Page 20 - HaMizrachi # 22 Rosh HahHana - Yom Kippur 2020 USA

GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau

ADVOCATING Life

vraham’s 10th and final trial was people to an awareness of the relation- horn on the Day of Judgment to arouse
the binding of Yitzchak. In his ship between man and G-d. the merit of the Binding of Yitzchak.
Afirst one – “G-d said to Avra-
ham, ‘Go from your land, from your Positive action is not enough though. But surely the ram’s horn recalls the fact
birthplace, and from your father’s house, One must also fight evil. that Yitzchak was not actually sacrificed?
to the Land that I will show you....’” – If the goal was to recall the binding, it
Avraham is told to divorce himself from For example, Avraham fought against would be more appropriate to hold up
his past. the worship of the fire-god Molech, a slaughtering knife and proclaim that
which involved child sacrifice. This was Avraham was ready to sacrifice his son
His final trial is even more difficult an idolatry which embodied the trans- with a similar knife.
though. This time, he is told to renounce
his future. His entire life’s work is being gression of the mitzvot between human The answer is that the blowing of the
put to the test. beings and those between man and G-d. ram’s horn recalls the Almighty’s words,
“Do not harm the lad, and do not do a
At the age of three, Avraham came to Hence, during those three days on which thing to him.” We ‘remind’ the Almighty
the conclusion that the world had a Cre- he journeyed to Mount Moriah to sac- that He is opposed to human sacrifice.
ator, smashed his father’s idols, and later rifice his son, we can but imagine what
threw himself into the fire at Ur Casdim was going through Avraham’s mind. We eagerly anticipate the fulfillment
in sanctification of G-d’s name. Upon coming down from the mountain, of the eternal promise, “Do not harm

When he was miraculously saved from he would have to tell everybody that he the lad.” We say, “Enough!” to death and
indiscriminate killing and abuse. And
death, he began to “make souls,” i.e., had sacrificed his son as a burnt-offering we pray that the sacrifices cease and the
gather a following to whom he would to G-d. This would undermine every- Almighty will grant us life and a speedy
teach that the world has a Creator. thing he had worked for, everything he and complete redemption.
had built and totally confuse the follow-
Avraham took in guests, and when they ing he had attracted. Adapted from an article that originally
thanked him, he told them the world appeared on yeshiva.co
has a Host and there is no need to thank Nevertheless, “the two of them walked
him. He also exemplified the obligation together.” Both Avraham and Yitzchak
of ransoming captives when he saved are committed to carrying out G-d’s
his nephew Lot. command.
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau is the Chief Rabbi of
Through the relationship between man Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa asks Tel Aviv and served as the Ashkenazi Chief
and his fellow man, he brought his the following question: we blow a ram’s Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003.

20 |