of Awe are a period of self-examination, a time to assess our secret attitudes and presuppositions, and to make amends as needed. This interpretation of the Akedah challenges attitudes of superiority and rejection toward the Jewish people, whether among Christians or Messianic Jews. Faith in Yeshua has often been linked to enmity toward Jewish life and tradition, and even Jewish people, but this is a terrible distortion, which is only beginning to be healed in our time. Yeshua alone is the source of atonement and salvation, and Jews need him as much as anyone else—and this message needs to go forth with the same love that the Lord bears toward his chosen people. The corporate Jewish no to Yeshua is a mysterious and essential part of God's plan for all of humanity, and God will see that it is transformed into a corporate yes in the end. As we embrace this truth, we become part of the healing process.

L'shanah tovah u'mtukah—to a good and sweet year in Yeshua!

Rabbi Russ Resnik, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

All Scripture references are from the Complete Jewish Bible.

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