The Binding of Isaac: What if God Had Approached Sarah First?
In a scant 19 lines, Genesis Chapter 22 tells us that God instructed Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. This notorious incident, known as the Akedah or the Binding of Isaac, is read every Rosh Hashanah and has inspired an unknowable number of sermons, essays, artworks and interpretations.
Jews and non-Jews alike have speculated endlessly about Abraham’s motivations to follow God’s instructions. They look for clues in the text as to what Sarah must have thought. But few, if any, writers have imagined to how Sarah (mother of the intended sacrificial offering) would have responded had God approached her rather than Abraham (father of the intended sacrificial offering).
Earlier in Genesis (18:14), God spoke directly to Sarah to reassure her about giving birth in her old age. Thus, it makes sense that God would again approach Sarah when that child’s fate was on the line. But the Torah records no such conversation.
In the tradition of midrash (using clues from biblical texts to interpret other biblical texts), I offer two scenarios as to how such a conversation, in which God directs Sarah to sacrifice her only child, might have played out.
Scenario 1:
God: “Sarah!”
Sarah: “Hineini” (Here I am).
God: “Take your child . . . and go forth to the land of Moriah to offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall show to you.”
Sarah: “No. Wait what? I don’t understand. Are you serious?”
God: “Take your child, your only one . . . and go forth to the land of Moriah to offer him up as a burnt offering . . .”
Sarah: “No! Is this You, the God who chided me when I laughed at the thought of giving birth in old age? You showed me a miracle; You proved me wrong; You granted me great comfort as I aged. You would take this from me?”
God: “Take your only child, the one that you love. . .”
Sarah: “No. Never!”
God: “Offer up the child as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall show to you. I must know that you fear me.”
Sarah: “Abraham has another son; talk to him, not me.”
God: “Take your child. . .”
Sarah: “I have loved you. I have honored you. I have obeyed you and taught my child to honor and obey you. Now, I no longer love you. Now, I do fear you. When Abraham, the husband of my youth and of my old age, asked You to waive the severe decree on Sodom for 10 innocent men, you agreed. You showed favor and compassion. After Your great flood, You sent a rainbow to seal Your promise not to again destroy the world.
“How can You have promised to make our offspring grow into a great nation and now demand that the one child who can fulfill that promise be sacrificed? I do not expect to know You, God, to know who or what You are. I know You are One. But I never thought You were one to break Your promises.
“God, fearsome God, instead of death, won’t you teach us to choose life?”
Scenario 2:
God: “Sarah!”
Sarah: “Hineini” (Here I am).
God: “Take your child, your only child, whom you love and go forth to the land of Moriah to offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall show to you.”
And Sarah rose early in the morning and saddled her donkey and took with her two servants and her child Isaac. She split wood for the offering and set out for the place where God had instructed her to go. On the third day, Sarah raised her eyes and saw the place from afar.
And Sarah took the wood for the offering and loaded it onto Isaac, her son. She took the firestone and the cleaver and the two of them went up together.
And they came to the place to which God had sent her and Sarah built an altar, laid out the wood and bound Isaac, her son, and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. And Sarah reached out her hand and took the cleaver to slaughter her son.
And God’s messenger called out: “Sarah, Sarah!”
Sarah: “Hineini (Here I am).”
God: “Do not raise your hand against the lad and do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God and it seems that you would not have held back from Me your child, your only one.
“By My own Self, I swear that because you have done this and have not held back your child, your only one, I will greatly bless you and greatly multiply your child’s children as the stars in the heavens and as the sands on the shore. But, Sarah, I have to ask you this: ‘If I had not stopped you, if I had not grabbed the knife, would you have slaughtered your child at My command?’”
Sarah: “No.”
God: “You would have disobeyed me?”
Sarah: “No. Though you are a fearsome and awe-inspiring God, I hoped, prayed and trusted that You would relent.”
God: “Sarah, I now command you: Choose life.”
Traditional interpretations of this biblical story suggest that Abraham would have gone through with the sacrifice of his son. Some commentators even expand the story to say that Isaac was slain and then resurrected. Yes, even Jewish sources. But as I read and reread the text, I started to question these traditional explanations and imagine alternatives.
Though generally a compliant wife, Sarah was an active participant in Abraham’s story, expressing her own points of view. Imagining her voice here permits me to explore an alternative interpretation, freed from traditional views of Abraham, while also hearing God’s injunction in Deuteronomy 30:19 to “Choose life—if you and your offspring would live . . .”
Michele is a member of the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, a dynamic and diverse writing group for leaders and members to express their thoughts and feelings about all the things Hadassah does to make the world a better place, to celebrate their personal Hadassah journeys and to share their Jewish values, family traditions and interpretations of Jewish texts. Since 2019, the Hadassah Writers’ Circle has published nearly 450 columns in the Times of Israel Blog and other Jewish media outlets. Interested? Please contact hwc@hadassah.org.