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Yiddish-Folktales
@Yiddish-Folktales

The Sacrifice of Isaac and the Caretaker of Brisk

The story is told that the leading men of the community were unsatisfied with the work of the caretaker of Rabbi Yoshe-Ber’s rabbinical court in Brisk. They held a meeting and decided to fire the caretaker. Then they gave the task of dismissing him to Rabbi Yoshe-Ber, but he refused.

“Why not, Rabbi?” the community leaders asked. “You’re the rabbi and he’s your employee.”

“I’ll tell you,” Rabbi Yoshe-Ber replied. “Since you read and know the story of the sacrifice of Isaac, you know that when the Blessed Name commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, we find that it is written that He Himself spoke as follows: ‘Take now thy son, thine only son …’ But when He commanded Abraham to spare Isaac, God sent an angel, as it is written, ‘And the angel called unto Abraham …’

“This poses a question. Why was it that the Blessed Name did not send an angel at the beginning? The answer is that He knew very well that no angel would have accepted the assignment. Each of them would have said, ‘If You want to command death, You had better do it Yourself.’ ”

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Glossary

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AnnotationsSOURCE: V.A. 29:2.
COMMENTS: Note that Yoshe-Ber justifies his view by referring back to a scriptural passage.

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