Kaisipang Hudyo sa Genesis 27:27: Akeidat Yitzchak & Guide for the Perplexed

The flies mentioned in the parable quoted at the outset, may be viewed as the spontaneous outgrowth of a churning mind; such a mind, while unassisted by Divine inspiration of revealed teachings such as Torah, is, however, like a dead-end street, its products like the products of a cadaver. Only when guidance is provided from above, can the outgrowth of our mind's activities assume valid and enduring dimensions. The Yalkut Shimoni in Isaiah 2 describes the different ways Abraham, Isaac and Jacob understood the mikdash, temple concept. Abraham referred to the temple as "mountain," Isaac referred to it as "field," whereas Jacob referred to it as "house." These three terms reflect the respective perceptions each one of the avot had of the way G-d works on earth. Abraham, having worked out by his power of reasoning that there must be One G-d, considered this G-d as manifesting His Presence from time to time; these episodes he referred to as "mountain," i.e. highlights. Visible evidence of the presence of the shechinah occurs only at rare intervals. Isaac, having experienced hashgachah peratit, Personal Providence, on more frequent occasions than his father, sees this shechinah presence like a "field," something more commonplace. Jacob, who witnessed G-d’s Presence almost daily during the long years he spent at the house of Laban, calls it "house," i.e. he considers its presence on earth as something permanent. Therefore, he chooses the name Bet El. According to the Midrash, this is the reason the prophet Isaiah in Chapter 2,3 refers to the eventual temple as "the house of the G-d of Jacob,"since until the revelation granted Jacob, the true dimension of the hashgachah peratit concept had not even been appreciated by the other ancestors.

Again, since we perform all these actions only by means of corporeal organs, we figuratively ascribe to God the organs of locomotion, as feet, and their soles; organs of hearing, seeing, and smelling, as ear, eye, and nose; organs and substance of speech, as mouth, tongue, and sound; organs for the performance of work, as hand, its fingers, its palm, and the arm. In short, these organs of the body are figuratively ascribed to God, who is above all imperfection, to express that He performs certain acts; and these acts are figuratively ascribed to Him to express that He possesses certain perfections different from those acts themselves. E.g., we say that He has eyes, ears, hands, a mouth, a tongue, to express that He sees, hears, acts, and speaks: but seeing and hearing are attributed to Him to indicate simply that He perceives. You thus find in Hebrew instances in which the perception of the one sense is named instead of the other; thus, “See the word of the Lord” (Jer. 2:31), in the same meaning as “Hear the word of the Lord,” for the sense of the phrase is, “Perceive what He says”; similarly the phrase, “See the smell of my son” (Gen. 27:27) has the same meaning as “Smell the smell of my son,” for it relates to the perception of the smell. In the same way are used the words, “And all the people saw the thunders and the lightnings” (Exod. 20:15), although the passage also contains the description of a prophetical vision, as is well known and understood among our people. Action and speech are likewise figuratively applied to God, to express that a certain influence has emanated from Him, as will be explained (chap. lxv and chap. lxvi.).