Unbinding Isaac
The Significance of the Akedah for Modern Jewish Thought
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- CHF 32.00
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- CHF 32.00
Beschreibung des Verlags
Unbinding Isaac takes readers on a trek of discovery for our times into the binding of Isaac story. Nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard viewed the story as teaching suspension of ethics for the sake of faith, and subsequent Jewish thinkers developed this idea as a cornerstone of their religious worldview. Aaron Koller examines and critiques Kierkegaard’s perspective—and later incarnations of it—on textual, religious, and ethical grounds. He also explores the current of criticism of Abraham in Jewish thought, from ancient poems and midrashim to contemporary Israel narratives, as well as Jewish responses to the Akedah over the generations.
Finally, bringing together these multiple strands of thought—along with modern knowledge of human sacrifice in the Phoenician world—Koller offers an original reading of the Akedah. The biblical God would like to want child sacrifice—because it is in fact a remarkable display of devotion—but more than that, he does not want child sacrifice because it would violate the child’s autonomy. Thus, the high point in the drama is not the binding of Isaac but the moment when Abraham is told to release him. The Torah does not allow child sacrifice, though by contrast, some of Israel’s neighbors viewed it as a religiously inspiring act. The binding of Isaac teaches us that an authentically religious act cannot be done through the harm of another human being.
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Koller (Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought), professor of Near Eastern studies at Yeshiva University, explores in this useful guide the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, by focusing on its ethical lessons. He traces the evolution of thinking about the Akedah (the binding of Isaac), including the view that the attempted sacrifice was "a source of great merit" that made "the entire world worthwhile," and its relevance to the Crucifixion. Some interpreters of the text have read it as suggesting Abraham went ahead with the ritual killing, or that Isaac was willing to be slaughtered. After considering interpretations by Jews whose communities were massacred and the ways major recent events in Jewish history the Holocaust and the foundation of the modern state of Israel have shaped regard of the Akedah, he insists that "Jews must avoid a reading of the Akedah that leaves no argument against the person of faith" who kills innocents in the name of faith. He concludes that "one person's religious fulfillment cannot come through harm to another." This provocative study serves a stimulating complement to James Goodman's landmark treatment, But Where Is the Lamb?