Page 14 - HaMizrachi Australia Rosh HaShana Yom Kippur 5781

GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau

ADVOCATING Life

vraham’s 10th and final trial his people to an awareness of the rela- Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa asks
was the binding of Yitzchak. tionship between man and G-d. the following question: we blow a ram’s
AIn his first one – “G-d said to horn on the Day of Judgment to arouse
Avraham, ‘Go from your land, from Positive action is not enough though. the merit of the Binding of Yitzchak.
your birthplace, and from your father’s
house, to the Land that I will show One must also fight evil. But surely the ram’s horn recalls the
you....’” – Avraham is told to divorce For example, Avraham fought against fact that Yitzchak was not actually
himself from his past. the worship of the fire-god Molech, sacrificed? If the goal was to recall the
binding, it would be more appropri-
His final trial is even more difficult which involved child sacrifice. This ate to hold up a slaughtering knife and
though. This time, he is told to renounce was an idolatry which embodied the proclaim that Avraham was ready to
his future. His entire life’s work is being transgression of the mitzvot between sacrifice his son with a similar knife.
put to the test. human beings and those between man
and G-d. The answer is that the blowing of the
At the age of three, Avraham came to ram’s horn recalls the Almighty’s words,
the conclusion that the world had a Hence, during those three days on “Do not harm the lad, and do not do a
Creator, smashed his father’s idols, and which he journeyed to Mount Moriah thing to him.” We ‘remind’ the Almighty
later threw himself into the fire at Ur to sacrifice his son, we can but imag- that He is opposed to human sacrifice.
Casdim in sanctification of G-d’s name. ine what was going through Avraham’s
mind. We eagerly anticipate the fulfillment of
When he was miraculously saved from the eternal promise, “Do not harm the
death, he began to “make souls,” i.e., Upon coming down from the mountain, lad.” We say, “Enough!” to death and
gather a following to whom he would he would have to tell everybody that indiscriminate killing and abuse. And
teach that the world has a Creator. he had sacrificed his son as a burnt-of- we pray that the sacrifices cease and the
Avraham took in guests, and when they fering to G-d. This would undermine Almighty will grant us life and a speedy
and complete redemption.
thanked him, he told them the world everything he had worked for, every-
has a Host and there is no need to thank thing he had built and totally confuse Adapted from an article that originally
him. He also exemplified the obligation the following he had attracted. appeared on yeshiva.co
of ransoming captives when he saved Nevertheless, “the two of them walked
his nephew Lot.
together.” Both Avraham and Yitzchak Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau is the Chief Rabbi of
Through the relationship between are committed to carrying out G-d’s Tel Aviv and served as the Ashkenazi Chief
man and his fellow man, he brought command. Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003.

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