Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Genesis 22:1/אבן עזרא על בראשית כ״ב:א׳

אוהאלהים נסה את אברהם. י"א כי הסמ"ך תחת שי"ן, והה"א תחת האל"ף וטעם כל הפרשה יכחישם רק נסה כמשמעו ואנשי שיקול הדעת אמרו, כי הדעות הם שתים האחת דעת העתיד בטרם היותו, והשנית דעת היש הנמצא, וזה פי' נסה, גם כי עתה ידעתי והגאון אמר שמלת נסה להראות צדקתו לבני אדם, גם מלת ידעתי כטעם הודעתי והלא ידע זה הגאון, כי בשעה שעקד בנו לא הי' שם אפילו נעריו ואחרים אמרו כי פי' והעלהו שם לעולה שיעלהו אל ההר, וזאת תחשב לו לעולה, ואברהם לא ידע סוד הנבואה, וימהר לשחוט אותו, והשם אמר לו לא בקשתי זאת. ואחרים אמרו הראה שתעלהו לעולה כמו "והשקית אותם יין" (ירמי' לה ב) והוצרכו אלה הגאונים לפי' האלה, כי יאמרו לא יתכן אחר שיצוה השם מצוה שיאמר אח"כ לא תעשינה והנה לא שמו על לב הבכורים שהחליפם בלוים אחר שנה ואחר שהכתוב אומר בתחלה "והאלהים נסה את אברהם" סרו כל הטענות והשם נסהו כדי שיקבל שכר

1THAT GOD DID PROVE ABRAHAM. Some say that the word nissah (did prove, tested) is a variation of nissa (lifted up),¹ as prove is that it seemed to imply that God did not know what Abraham’s response to his request would be. They thus interpreted nissa as coming from nun, sin, alef, meaning lifted up; i.e., God exalted Abraham by showing him to be a paragon of absolute obedience to the Lord’s will. Cf. Bereshit Rabbah 80:55. with the sin replacing the samekh² is spelled nun, samekh, heh ; nassah is spelled nun, sin, alef. and the heh replacing the alef.³ in nissah, like the alef in nasa, is silent. However, the plain meaning of the entire chapter contradicts this interpretation.⁴ means proved, tested, not exalted. The word nissah is thus to be taken literally. The philosophers teach that there are two kinds of knowledge, knowledge of events prior to their occurrence, and knowledge of what is presently in existence. The latter is the meaning of God did prove, and for now I know (v. 12).⁵ Saadiah Gaon says that did prove means that God tested Abraham in order to demonstrate his piety to mankind; furthermore, he interprets for now I know that thou art a God-fearing man (v. 12) to mean that now I have made known to all that thou art a God-fearing man. But didn’t Saadiah know that even Abraham’s young men were not present when he bound Isaac and placed him on the altar?⁶ Others say that and offer him there for a burnt offering is to be interpreted as: bring him up to the mountain; this will be considered as if you brought him up as a burnt offering.⁷) literally means bring him up. However, Abraham did not understand his prophetic vision⁸ and hurried to sacrifice Isaac. God then told him, “I did not ask you to slay Isaac.”Still others say that God told Abraham: act as if you were bringing him up as a burnt offering. We find a similar occurrence in connection with the prophet Jeremiah, who was commanded to Go unto the house of the Rechabites…and give them wine to drink (Jer. 35:2).⁹ he did not intend that Jeremiah actually make them drink. Similarly God’s intention was not that Abraham actually sacrifice Isaac. He wanted Abraham to make all the preparations necessary for the sacrifice, i.e., to bind Isaac, lay him on the altar, etc. He was to do everything as if he were offering him as a sacrifice. Now these geonim offered the above interpretations because they held that it is not possible that God would issue a command and then take it back.¹⁰ However, they overlooked the fact that God took the firstborn to serve Him and after a year replaced them with the Levites.¹¹ In reality all questions are removed by Scripture’s first stating that God did prove Abraham.¹² The reason God tested Abraham was in order to reward him.¹³.

בוטעם כי עתה ידעתי, כמו "ואם לא אדעה" (בראשית יח כא) ועוד אפרש סודו בפסוק "ידעתיך בשם" (שמות לג יב) אם יעזרני השם יודע הנסתרות:

2The meaning of for now I know that (v. 12) is the same as and if not, I will know (Gen. 18:21).¹⁴ I will also explain, if God who knows all hidden things will help me, the secret meaning of this term in my comments on I know thee by name (Ex. 33:12).