Musar zu Bereschit 22:3

Concerning Abraham, our father, in the account of the sacrifice of Isaac, it is said : "And Abraham rose in the morning" (Gen. 22:3). Even though it was difficult for him to offer up his only son, he nevertheless did the will of the Creator with zeal, arising early in the morning. He who performs his deeds with zeal demonstrates convincingly that he loves his Creator as a servant who loves his master and hastens to do His will. For zeal depends upon the heart of a man, as when a man cleanses his heart of all other thoughts that may be in it and clings to one thought only, then he makes himself alert and will no doubt succeed. Thus did Abraham do when he removed the love for his son from his heart and carried out the will of his Creator, nullifying his love for his son before his love for the Creator. Therefore, he made a point of rising early, for there was in his heart a great love for the Creator. Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He, swore to him that He would remember the binding of Isaac. For a man may do a very difficult thing for one he loves, although his heart troubles him in the doing. But Abraham and Isaac both acted out of the desire of their heart, for the degree of love that they felt for God was very great. Both of them cleaved unto the Lord in their thoughts until they were joined in a great unity. For their sole intent was to spread throughout the world the knowledge of the Unity of the Creator and to train mankind to love Him. As they lovingly performed the service of the Lord, may He be Exalted, and fulfilled His commandments, their physical nature was overcome; their minds cleaved to their love of the Creator of the world. Therefore, both of them acted with zeal.

Rabbi Elazar explained that every morning the influence of Avraham’s lovingkindness is reawakened, as it is written, “And Avraham arose early in the morning” (Bereishis 22:3). For this reason it is a very favorable hour, so much so that even the bedridden find relief in the morning through the agency of the angel Refael who reveals himself every morning. When the angels appointed to bring infirmity and sickness upon people behold the angel Refael, they take fright and flee. Then Refael extends healing to the invalid. And just as there is a favorable time to pray for physical healing, so is there a favorable time to pray for the sicknesses of the spirit and soul, that is, one’s sins, transgressions and iniquities. The time for this is also in the morning. And since it is a time of favor, even if in light of his deeds the supplicant is not worthy of being answered, nevertheless the Holy One Blessed is He regards him as a penitent and instructs the court not to open an inquest. For lovingkindness and grace are the prerogatives of the Holy One Blessed is He, and the morning is the time that Avraham’s lovingkindness is recalled. Therefore the Holy One Blessed is He accepts prayers of the morning in a spirit of lovingkindness.

This is the mystical dimension of the first words of Kohelet where Solomon cries out: הבל הבלים הכל הבל, that in this world everything is no better than הבל! He bemoans the fact that in this world Divine guidance must be based on the attribute of חסד! a testimony to man's inadequacy. Solomon clearly implies that the way G–d deals with the present world is הבל, totally inferior to the way G–d will be dealing with the world of the future when He will be able to employ the yardstick of גבורה. This is what our sages meant when they said in in Midrash Kohelet 11,12 "the Torah (insights) which man studies in this world is הבל when compared to the Torah of the Messiah." What our sages had in mind is that the Torah which we learn in this world is based on the intelligence of the emanation associated with הבל, whereas the Torah of the Messiah will be based on the wisdom garnered from the emanation of גבורה, i.e. the domain from which Cain originated. Our own eyes behold regularly that a person whose origin is in the domain of גבורה is apt to be strong and valorous whereas people whose origin is in the domain of חסד are apt to be sensitive and weak. The relationship between חסד and גבורה is not unlike the relationship between silver and gold. Even among the קליפות, the spiritually negative forces, we find that the force גבורה equals אריה=216, whereas the force חסד is equivalent to חמור (donkey, symbolic of all that is earthly). This is the mystical dimension of Genesis 22,3: ויחבוש את חמרו, where Abraham is described as saddling his donkey on the way to the binding of Isaac. The word חמרו is spelled defective (without the letter ו) to indicate that by the act of saddling the donkey, symbol of everything material, Abraham assumed dominance over it. The numerical value of the letters in the name of אברהם is the same as the numerical value in the letters of the word חמר, =248. Abraham had to establish his authority over this קליפה so that it should not hinder him in executing G–d's command to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. He arose early in the morning (Genesis 22,3) in order to "awaken" i.e. to anticipate the emanation חסד and to subdue the קליפה aspect associated with it. Rabbi Akiva represented the type of personality based on גבורה, the domain Cain came from after the emanation גבורה i.e. had already been "sweetened." This is why Moses had suggested to G–d that, since He already knew there was going to be a man of such caliber, it would be appropriate to give the Torah to the Jewish people by means of a man such as Rabbi Akiva. Thus far the Arizal. Since Cain represented darkness it is no more than appropriate that light when it comes should originate in darkness.

We shall demonstrate that both the view which interprets 22,1 as referring to Satan's accusation, and the view that the test was caused by Isaac's provocative boast to his brother Ishmael that he would be willing to offer his entire body to G–d, are true and totally compatible with one another. We must understand that anything which is due to Satan or a malignment by Satan, has its origin in the סטרא אחרא, the side of the emanations which is separate from sanctity. On the other hand, the statements ascribed by our sages to Ishmael, who boasted of his having demonstrated genuine obedience to G–d, originates in the side of the emanations that contains קדושה, sanctity. Abraham was not sure whether the entire נסיון, test, was because G–d had heeded Satan's malignment of him or whether the test was due to the words of Ishmael and Isaac's reply that he was willing to sacrifice body and soul for G–d. When we consider that Abraham and Isaac rose early in the morning to undertake this journey to Mount Moriah, and that Abraham personally saddled his donkey instead of leaving this chore to one of his servants (compare 22,3), and when the Torah immediately afterwards describes Abraham and Isaac as "going together," the meaning that they both rejoiced in planning to fulfill G–d's will becomes clearly apparent.