It was the type of car that demanded at least 2 frozen water bottles in order to drive around the corner on a hot NYC summer day. With age, her AC faded and the mechanic didn’t even think she was worth the fix. My roommate and I had tooled around in that ’92 accord for years together in college. The car rolled into my marriage and even brought a few babies home from the hospital.
“How bad is it, if the mechanic told me that I need to fix the brakes on my car?,” my old friend asked over Bluetooth streaming through my minivan.2
As I weaved through traffic approaching the entrance to the Jackie Robinson on my way home from school pickup I shared, “in the red car, I would jam on the brakes a half a mile before a red light to just about come to a rolling stop.” I guess I thought the repair job could wait a day or two…
Suddenly, a 9-year-old voice burst forth from the second row of the van.
- “I never knew we had a red car,” he’s insulted, “how come you never told me?” Zalmy throws at me.
- “What do you mean we?” I shoot back with the abrasive love of a mother.
- “Your friend [on the phone] even knows about it, and you never told me,” he posits.
- “It was gone before you were born,” I get him back.
- “What does that matter?” he wants to know.
- “How could the car have been yours, if you weren’t even born yet?” I put it more simply.
- “Well it was yours,” he begins building his argument, “and I am a part you…. so it was also mine.”
- “Right, because you and I are the same person,” I say with a smirk and a condescending smile.
- “No,” the boy outsmarts the mother, “we’re not the same person but I come from you so if it was your car than it was also mine.”
While I savored Zalmy’s sweet world perspective in the moment, I was yet to realize the profound implication.
In this week’s parsha, Avraham is tasked with sacrificing his son Yitzchak to The Master of The Universe. It is the ultimate test of faith because this command defies all vestiges of common sense. Gd has promised Avraham that he will become the father of a nation through Yitzack. How will that happen if Yitzchak is sacrificed?
Avraham’s entire life mission is meant to be carried on by this singular son who lay upon the altar. Taking his son’s life will erase his legacy, shortcut his spreading of monotheism and basically stymie every accomplishment he’s achieved.
This was not Avraham’s first test, indeed it was his 10th. Avraham has already stood alone for The Creator, championed monotheism, & modeled morality in a crazy world. He has already smashed his father’s idols, pleaded mercy for the unworthy, jumped into a fire for Gd and more.
The test of sacrificing Yitzchak brought his devotion to the One Above to a whole new level. Previously Avraham always makes the right choices despite tremendous challenge and sacrifice. His first nine tests made sense. They were in harmony with his deep mission of standing for the Cause of all Causes – spreading Gdliness to a lonely world.
On the mountain, as he bound the fruit of his loins onto an altar, there was no cause to stand for; there were no values to preserve and no faith to defend. Avraham was following orders in the most simple and profound way possible. Avraham was a soldier.
“Avraham stretched out his and took the knife so as to slaughter his son. An angel of the Eternal then called to him….Do not harm the young man….for now I know that you are a Gd fearing man.” Bereshit 22: 10-12
Yitzchak will live and a new pipeline in aligning oneself with the Being of All Beings has been opened. Yitzchak will follow in the ways of his father with complete devotion to the Oneness of Being.
As descendants of Avraham and Yitzchak, we have been gifted this relationship. A simple women driving carpool in 2024 can somehow lean into a total connection and commitment to Gd. The path which runs deeper than my understanding, and logical reasoning, has opened and as a descendant of Avraham and Yitzchak I’m invited to travel and explore.
I was having trouble understanding how one could inherit a relationship. How can a moment in time, thousands of years before I was born, have an impact on my life?
It seems that Zalmy had the answer all along. No one is here randomly and disconnected as an independent entity.
Perhaps it’s not so complicated…. Perhaps the red car was indeed Zalmy’s since it was mine and Zalmy comes from me. As it turns out, I really should have told him about the red car sooner.
