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Many don't notice that our parsha explicitly pits Avraham Avinu as the ANTI-THESIS of Avimelech. After the Akeidah, Avraham is described: "now I know that you have YIRAT ELOKIM" (22, 12) as opposed to when he answers Avimelech's question, "what did I do wrong by 'accidentally' taking your wife?": "רק אין יראת אלוקים במקום הזה", Avraham precisely answers: "it's just that there is NO Yirat Elokim in this place". What exactly is that "Awe of G-d" that should typify our actions and get us to even initiate "Hineni", and conversely avoid the common search for excuses & alibis so prevalent in the western world?
Even when receiving such a surprising & unexpected command to sacrifice his son, Avraham goes out of his way to be PROACTIVE (in Hebrew slang: "Rosh Gadol"), to make sure that he will fulfill the command in the best possible way, making sure there won't be any snags. "Here I am" is Avraham's answer. He even wakes up early (22, 3) to make sure he won't oversleep; he prepares the donkey himself (in case his servants might delay…); he gathers the wood and SHLEPS it 3 entire days from Chevron to Yerushalayim (Ramban: he worries he may not find wood wherever Hashem will bring him!); and even chops them into small pieces 3 days ahead of time- just to make sure that this super-difficult command will run smoothly!
This is the exact opposite of Avimelech's feigned ignorance ("Rosh Kattan" in slang), "Did he (Avraham) not say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she, even she said, 'He is my brother.' With the innocence of my heart and with the purity of my hands have I done this." To call kidnapping a beautiful woman without really checking her out, as an example of "innocence & pure hands and heart", and even stuttering that "she, even she said", makes his cry of innocence suspicious. This "playing dumb" is borne out just one chapter later, when searching for an excuse why his servants stole Avraham's wells, "And Avimelech said, "I do not know who did this thing, neither did you tell me, nor did I even hear [of it] until today," (21, 26). As the saying goes, "A guilty mind needs many alibis/excuses", or in the words of Hamlet, "He doth protest too much, methinks" (all in the same sentence: "my dog ate my homework, and I was sick, and my laptop was stolen…)! Avimelech's characteristic "playing dumb" appears again when "reminding" Avraham of all "the kindness which I did for you, you should repay to me" (21, 23), and it's unclear whether that kindness is referring to when he stole Avraham's wife, or stole his wells, or is referring to the land which he offered to Avraham (20, 15, which Avraham actually refused!)!
[How much more so according to R. B'chaye (26, 1, and perhaps Ramban) who write that it may be the SAME Avimelech who AGAIN both takes YITZCHAK'S wife and again his wells in identical (!) situations, repeating the same two "mistakes" twice, proving that even the first time it wasn't innocent!]
On a practical note, we cannot but be amazed of that same "Rosh Gadol" displayed recently by Avraham's descendants, as exemplified by so many heroes like the Slutki and Kalmanson brothers (just to mention 4) on that Simchat Torah (Oct. 7th), who were not in uniform, and didn't wait to be called up. On their own initiative, they sped down south to save whoever they could, endangering and giving their lives without even being drafted (if you don't know the details, you must read them and tell & show their pictures to your children- to exemplify what great Jews do, not in fairy tales, but today, in real life!).
G-d Almighty, how can You not redeem Your holy, altruistic and G-d-like children, whose Yirat Shamayim was not just one momentary action 3,700 years ago, but hours, and now years, of constant selflessness & Rosh Gadol for Am Yisrael!! Shabbat Shalom, Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)
Rabbi Ari Shvat
Lectures at various yeshivot, michlalot and midrashot. Has published many books & Torani articles and is in charge of Rav Kook’s archives.
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