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Chapter Three The Binding ofIsaac We have seen that the story of the Binding of Isaac is not merely a source out ofwhich variegated meanings spring exegetically. It is rather the telling of a drama that unfolds fully for the listeners only in the history ofIsrael and the inner experiences ofthe truly religious. It is a tale told by religious man, full of life and awe, signifYing an implicit dynamic structure that is not necessarily at the level ofawareness even for its heroes and tellers, let alone its audience. We may now dare, perhaps, to listen again to the biblical recital of the story with some hope of insight. Abraham sets out with Isaac on their journey to Moriah. In the beginning, the journey is routine enough. Abraham rises early in the morning in order to travel as far as possible before night falls. He takes two of his young men with him, the long journey requires assistance. He cleaves wood for the burnt offering, and they start for the place marked out by God. On the third day, Abraham finally sees the place far offin the distance. They still have some way to go, but Abraham prefers to go alone with Isaac. The two young men are not surprised by this. "We will worship and come back to you" is enough of an explanation for them; they sense nothing unusual. Even Isaac, walking along with his father and sharing in the chores, feels the routineness of the journey so far. He is puzzled only by the absence of the sacrificial animal from the present routine: "Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burntoffering ?" (Genesis 22:7). Abraham alone is aware of tragedy. He turns to his son and answers gently, "God will provide Himselfthe lamb for a burnt-offering, my son" (ibid. 22:8). The son will know very soon what is happening, Abraham has no illusions on that score. But at this moment, looking into his son's 63 64 The Binding ofIsaac and Messiah questioning eyes, his heart trembles with love and he postpones the terrible revelation oftruth. He savors the moment, the love between father and son, and wants to walk like this, arm in arm, for yet awhile, short as the fleeting minutes arc. Refusing to spoil the present with the shadow ofthe future doom, he gently brushes aside Isaac's question. Perhaps, even Abraham himself forgets in the togetherness of the present the sorrow of reality. There is a quality of bated breath in that scene, a sense of time standing still: "So they went both of them together" (ibid.). Certainly, Abraham's love for Isaac embraces the whole of the waning present, and the gentleness of the father to the son at that moment is a blotting out of that which is yet to be. During that last walk before the Akedah, Abraham loves Isaac not as the child of promise-for the promise has been denied-but as a futureless child with only the naked being ofthe present. This is true and selfless love, it is a love in which only the completely free man can indulge. Abraham knows that there is no longer any future, yet he clings heroically to the disappearing present; he is totally free in the isolation ofthe present, the future is not and the past is too painful to remember. He loves Isaac as a pure 'thou', a love in which the being of its object is the culmination of that love. The suspension of being in the limbo of a now reveals and concretizes a love that is otherwise indiscernible because it cannot be touched by yearning. Abraham, in those final moments, thus is experiencing a complete love, an artainment. There arc no expectations, no unfinished plans. He loves without yearning. Abraham is well on his way into the dark night of martyrdom. The total withdrawal into the present frees man and enables total attainment. But the drive for total achievement in the present is also ominous, and its culmination is awesome. Abraham is approaching an absolute attainment, an obliteration of even the possiblity of incompleteness . He wants perfection, in scope and intensity, in the claustrophobic confines of a present moment. He is heroic and frightening. His gentle answer to his son is an indication of his mood. The epitome of that mood and its culmination is martyrdom. "And they came to the place which God had told him of...

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