Towards the end of last week’s Torah portion of Vayeira is the epic episode of Akeidas Yitzchak, the binding of Isaac. Avraham Avinu perfectly performed a mitzva, the will of Hashem, with such alacrity, complete intent, and focus, that its merits have ramifications throughout history.
In fact, right after the event, the Torah relates, “The angel of Hashem called to Avraham a second time from Heaven. And he said, ‘By Myself I swear, the word of Hashem, that because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only one, that I shall surely bless you and greatly increase your offspring like the stars in the heavens and like the sand on the seashore; and your offspring shall inherit the gates of its enemy. And all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your offspring, because you have listened to My voice” (Breishis 22:15-18).
The Sforno explains on these pesukim that Hashem, by Himself, swears that He will bless Avraham, ‘I G-D say that since you have done this thing… that I shall surely bless you. “And all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your offspring,” ‘When the nations will all call upon G-D’s Name to serve Him with one accord (based on Tzephaniah 3:9), they will all seek blessings through your seed and endeavor to emulate them.’ “Because you have listened to My voice,” ‘Because the reward of one mitzvah is another mitzvah (Avos 4:2), therefore you will merit (through this willingness to sacrifice Yitzchak) that your children will be a banner for the nations, teaching them to serve the Almighty, and this will be considered as a righteousness for you.’ (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The impact of Akeidas Yitzchak lasts for generations. According to commentaries on the Sforno by Rav Rephael Pelcovitz and Rav Yehuda Cooperman, the Sforno is alluding to a pasuk in Tzephania which the Radak says is referring to the days after the war of Gog and Magog, where all the nations that are left will want to reap the benefits of Avraham’s blessing and convert to Judaism as a unifying force accepting Hashem as One, led by the Torah leaders, the Gedolim, of that generation.
One would think that such an impact and everlasting blessing is due to some unique circumstance which comes about once in history for specials reasons. However, the Sforno says the logic behind why Avraham’s deed had such a powerful impact is based on a Mishna in Pirkei Avos which is applied to every single individual. The Mishna (Avos 4:2) there states, “Ben Azzai taught: ‘ You should run to do a mitzvah, even if you think it is not important, and you should run away from a sin; for doing one mitzva leads you to do another mitzva and doing one sin leads you to do another sin; the reward for doing a mitzva is the opportunity to do another mitzva and the consequence for doing a sin is the opportunity to do another sin.” The Sforno on this mishna observes that “even though at times the mitzva or sin is an easy one and seems not worth running after or running away from, in itself but its ramification are otherwise because a mitzva causes another mitzva and a sin causes another sin to happen. The reason for this cause and effect is because the reward in this world is only that G-D gives us the opportunity to keep and prepare ourselves to do another mitzva, as explained in a Medrish Tanchuma (Ki Setzei 1) that it can be derived from the order in the Torah that observance of the mitzva of sending away the mother bird will lead to the mitzva of putting up a fence on one’s roof, which will then lead to the mitzva of tzitzis, etc. This is coming to teach us that if you fulfill the mitzva of sending away the mother bird one merits to prepare himself for the mitzvos that follow it. So to the consequence and delight of a sin in this world prepares one to sin again.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
We see from the Sforno on this mishna that the merit of performing one mitzva will prepare one to be ready to perform another mitzva, it’s magnetic in a sense. Once one gets into the mode of doing a mitzva, other mitzvos are drawn to you and G-D forbid the same is true when one gets into the mode of sinning. This magnet seems to be a reward or consequence for the initial mitzva or sin. But how does this fit with what the Sforno is saying by Akeidas Yitzchak? Once Avraham died the magnet should be gone, and even if you say it lives on through his children, but for as long as for thousands of years until the last generation before Moshiach, whenever that is? Where is the magnetic connection? What does the Binding of Isaac have to do with Avraham’s descendants thousands of years later being “the banner,” leading force for the nations to accept Hashem as the only G-D and insisting on converting?
It must be that this magnetic power of doing one mitzvah that leads to another not only works for an individual, but it is generational. It makes sense that the better a mitzva is performed the stronger the magnet it produces to attract more mitzvos, for whoever does it. Furthermore, each mitzva one magnetically attracts, its reward is attributed to him according to the amount Hashem calculates. Therefore, because of the impact Akeidas Yitzchak had, and the complete perfection of a mitzva Avraham performed he created such a magnetic pull it lasts to the end of time throughout the generations and he is attributed with righteousness for all the mitzvos that are performed.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Dovid Shmuel Milder