Musar su Genesi 22:12

The answer may be that all other acts of מצוה performance originate outside ourselves, such as the building of a סוכה or the purchase of a לולה, and most of the other 248 positive commandments. When it comes to the offering of an animal sacrifice, however, the person offering it is the עובד, or better עבד, servant, so that the service which an עבד, servant, performs is accurately called עבודה, service. One may view the servant as the "service." We know that such an animal sacrifice is an expression of the mystical dimension נפש תחת נפש, "One life-force in exchange for another life-force," such as in Exodus 21,23 et al, and that when the guilty party slaughters the animal he is keenly aware that his own life should have been offered to G–d in expiation of his sin. The same applies to what the guilty party feels when the blood of the animal is sprinkled on the altar. The owner confesses his sin and resolves not to repeat it. When all this, including the burning of the flesh of the animal on the altar, is the result of animal sacrifice, then the servant has truly become the "service." The first time this happened was when Abraham slaughtered the ram on the altar after G–d had told him not to slaughter Isaac in Genesis 22,12. [In the case of Isaac, he had not been personally guilty; hence how could his death expiate for a crime of his? Ed.] As a corollary, other sacrifices such as wine, bread, oil, etc., accomplish a similar function; they substitute for man offering his own body to G–d, because all the products mentioned are forms of nourishment that keep the human body alive, and therefore are able to serve as a substitute for the human body. In spite of the fact that this service involves an external object, i.e. the animal in question, the thought behind it is strictly internal. The external object enables the sinner to look inward into his own personality. עבודה is called קרבן because the person offering the animal sacrifices his own personality to G–d who in turn has entrusted him with the keeping of his body. When this service is performed according to הלכה, the person offering the sacrifice experiences an elevation of his soul; he approaches ever closer to G–d.

When G–d said to Abraham after the 22,12) ,עקדה) "Now I know that you are G–d-fearing," this is what is meant. We find in Sotah 31 that this expression of "G–d-fearing" is supposed to mean that Abraham served G–d out of love. This seems paradoxical. Why would the Torah use the word "fear," when what is meant is "love?" The Talmud there is at pains to justify this statement by citing that G–d called Abraham “אוהבי, “the one who loves Me," in Isaiah 41,8. There are actually three levels (in ascending order) in which one relates to G–d. There is fear which eventually results in love; there is love which eventually results in reverence, another level of "fear." I have explained all this at length in my treatise בעשרה מאמרות נברא העולם. Briefly, the lower level of fear is the fear of punishment. The higher level of יראה, fear, is a kind of reverence, i.e. the fear to do something displeasing to G–d irrespective of any consequences. The mere idea of being unworthy is something abhorrent. This latter "fear" is one that is the result of having developed a love for G–d. It is this fear that Abraham was being complimented on by G–d after the successful trial of the עקדה. The Talmud therefore is quite correct in associating that fear with "love," seeing it was the product of love. The fear that Abraham entertained during the steps leading up to the binding of Isaac was that somehow his own and Isaac's performance might not be optimal, i.e. whole-hearted and joyful.

When G–d told Abraham in 22,12 אל תשלח ידך אל הנער ואל תעש לו מאומה, "do not raise your hand against the lad and do not do anything to him," Abraham was stunned, fearing that maybe Isaac was found blemished, not worthy as a sacrifice. It was then that G–d took Abraham into His confidence, explaining that when He had said in 21,12 כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, "for through Isaac your seed will be known," that had only referred to part of Isaac, i.e. ב. Now, after the עקדה, however, when Isaac has been cleansed of any unworthy parts, My promise refers to כל יצחק, all of Isaac, i.e. Isaac's entire personality qualifies to be your descendant. When Abraham receives a "second" message from G–d in 22,15, this is merely to assure him that G–d will certainly not change or qualify any promise He had made to him, and that the soul that inhabited Isaac's body now was שנית, a second one, his original soul having ascended to Heaven. It was because of the ריח ניחוח of the ram that Abraham slaughtered that Isaac's soul could ascend to Heaven, seeing that that ram had been a heavenly creature having been created at dusk of the sixth day of creation, as we know from Avot 5,9. The physical body of Isaac, who had been born of semen, was also replaced with sacred flesh. This is why he was forbidden to leave the holy soil of the land of Canaan.