By Rabbi Marc Israel
This week’s Torah portion is Vayera: Genesis 18:1 – 22:24
The first Shabbat after daylight standard time always comes as a shock to the system, despite the fact that it occurs every year. Preparing to get everything done in time to light candles at 4:42 p.m. is stressful. Although, if I’m being honest, even when Shabbat starts much later, I often find myself running around at the last minute. Perhaps the contrast between hurrying to finish the final preparations and resting on Shabbat makes the experience more meaningful.
Maybe that’s why our tradition teaches that God did the same thing on the very first Shabbat in the Torah’s creation story. There is a well-known midrash that notes the verse that introduces Shabbat begins with the word “va’ychulu” — that “God finished,” and that the word appears again in the next verse. The Torah could have simply said “vayishbot” — God rested. However, according to the midrash, the emphasis on God completing the work of creation was to teach us that in those final moments before that first Shabbat — “beyn hashmashot” — God created 10 phenomena. Pirkei Avot 5:6 lists these items, which include (among others): the rainbow in the story of Noah, the talking donkey of Bilaam, the tablets at Mount Sinai and the manna in the desert. This passage continues with some additional items that some taught were also created in those final moments before the rest began, including the ram caught in the thicket that substitutes as a sacrifice for Isaac in this week’s Torah portion.
The story of the Akedah is among the most well-known — and morally challenging — stories in the Book of Genesis. Over the centuries, many of Judaism’s greatest thinkers have struggled to understand why God tested Abraham’s faith in such a harsh manner and why Abraham, who righteously protested the deaths of innocent people in Sodom, does not raise any objections here. I do not seek to answer those difficult and timeless questions here. I want to think about the ram.
All the items listed in Pirkei Avot created in those minutes before Shabbat had some type of supernatural element — something that could not have been by chance and would have required God to intervene in human history. But the ram was just a ram. There is nothing about the description of the ram to indicate that it had unusual qualities. Why was it included?
According to the midrash, this ram had been in that thicket for 2,000 years, waiting for Abraham and Isaac to arrive. Despite telling Isaac that God would see to the ram, Abraham was so focused on following God’s command that he did not see the ram there when he arrived. It was only when he held the knife in his hand above Isaac, who was bound to the altar, and an angel called out to him to stop that he was able to see it. God had indeed saw to the ram, just as Abraham had told Isaac. But Abraham wasn’t looking.
The story of creation and this midrash teach us that the universe was created with order and purpose. God rushed in those final moments before the first Shabbat to ensure we have everything we need to flourish. It also reminds us that, too often, we walk through life focused on the task at hand and fail to lift our eyes to see what gifts might be right in front of us. Perhaps God created the ram to teach us that when facing moral dilemmas where all the options are problematic, we should not wait for an angel to call out but lift up our heads and find a different path forward, knowing that our God would not want us to sacrifice our children.
Rabbi Marc Israel is the spiritual leader of Tikvat Israel Congregation in Rockville, Maryland.
