(Heb. Akedat Yitsḥak, the "binding of Isaac"). The episode describing the readiness of Abraham to bind his son Isaac on the altar, as narrated in Genesis 22:1-19. Abraham is subjected to a fearsome test by God, who commands him to take Isaac and sacrifice him as a Burnt Offering. When, after a journey of three days, Abraham is about to carry out this commandmant on Mount Moriah, his hand is stayed by an angel of the Lord; the angel commands him from heaven not to harm Isaac, since God now realizes that Abraham fears Him to the extent that he is prepared to offer up his beloved son. Having noticed a ram caught in the thicket by its horns, Abraham takes the ram and sacrifices it in place of Isaac.
Down the ages, the awesome nature of God's command, as well as the dramatic quality of the story as a whole, evoked much comment and interpretation. Philo, the first-century Jewish philosopher, interpreted the Akedah as a protest against the ancient heathen practice of sacrificing a firstborn son or other child in times of emergency (cf. II Kings 3:27). Though forbidden by Mosaic legislation (Lev. 18:21, etc.) and denounced by the prophets (e.g., Mic. 6:7), such barbarism found its way into ancient Israelite practice during the reigns of Ahaz and Manasseh (II Kings 16:2-3, 21:6). This interpretation is favored by a number of modern Bible commentators.
Homiletical (Midrashic) interpretation of the Akedah makes its appearance in the late biblical period, when Mount Moriah was identified with the site on which Solomon built the Temple (II Chr. 3:1).
The Midrash enlarges on the biblical account in a series of legends which heighten its dramatic quality. Inspired, no doubt, by the prologue to the Book of Job, Midrashic tradition relates that Satan cast doubts before God on Abraham's piety. Satan charged that despite the great feast which Abraham made in honor of Isaac's birth, he failed to offer a single thanksgiving sacrifice. God counters by declaring that Abraham would even sacrifice his beloved son if He so commanded. Satan thereupon challenges God to do so. Assuming a number of disguises, Satan tries first to dissuade Abraham and then Isaac from obeying the Divine command, but all his efforts fail. Satan finally appears to Sarah and maliciously informs her that Isaac has indeed been sacrificed. On hearing the dreadful news, Sarah is overcome with grief and dies.
In the Midrash, there are two versions of the Akedah. In one group of legends, Abraham is the hero (cf. Lev. R 29:8); in the other, it is Isaac, who (though 37 years of age at the time) makes no protest (Gen. R. 56:11).
Virtually all Jewish thinkers through the late Middle Ages interpret the Akedah in philosophic terms. To Philo, Abraham's act was the supreme expression of his love of God, the highest form of serving Him. In the era of Saadiah Gaon, some pointed to the Akedah as an example of God's abrogating His own command, which surely demonstrated the imperfection of His nature. Saadiah replied that all God required of Abraham was a willingness to obey His command. Once Abraham had shown such a readiness, there was no longer any need to carry it out (Emunot ve-De'ot 3:9). For Judah Halevi, the testing of Abraham offered a solution to the problem of reconciling God's foreknowledge with man's Free Will. The real object of the test was to make actual the potential piety of Abraham, the actual being a higher state than the potential.
Maimonides regarded the Akedah as the tenth and most severe of the tests which Abraham faced and withstood (cf. Avot 5:3). He also declared that the Akedah story presents one of the most difficult theological problems in all of Scripture. What need was there for God, who---being omniscient---already knew that Abraham would stand the test, to actually put him to it? Basing himself on a Midrash, Maimonides replied that the purpose was to make known to the world the height to which man's love and reverence for God must aspire (Guide 3:24). Joseph Albo follows the Maimonidean interpretation and adds that the story is conclusive proof that Abraham served God out of love, not fear.
Jewish liturgy, beginning with Mishnaic sources quoted in the Seliḥot for the penitential season (Ta'am 2:4), incorporates references to appeals which God traditionally answered, as He once "answered our father Abraham at Mount Moriah." In the Zikhronot section of the Additional Service Amidah for the New Year (Rosh Ha-Shanah), Abraham's meritorious act of faith is once more invoked: "Remember in our favor ... the merciful promise which You made to our father Abraham at Mount Moriah. ... How Abraham suppressed his fatherly love in order to do Your will ..." The Akedah story constitutes the Pentateuchal reading (Gen. 22:1-24) for the second day of the New Year and, according to the Talmud (RH 16a), the blowing of the Shofar is in remembrance of the ram caught by its horn in the thicket (Gen. 22:13). Sephardim recite a poetic version of the Akedah before sounding the shofar, while many Orthodox Jews (both Ashkenazim and Sephardim) read the Hebrew text on weekdays after the Morning Benedictions.
An Apocryphal reflection of the theme, known to the rabbis, may be seen in the tale of Hannah ("the mother") and her seven martyred sons (II Macc. 7; cf. Git. 57b). This no doubt helps to explain why, in the Middle Ages, the Akedah served as a paradigm for Jewish martyrdom (Kiddush Ha-Shem)---fathers slaying their own children to prevent their forcible conversion to Christianity. During this period, various liturgical poems (Piyyutim) were written on the Akedah theme, with Abraham as their hero. The theme of self-sacrifice (mesirat nefesh) may also have been viewed as a Jewish answer to the Christian doctrine of the crucifixion: there is a legend, first recorded at this time, that Isaac was actually sacrificed and then resurrected from his ashes.
The mystical interpretation of this theme in the Zohar is based on legends drawn from the Midrash. Kabbalistic literature, however, associates the date of the Akedah not with the New Year but with the Day of Atonement. The reason may well be that the kabbalists regarded Abraham's act as one of expiation and Atonement, the dominant themes of the Yom Kippur liturgy.
Akedat Yitsḥak was the title given to on extensive commentary on the weekly readings from the Pentateuch, compiled by Isaac Arama in 15th-century Spain. Though important in Muslim religious thought, the Akedah theme chiefly influenced medieval Christian typology, also leaving its imprint on Western art and music.
