Blinded by the Light

Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he said to him, “Here I am.”  Genesis 27:1  NASB

Too dim to see – The Akedah is the turning point of the entire story of the patriarchs.  We recognize it as a crucial event in Abraham’s life. “Now I know that you love Me” is God’s summary endorsement of Abraham’s faith.  We are tempted to think that this example of sacrificial faithfulness is all there is to the story.  But Abraham’s faithfulness has devastating effects on Isaac and Sarah.  What happens to them as a result of Abraham’s willingness to offer up Isaac is an essential part of this Torah story—a part we cannot afford to ignore?

Rashi says that if we do not understand the Akedah we cannot understand anything about Isaac.  The fact that the Akedah is never explicitly referred to again in all of Torah pushes us to ask why this so-critical event seems to be swept under the rug.

Rashi says something important about Isaac’s blindness.

Isaac’s eyes became dimmed from seeing [literal translation of the word me-re’ot]: from the impact of that vision.  For when Abraham bound his son on the altar, the ministering angels cried out, as it is written, “hark, the Arielites cry aloud” [Isaiah 33:7].  And tears dropped from their eyes into his eyes, and were imprinted into his eyes.  And when he became old, his eyes became dimmed, from seeing.[1]

Zornberg comments: “Isaac’s blindness spans the gap between old and the vision of the boy bound on the altar.  What Isaac experienced in his youth, helplessly shackled, his eyes alone free to pierce the heavens, is ‘imprinted’ forever on those eyes.  The Akedah leaves in him an after-image, a kind of inverted residue, which only in old age assumes its original blinding quality.”[2]  In other words, the trauma of the binding darkens Isaac’s view of God as father until, in old age, Isaac is able to finally deal with its impact.  He finally deals with its impact after running away from God all his life, in the fabricated deception with his own son, Jacob.

“Habitual repression of emotion leaves a person in a situation of chronic stress, and chronic stress creates an unnatural biochemical milieu in the body.”[3]  Maté’s comment describes Isaac.  Sixty years or more of fleeing the hand of God leaves Isaac blind.  Sixty years of emotional repression until “the vision explodes in fatal bloom.”[4]  Just as death once haunted Isaac’s vision, now he sees the inevitable hand of God working through his life.  He is finally ready to accept God’s choice.  The shame of the deception is actually Isaac’s restoration.  No one can know the true meaning of the Akedah until its trauma is unfolded years later.  This is a sacrifice that keeps slaying its victims through generations until, at last, someone restores God’s image as Father.  Perhaps each one of us must come to this altar and struggle with the life-long implications before we can “see” the meaning of our trauma.

Topical Index: Akedah, Isaac, dim, vision, trauma, Genesis 27:1

[1]Bereshit Rabbah 65:5

[2]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, p. 157.

[3]Gabor Maté, When the Body Says NO, p. 92.

[4]Op. cit., Zornberg, p. 157.

A CRITICAL PRAYER REQUEST

David Fernandez, his family, and his community of Torah-observant followers, live in Port St. Joe, FL.  That is 12 miles from Mexico Beach, the ground zero impact zone of hurricane Michael.  David wrote to me saying that they have still not been able to get back to their homes but the devastation is enormous.  He is asking for lots of prayer for all those affected.  We stand ready to help him and his community when he asks.