THE BINDING OF ISAAC This passage, said daily by those whose liturgy follows the Jewish mystical tradition, evokes the supreme moment of sacrifice by the grandfather of Jewish faith, Abraham. Abraham found himself caught within a seeming contradiction. On the one hand God had told him that it would be Isaac and Isaac’s children through whom the covenant would continue and become eternal (Gen. 17:19). On the other, God had now commanded him to take Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice (Gen. 22:3). It was Abraham’s willingness, not merely to sacrifice that which was most precious to him, but to live with the contradiction, in the faith that God would resolve it in the course of time, that made him the hero of faith and its role model through the centuries.

ACCEPTING THE SOVEREIGNTY OF HEAVEN לְעוֹלָם יְהֵא אָדָםA person should always. This whole section until “Who sanctifies His name among the multitudes” appears in the tenth-century Midrash, Tanna DeVei Eliyahu (ch. 21). Some believe that it dates from a period of persecution under the Persian ruler Yazdegerd II who, in 456 CE, forbade the observance of Shabbat and the reading of the Torah. Jews continued to practice their faith in secret, saying prayers at times and in ways that would not be detected by their persecutors. This explains the reference to fearing God “privately” and “speaking truth in the heart” (that is, the secret practice of Judaism) and the recitation here of the first lines of the Shema, which could not be said at the normal time. The final blessing, “Who sanctifies His name among the multitudes,” refers to the martyrdom of those who went to their deaths rather than renounce their faith. Martyrdom is called Kiddush HaShem, “sanctifying [God’s] name.”