Abraham Offers Isaac at the Binding

"And he took in his hand the fire and the knife" (Genesis 22:6). Why is it called a ma'akhelet (knife)? Because it makes foods fit (okhalin) for a person's mouth. "And they came to the place of which God had told him, and he bound Isaac his son" (Genesis 22:9). When he came to slaughter him, Isaac said to him: Father, bind my hands and my feet, because the soul is brazen, and when I see the knife perhaps I will tremble and the offering will be rendered unfit. I beg of you, do not make a blemish in me. Immediately the two of them built the altar, and he bound him upon the altar, and he took the knife in order to slaughter him until a quarter of his blood should go out from him. Then Satan came and pushed the hand of Abraham, and the knife fell from his hand. And as he stretched out his hand to take it, a heavenly voice went forth and said to him from heaven: "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad" (Genesis 22:12). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Thus, when the children of Isaac sin and enter into distress, the binding of Isaac shall be remembered on their behalf, and it shall be reckoned before You as though his ashes were heaped upon the altar, and You shall forgive them and redeem them from their distress.