For many decades, Rabbi Simon Greenberg would teach his students at the Seminary: Never preach about the binding of Isaac, Genesis 22 , the Torah reading for the second day of Rosh Hashanah. A parent sacrifice his child? Who would do a thing like that? A parent place some principle above the life and health and welfare of their own child? Who would do a thing like that? The whole premise of the binding of Isaac is so unrelatable, Rabbi Greenberg taught, that real people cannot relate to this opaque tale of a parent prepared to sacrifice his own son. Better to not talk about it.
I have been thinking about Rabbi Greenberg’s question: Who would do a thing like that? It is now clear that the answer is: we would. Our country would. Our country does. It is now clear that Genesis 22, this opaque tale of a parent prepared to sacrifice his own child, is our current, foundational American story. Abraham was prepared to sacrifice Isaac for his principle, the commanding voice of God. America is prepared to sacrifice our children for the commanding voice of the Second Amendment, and the unfettered right of every American to own a gun, including assault rifles.
We know about Columbine, Newtown, Parkland and Uvalde. But the Daily’s discussion of Uvalde taught me something I did not know.