[Avodah] After the Akeda

[Yitzchok Levine]

In his commentary on Bereishis 22

19 Avraham returned to his young men; they rose 
up and went together to Be’er Sheva, and Avraham remained in Be’er
Sheva.

RSRH points out the following:

19 Vayalchu Yachdov: Avraham, Yitzchak, and the 
young men — all of them together.
This is the third time that yachdov occurs in the account of the Akeda,
and it is the final stroke of the pen in this great narrative.

<snip>

Now we are told what happened after Avraham and Yitzchak had
met the highest challenge and accomplished the most exalted mission
a person can complete: They returned to their attendants, and all of
them — Avraham, Yitzchak, and with them the young men — went
Yachdov, together, to Be’er Sheva.

This is most typical of the spirit that had its beginnings in Avraham
and Yitzchak. After such an ascent to God’s closeness, after such an
elevation above all earthly concerns, an Avraham and a Yitzchak belonging
to any other nation would have been so full of themselves and
of the Divine that they would no longer have taken any interest in
ordinary earthly concerns and in ordinary human beings. In any other
society, such closeness to God — even if only imagined — generally
engenders such arrogance in those who experience it that they look
down in disdain on all other men as “mere mortals” and avoid all
contact with them.

Not so the spirit that is to be perpetuated through the example of
Avraham and Yitzchak. Just after performing the most exalted deed a
person can perform, they return to the attendants they had left at the
foot of Mount Moriah, and go Yachdov, together with them. They do not
consider themselves superior to the others in any respect. To the true
son of Avraham, no man is better than another by virtue of his vocation,
and he sees no distinction between himself and a humble woodcutter
or servant. The higher his own moral and spiritual level, the less likely
is he to feel superior to others, and the less he is conscious of his own
greatness. 
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