PARASHAT VAYEIRA

 

PARASHAT VAYEIRA

 

We read in Parashat Vayeira the famous story of Akedat Yitchak, where Hashem commanded Avraham Avinu to offer his son Yitchak as a sacrifice. Just as Abraham drew the sword to sacrifice his son, an angel appeared and told him not to proceed as this was merely a test. There is a remarkable reason why this tests stands out more then any other.

The Vilna Gaon taught that a person’s task in this world is to overcome his innate negative tendencies. We are to identify our areas of personal weakness and work toward improving ourselves in those very areas. We are not here to just accept our nature, to resign ourselves to the character flaws with which we are created. Rather, our main job during our lifetime is to break our nature, to perfect the flawed areas of our personalities.

Avraham, as we know, was naturally kind and generous. His outstanding quality was Chesed, as expressed by his hospitality; he naturally loved and cared for all people. The test of Akedat Yitzchak required Abraham to go against that natural instinct in the most extreme way. There is nothing more cruel and heartless than killing one’s own son. The command of Akedat Yitchak was necessary for Avraham to show that he was prepared to obey G-d’s commands even when they directly opposed his most basic natural instincts.

The Midrash comments that if Avraham had not passed this final test, all the previous nine tests would not have counted. This test was necessary to show that he was devoted to G-d no matter what this entailed, no matter how strongly he was naturally disinclined to obey His command.

The story of Akedat Yitchak teaches us that we can and must break natural negative tendencies. There is no such thing as "It’s too hard, this is just the way I am." If this is the way we are, then our job is precisely to change that very nature. If a man as kind as Avraham could obey God’s command to slaughter his son, then certainly we can break our natural instincts. To the contrary, this is precisely why we are here – to correct those natural tendencies, to improve the flawed areas of our characters, to continuously work towards rising closer to perfection.

By: Rabbi Eli Mansour.

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