Living With the Other by Avi Sagi

Author:Avi Sagi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783319991788
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

What kind of father will a person for whom these are his fundamental experiences become? Will he transfer to his own children his complex attitude toward his parents? Will he burden them with his own guilt and frustration? Will he enable his children to grow and become autonomous individuals, free to be released from their father’s guilt?

Indeed, the biblical narrator assumes an implied connection between the removal of Abraham’s parental home and the akedah story: “go forth [lekh lekha] from your country” and “get thee [lekh lekha] to the land of Moriah” (Genesis 22:2).”8 In both verses, the construct is one of detachment from the past and of turning to a different reality. These shared motifs tie together both moves and turn them into one story, a story of self-alienation, of renouncing the past and inventing Abraham’s individuality, which culminates in the akedah. Latent in the akedah, however, is also the next stage in this process: the transformation of Abraham from an alienated son into an alienated father. In other words, the akedah is the culmination of Abraham’s coming of age story, which shapes a new attitude toward himself, his past, and the basic elements of his existence, an attitude that will later be conveyed in his own attitude to his son, to Isaac. In literary terms, Abraham is indeed the hero of the story and Isaac is a minor character. Abraham is the one who is tested while Isaac is only the object of the test.

The akedah story compels the father to grapple with the legacy question, with his being a father who must develop a relationship with his son. This attitude cannot be based solely on what the son is “for” the father—an object to fulfill his heart’s desires—but also, and mainly, on the son being “for himself,” a being unconditioned by the father. The akedah story starkly poses the question of whether a father who had not been a son to his own father can allow his son to be what he is himself, or whether one who has been shaped by constant alienation will also be alienated from his own son.

The story describes quite precisely how Abraham becomes a father. In the first stage, he must bring his individuality and his uniqueness to a peak, leaving no room for the other, even for the son. He must sacrifice his son in order to realize his absolute freedom and protect his independence from any external interference. Abraham’s completion as an individual is epitomized by the absolute objectification of Isaac the son. The akedah marks the culmination of this process in Abraham’s move of self-alienation, which began with his detachment from his father’s house. He has now completed his individuation, his being a free person without any attachments. His being is a constant transcendence, and the sacrifice of Isaac is the absolute testimony to it.9 This stage is not merely a game; Abraham must take this move to its end. In Buber’s terms:The “son,” the “only one,” …

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