Early Yiddish Epic

4The Binding of Isaac

149 4 The Binding of Isaac ‫יצחק‬ ‫עקידת‬ / Akeydas Yitskhok Anonymous, composed fifteenth century; earliest ms. 1579 The reaffirmation of the divine covenant with Abraham, his son Isaac, and their future descendants is the primary function of this core narrative of the Jewish tradition, as it is also articulated in the sixteenth-century Yiddish version of the traditional story of the averted sacrifice of Isaac from Genesis 22. The renewal of the covenant that had already been established is consequent on the positive outcome of the test by the Hebrew God of Abraham’s faith, whom he had already recognized while a child in Mesopotamia, as represented in the midrash and the Old Yiddish heroic lay on that midrash, “Abraham Our Father.” The episode of Abraham’s testing by God early became part of Hebrew cultural sacred history and of a later Jewish tradition of Hebrew piyyutim or akedah-slih ˙ ot that were recited as part of the paraliturgical tradition during the Days of Awe.1 As Jean Baumgarten points out, the theme of Isaac’s sacrifice took on great significance during the Middle Ages as an allegory of the divine plan (including divine protection) as it was worked out in the Jewish exile and the recurring martyrdom of the Jewish people during periods of persecution.2 Here, as elsewhere in the early Yiddish treatment of biblical episodes, that source material was significantly modified by the developing corpus of legend that also entered the midrashic tradition. The narrative of the Yiddish poem is thus defined in large part by postbiblical motivic supplements from the Talmud and midrash. The text consists of eighty quatrains (rhymed AAAA, BBBB, and so on, according to a stanzaic model derived from Hebrew poetry [piyyut]). The very complex early textual tradition is witnessed by three variant manuscripts that ultimately obstruct the construction of a critical edition. The most complete of those texts, the Paris manuscript of 1579, is here taken as the source for the translation. Although it is impossible to be certain, it 150  Midrashic Epic seems likely that the text was originally composed a century before that manuscript was copied.3 Source: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS hébr. 589 [Sorbonne 158], folios 125v–130r. Edition: Percy Matenko and Samuel Sloan, “The Aqedath Jishaq: A Sixteenth Century Epic, with Introduction and Notes,” in Two Studies in Yiddish Culture, edited by Percy Matenko and Samuel Sloan (Leiden: Brill, 1968), 1–70 (with manuscript facsimile); Wulf-Otto Dreeßen, Akêdass Jizh ˙ ak; Ein altjiddisches Gedicht über die Opferung Isaaks; mit Einleitung und Kommentar kritisch herausgegeben (Hamburg: Leibniz, 1971); EYT, 60. Research: Erik, Geshikhte, 124–26; Zinberg, History, 104–7; Ginzberg, Legends, I, 271–86, and V, 248–55; Shmeruk, Prokim, 181–99. (1) Jewish tribe of the worthy kind that was born of our father Abraham and of Sarah, our dear mother, neither of whom stinted in their service to God. (2) And when they had now reached their old age—ninety and a hundred years— there was born to them a distinguished son, Isaac by name. (3) Now, the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to test whether he would willingly go serve Him. He said to him: “Take Isaac, your only son. I wish to have him as a sacrifice.” (4) In the morning, Abraham got up early, in order to go serve God willingly. He did not object or ask any further questions. He took his servant Eliezer and his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. (5) Thus did they depart from their tents. And when they had now come into the fields, Isaac wished to say to Abraham: “Beloved father, where have you left your good sense?” (6) Abraham began to say to Isaac: “My dear son, that you will indeed see. God, blessed be He, has commanded me to make a sacrifice. His holy will ought always to be done.” (7) Isaac said to his father: “Indeed I do not understand the matter: you are neither a priest nor even a Levite.” Abraham again said to Isaac: (8) “I also said that to the Holy One, blessed be He, and He gave me the answer: when we come to the place and when the altar is prepared, then He will make us both priests.” (9) They both began to walk on further. Then Satan came and turned himself into an old man. He said to Abraham : “Where are you going?” He then answered him: “I...