ויהי אחר הדברים האלה, “it was after these events;” according to Rashi, the “events” refer to the banquet arranged on the occasion of Yitzchok’s being weaned; Satan accused Avraham of not having offered a single sacrifice to G-d on that occasion. G-d replied that he would have been willing to offer even his own son as such an offering if asked. and that year [when Avraham came back from the land of Plishtim and sat in Chevron] was 12 years before the Akeda of Yitzchok. A different interpretation of the words: הדברים האלה, “these words;” Yishmael had boasted to Yitzchok that he had voluntarily undergone circumcision at an age when it was most painful, to which Yitzchok had replied that he, Yishmael, had endured pain only on one organ, whereas he, Yitzchok, would be prepared to undergo such pain on his whole body, i.e. he would even give his life for G-d. The reason why Rashi chose the first interpretation is that the word אחר normally refers to an event that had immediately preceded the subject raised, whereas here the call for the binding of Yitzchok would then have occurred many years earlier. According to a statement by Rav Hunna in Bereshit Rabbah 44,6, the word for “after” that the Torah should have used should then have been “אחרי.”A third interpretation of the words: ויהי אחר הדברים האלה is that they refer to the treaty concluded between Avraham and Avimelech, when Avraham had voluntarily postponed the fulfillment of G-d’s promise to him without having first obtained G-d’s permission to do so. [It is a historical fact that sovereignty over the land of the Philistines was achieved by the Israelites only about 100 years prior to the destruction of the first Temple, (under King Yoshiyahu), over 800 years after Joshua conquered the rest of the Holy Land. This was part of the punishment for the Israelites not having carried out G-d’s command not to allow a single soul of the then residents to remain alive (if they did not emigrate). (Deuteronomy 20,16). [In other words, although Avraham was the first to cause of the fulfillment of G-d’s promise to be delayed, he was not the last Israelite to do so. Ed.] Another interpretation, one which places the emphasis on the words נסה את אברהם, “He tested Avraham.”Avraham was not tested in order for G-d to convince Himself of his willingness to offer up his beloved son, seeing that such matters are known to Him, Who is omniscient; he was tested by the attribute of Justice which had dared question the degree of loyalty he could summon when so tested. Passing this test successfully would convince the people around him of the absolute obedience to any command G-d would issue to him. There was no way the nations of the world could challenge his faith thereafter.

אל ארץ המוריה, “to the land of Moriah;” the proper spelling should have been האמוריה; it is not unusual for the Torah to omit the consonant aleph, when it would have been silent anyways, one example being Exodus 10,21 וימש חושך instead of .ויאמש חושך [This missing letter א is not unusual, for instance it occurs in Isaiah 13.20] לא יהל ערבי instead of לא יאהל ערבי, “no Arab shall pitch his tent.”

והעלהו שם לעולה, “and offer him up there as burnt offering.” When Avraham is supposed to have asked G-d: “how can I offer a burnt offering in the absence of the priest whose duty it is to perform such rites? G-d answered that Avraham had been appointed as a priest by Him already. (Bereshit Rabbah 55,7) This is how the sages explained Psalms 110,4: נשבע ה' ולא ינחם אתה כהן לעולם על דברתי מלכי צדק, “The Lord has sworn and will not retract that you are a priest forever as per My word to Malki Tzedek.” (compare Genesis 14,20 where the latter was deprived of that priesthood as he had blessed mortal Avraham before blessing the immortal Lord)

ויקח את שני נעריו, “he took his two attendants;” here Rashi does not interpret what he had explained in connection with a similar expression when Bileam took his two servants (Numbers 22,22). There he had explained that prominent people must always travel in the company of two attendants so that one of them has to follow a call of nature so the prominent person will not have been left alone.

וישא אברהם את עיניו, “Avraham raised his eyes;” The letter ו in the word וישא is superfluous. [I confess that I have not understood this. Ed.]

!שבו לכם פה, “you stay here!;” Avraham was afraid that if he did not leave them behind they might attempt to stop him from slaughtering his son.

עם החמור, “with the donkey;” he warned them not to let the donkey graze somewhere. [If he was afraid the servants might interfere with him, this was no reason to leave the donkey behind and carry the firewood themselves. Ed.]

יראה לו השה לעולה, “He will select the lamb that should be the one to serve as the burnt offering.” Even though G-d had told him that his descendants would become known through his son Yitzchok (21,12), he was afraid that Ytzchok would be slaughtered. He had said to himself: “perhaps Yitzchok has already been intimate with a woman without my having been aware, and that woman had already given birth to a son or a daughter for him, so that G-d’s promise will be fulfilled even if he dies here.” After all Yitzchok was already 37 years old.

ויבן אברהם מזבח Avraham built an altar;” Yitzchok did not participate in that activity; the reason that he did not do so was not that he would not have been willing to do so, but his father had hidden him so that Satan would not be able to tempt him, as he had tried to tempt Avraham not to carry out G-d’s request by hurting him so that he would be unfit to serve as an offering.

את המזבח, the altar. The Torah did not write: “altar” without the prefix letter ה which meant that it was an altar that had previously served for such a purpose. According to our tradition, Adam, Hevel, Noach and his sons, had all offered offerings to G-d on that same altar.

אברהם, אברהם! “Avraham, Avraham!” The repetition of Avraham’s name is to indicate that the call was of an urgent nature. This is a formulation also known in other languages.

עתה ידעתי, “now I know for a fact, etc;” did G-d not already know? Actually the meaning is: “now I am able to make My knowledge public to all.” We have a similar formulation in Exodus 32,12, where G-d said to Moses: ידעתיך בשם, “I have made your name well known.” The appropriate translation would be: “I have made you so famous that no one can dispute it.”

אחר נאחז בסבך, “subsequently he saw a ram that had become entangled in the thicket.” We find a similar construction (using the preposition אחר) in Psalms 68,26: קדמו שרים אחר נוגנים, “the singers preceded the musicians,” or in Kohelet 12,2: ושבו העבים אחר הגשם, “and the clouds return after the rain.”According to Rashi, Avraham saw the ram as it became entangled. This is why he understood that it was not there accidentally, but that G-d had given him a hint to use it as a substitute for the offering he had been prevented by the angel to complete. If that ram had been standing there as did others, he would have thought it was privately owned by someone else and would not have touched it. A different interpretation: “he noticed it after it had become entangled by its horns.” (Ibn Ezra).

ה' יראה, Avraham said the following: “Hashem will become my witness after I have fulfilled this commandment of His.” The reason that this is necessary is some people will say that this is the mountain to which I brought my son in order to prove that I would honour Him even by offering my son as an offering and at which I had weakened at the last moment and not gone through with my intention, as proved by the fact that I returned with my son intact. They will not give me credit when told that G-d had to stop me from going through with slaughtering my son in His honour.”

.וכחול אשר על שפת הים, and like the sand on the beaches of the sea. This promise became fulfilled during the reign of King Solomon. (Kings 5,9)

וישב אברהם אל נעריו, “Avraham returned to his lads;” where did Yitzchok go? According to Midrash hagadol, quoted in Torah shleymah item 204 on our verse, he was kept in gan eden for the next three years [until he married Rivkah.] A different interpretation: he proceeded to study Torah during those three years in the academy of Ever. (Bereshit Rabbah 56,11)

ויהי אחרי הדברים האלה, “It was after these events, etc.;” according to Rashi, the event that had occurred on Mount Moriah; when returning from that experience, Avraham reflected and realised that if he had indeed slaughtered his son, how could he now get married so that G-d’s promised to him could be fulfilled. If you were to point out that in Genesis 15,1, Rashi had interpreted the line: אחר הדברים האלה, by commenting that wherever we find this construction in the Torah it means that what follows followed immediately after the events recorded previously, whereas here three years elapsed until Avraham sent Eliezer to get his son a wife, we have to make a distinction between the use by the Torah of the word: אחר and אחרי. When the latter word is used it means that the events now described did not necessarily occur immediately following those described previously.