My favorite line in the morning service comes just after the Barkhu, the call to prayer. And every day, we do work, hard, important, unnoticed work, to stop that from happening.

Everything in our world that is dear to us, the things that seem like they are forever, the people who are always by our sides, the systems (biological, societal or technological) that hum along from day to day unnoticed, is actually held together by thin threads, just one glitch (or germ) away from coming apart at the seams. The conversation above gave me the answer. I can’t answer for Isaac, but asking that question led me to ask: What have I learned in the three years since this catastrophe? Which raises another question: What did he learn in those three years? For now, let’s go with the tradition that says he went to learn at the academy of Shem and Ever, the son and grandson of Noah. The midrash leaps into the void and asks, “Where did he go for those three years?” I have my own ideas, but you’ll have to wait to read the book. Returning to that text recently opened a lot of old wounds even as it provided opportunities for closure for others.Īccording to tradition, Isaac was 37 years old at the time of the akedah, and the next time we see him he is 40.

At the time of the attack, other synagogues around the country, including mine, were in the middle of reading one of the most challenging passages in the Torah, the binding of Isaac. Three years have passed since my co-worker Rich Gottfried, my mentor Jerry Rabinowitz, my bus stop buddy Cecil Rosenthal and eight other neighbors and friends were killed in the terrorist attack on our community at the Tree of Life building. Get The Jewish Chronicle Weekly Edition by email and never miss our top stories These were all things I knew, but connecting it this way for the person I was speaking to the other day made it more real, more sensible, than it had ever been before.

Binding of isaac the void