Implications of the Akeida Part 7: Human Sacrifice
We will look at a midrash with a different approach to what we saw last time in the Sefat Emet. The midrash looks at a verse from the Book of Yirmiahu (Jeremiah), wherein the prophet castigates the people for offering human sacrifices. The midrash takes each word as an allusion to different parts of Tanakh where people find justification to offer human sacrifices.
Are there values so important that they would take precedence over everything else, even one’s family? Or are there things in one’s personal life that are so valuable that you should never relinquish them? In the story of Akeidat Yitzhak, is the willingness to offer a human sacrifice demanded for the sake of God’s name?
לשאר השיעורים בסדרה (10)
- Implications of the Akeida: Part 1 - Ethics and Obedience
- Implications of the Akeida: Part 2- Human Knowledge of the Good
- Implications of the Akeida: Part 3 - Yihud Hashem
- Implications of the Akeida - Part 4: Prophetic and Religious Challenges of the Akeida
- Implications of the Akeida: Part 5 - Potential, Intent, Action
- Implications of the Akeida Part 6: The Sefat Emet on Yir'a vs. Ahava
- Implications of the Akeida Part 8: Supernatural Transcendence
- Implications of the Akeida Part 9: Moral Ambiguity and Competing Values
- Implications of the Akeida Part 10: Mei HaShiloach and the Obscured Vision
- Implications of the Akeida Part 11: Abarbanel on Yitzhak's Transformation