Were the Patriarchs Closed Minded?

Please give me one second of your time. The joke will come later. I want to discuss a Biblical narrative with you. It is a story you’ve known since kindergarten, named “The Binding of Isaac.”

Now, we all know that Abraham was the most open-minded man of his day, the first person to “think out of the box.” After centuries of polytheism, he brainstormed the idea that the A-mighty is not the dust that got stuck between one’s toes.

Yet all of a sudden, when his newly-discovered G-d commanded him to kill his son, the one and only devoted student, the sole propagator of his newfound belief – he did not, even for a moment, question the decree?

Come on, he should have at least begged for a second chance. If I were him, I would play the guilt game: “Listen G-d, let us be honest. I am the only one who serves you; if not for me, you would be a non-issue! And this is my reward?”

Then we have Isaac. He was a healthy man of 37, whereas his aged father was a hundred years older. With one shove, he could have sent his father reeling on the ground, or better yet, bind him to the altar and sacrifice him to G-d. But what did he do? He joyfully walked up to the altar!

If we were to pose this question to Abraham himself, he would wave his thumb in the patented Talmudic study style, as he put forth his idea:

“First of all, I thank G-d I do not live in the 21^st century, when enlightenment means that you can and must question everything, from the sanctity of marriage to the value of life; when you have a legal political party called ‘marijuana reform’ and when people are so “open-minded” that their brains fall out.

“Having said that, I want you to know that even a free-thinker must have some ‘Buck Stops Here’ principles for which he will live or die. When you have a backbone of values, then – and only then – you can venture out, knowing that no matter what, you will forever fall back on something solid, something true and everlasting.

“Once I accepted upon myself the sovereignty of the A-mighty, I willingly entered a box, an ark of holiness and meaning. I can still go out and look for ideas out of the box. But the box forever remains solid.

“One last word; If we have no backbone, then we have nothing at all.”

* * *

Four Israelis are sitting in a restaurant in Tel Aviv. For a long time, nobody says a word. Finally, one man groans, “Oy.”

“Oy vey,” says the second man.

“Nu,” says the third.

At this the fourth man gets up from his chair and says, “Listen, if you guys don’t stop talking politics, I’m leaving.”