High

To be! Or not to be?

These were the High Holy Days, the Days of Awe, the time of the year when the descendants of Abraham who never have relied on evangelism to increase its numbers, once again sat to ask the “to be or not to be” question of Judaism. Rosh Hashanah was a day of remembrance, with the start of a new year. It is a day of remembrance about relationships. Fathers. Sons. The past with the present. The Days of Awe lasted 10 days. The Day of Atonement begins at sundown on September 27th.

To be! Or not to be? That was the question that was facing Isaac, dealing with the beliefs of Abraham. A lot like any son had to ask when his formal education was over to address his own inheritance. For an Irish Catholic, I have been thinking a lot during these Days of Awe about Isaac.

Rosh Hashanah. I have been thinking about the comparative approach to life. Fathers and sons. And points of view. About binding. The reading on Rosh Hashanah was about the Akedah, the account in the book of Genesis, of the binding of Isaac. When Abraham, at the command of God, takes his son to be offered as a sacrifice. Because of a seasonal piece in America magazine about the Akedah, by Harold Kasimow, I have been thinking about the study of comparative religion.

The comparative approach is all over the use of the reading of the Akedah on Rosh Hashanah. Fathers and sons, and the different points of view on this offering as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. What does it mean to be bound? Bound by depth of feeling in a totally pagan world?

A day of remembrance for all descendants of Abraham to reflect on the meaning of the binding as they continue the line of Chosen People. Fathers and sons. Women and men. In the time when there was blood in sacrifice. When in the modern day with a comparative approach, the young still question why the need for sacrifice? Women and men question. When bleeding for the most part hurt? When there was real hunger, why offer the best calf to this invisible God? When there was pain in sacrifice. How had it all come down to this? Fear. And pain. And suffering.

Crazy. This Abraham who had already decided, before the Akedah, “Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised.”

Isaac was not Abraham’s oldest, only Sarah’s oldest child. Her only child. It was to Abraham, this Abraham who had already decided that a form of self-mutilation would be a sign of the unconditional love. Not just for him. But for his slaves. “Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.” Crazy. Son Ishmael had been born thirteen years before Isaac. These intimate self offerings to God.

Long before the Akedah, before sacrificing Sarah’s only child, these were the goings on. Long before, it was God who said to Abraham, “As for Sarah your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Reflecting on the meaning of making some kind of an offering to God, when your relationships, with God, with your kin, in sacrifice, were based only on blood. Concerning the blood in the Jewish tradition, I recall a reference in the book From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman about the time spent gathering spilled blood in violent death by the orthodox.

Abraham who had already decided. His descendants would not go door to door, would not have radio shows. This relationship would be all about blood.

Abraham and his reaction. The original ROFL, falling on his face, laughing. He said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live in your sight!” God said, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.”

Isaac had to wonder. With a comparative approach, when the young always have questioned “Why did no one else? What kind of nut case were these parents, my parents, Abraham and Sarah?” Why were only these Jews making sacrifice? Isaac had to wonder.

Amidst the descendants of Abraham who never have relied on evangelism to increase its numbers, this was the story of how Isaac for his own descendants discovered inheritance. In sacrifice, and with the story of sacrifice. With blood. As his father was prepared to give everything that was important away. When it looked as you were giving everything away? EVERYTHING! In sacrifice? In a world with hunger. In a world filled with fear. In an abrupt end. A lot like the way life could end. Why?

What does it mean for the next generation to be bound to parental authority and the authority of God, whose ways often seemed so strange? Amidst a people who never who have relied on evangelism but concentrated on this thing called physical and spiritual love to change the world. Amidst a people who never who have relied on evangelism but concentrated, at least for males, on circumcision. And on blood. What did it mean to be a Jew? What did it mean sacrificing Sarah’s only child?

This article on comparative religion had, after a lot of thought, moved me. The comparative approach to religion. On the eve of Yom Kippur, the Christian world hears a reading from the Book of Numbers. When God tells Moses to select seventy elders who would receive the same spirit of holiness which God had shared with Moses and Joshua. “This anointing would be given to them to assist him and help carry the burdens. Ah, but two of the elders were inside the camp and not in the exact and proper place to receive the blessing. Never the less these two were found prophesizing in the camp, though they were not in the official starting lineup,” writes Larry Gillick. “Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’aide, said: “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

To move the next generation. How to move males? Who focused so much in their lives on games. Sports mostly. Men and games. Using power. Amidst a conflicted pagan world, even today. In the higher tech world. Of speed and power. In a world with so many lifting weights, power lifting. In a world of all the fast megabytes of Apple computers, without as much delayed gratification as Abraham had once had. This was the world when people who did not worship one God, my God, were thought to be pagan. How to keep something alive about the past, so that God would never forget Abraham. NEVER forget.

Thus the strange story of the Akedah. The story about sacrificing the next generation, in the name of God. The story about keeping something alive with sacrifice, with passion, so that God would never forget.

Without a comparative approach to religion, the Christian world loses the importance of these stories. Where the focus was on Sarah. “Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and SHE shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from HER.”

When you prayers were so alive. And you wanted others to have the same experience.

The Akedah. When God had instructed Abraham to name Sarah’s son Isaac. The story was was really about Sarah and Isaac. “I will establish my covenant with him (Isaac) as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.” Bound to God in family.

So begins Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. To see how those bindings have been holding up.