Isaac Bound With All His Heart Upon the Ancient Altar

"And Abraham built there the altar" (Genesis 22:9) is not written here, but rather "the altar" with the definite article: the very altar on which Cain and Abel offered, the same altar on which Noah and his sons offered. Isaac said to his father, "Father, bind my two hands and my two feet, that I not kick you and be found profaning the commandment 'Honor' (Exodus 20:12)." And he did so. And like a High Priest he brought near his meal-offering and his drink-offering, and the Holy One, blessed be He, was watching the father binding with a whole heart and the son being bound with a whole heart, while the ministering angels cried out and wept, as it is said, "Behold, their valiant ones" (Isaiah 33:7). They said before the Holy One, blessed be He: "Master of the universe, You are called 'merciful and gracious' (Exodus 34:6); He whose mercies are over all His works, have mercy on Isaac, who is a man and a son of man, bound before You like an animal. 'Man and beast You save, O LORD' (Psalms 36:7)." Rabbi Yehuda says: when the knife reached the throat, Isaac's soul flew off and departed. And when the voice was heard from between the two cherubim, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad," his soul returned to his body, and Abraham released him, and Isaac stood up. And Isaac knew that thus the dead are destined to live again, and he opened and said, "Blessed are You, O LORD, who revives the dead." Rav was sitting behind Rabbi Hiyya before Rabbi, and Rabbi was sitting and saying: From where do we learn that ritual slaughter must be with a detached implement? As it is said, "And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son." Rav said to Rabbi Hiyya: "What is he saying?" He said: "He is speaking of the vav that is written" [reading the verse closely]. "But the verse itself says it!" The verse teaches us Abraham's zeal. At the moment Abraham our father stretched out his hand to take the knife to slaughter his son, the ministering angels wept, as it is said, "Behold, their valiant ones cried out outside" (Isaiah 33:7): "outside" is written, [read as] the knife is in their hands to cover [slaughter] their son. What were they saying? "The highways are desolate" - that Abraham no longer receives the passersby and the wayfarers; "the wayfaring man has ceased"; "He has broken the covenant" - "And My covenant I will establish with Isaac"; "He has despised the cities" - "And Abraham journeyed from there to the land of the Negev"; "He regards no man" - he does not reckon the merit of Abraham. "And he took the knife": Rav inquired before Rabbi Hiyya the Great: From where do we learn that slaughter is with a movable object? From here: "And Abraham stretched out his hand and took" - this implies that it was detached. He said to him: if Rabbi told you this from Aggadah, even with an attached object it is permitted, for he may retract; if he told you it as binding teaching, he does not retract, for Levi taught: if they were fixed in the ground from the start, they are unfit; if detached and then fixed, they are fit, as we have learned: one who slaughters with a hand-sickle, with flint, or with reed - his slaughter is fit. "And the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham": an expression of affection, an expression of urging. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: to him and to the generations - there is no generation without one like Abraham, no generation without one like Jacob, and no generation without one like Moses and Samuel. "And He said, Do not stretch out your hand against the lad" - and where was the knife? Three tears fell upon it from the ministering angels, and the knife was ruined. He said: "What then shall I do to him? Shall I strangle him?" He said: "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad." He said: "Let me draw a drop of blood from him." He said: "Do not do to him anything [me'umah] - any blemish [mumah]." "For now I know that you fear God" - I have made known to all that you are My beloved, and you did not withhold your son, your only one, from Me, that you should not say that all afflictions outside the body are not afflictions; rather, I reckon it to you as though I had said that you offer yourself, and you did not hold back. He said before Him: "Is it possible, as it were, that there is before You anything like the talk of human beings, who change their words? Yesterday You said to me, 'For in Isaac shall your seed be called' (Genesis 21:12), and You turned back and said, 'Take now your son,' and now You say, 'Do not stretch out your hand.'" The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: "I will not profane My covenant, for I said, 'And My covenant I will establish with Isaac' (Genesis 17:21). When I said to you, 'Take now your son,' that which goes forth from My lips I do not change. And did I say to you, slaughter him? I said to you, 'Bring him up' - bring him up and bring him down."