Ep. 43 - The One-Time Mitzvah
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Ep. 43 - The One-Time Mitzvah
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Summary
Avraham has already passed nine of his ten tests, and G-d is standing in front of him with a covenant that will be stamped into the flesh of every Jewish male for the rest of history. The questions that come out of this moment are not small ones.
Why does the covenant take the form it does? Why does it happen at eight days old, before a child can consent or even understand? Why did Avraham himself wait so long, given that he understood the Torah long before Sinai? The answer to that last question comes from an explanation Rabbi Epstein first encountered in high school, and it turns on a Talmudic principle about commandments and merit. It also points to a short list of mitzvos that share a strange quality with circumcision: they can only be performed once.
Then there is Avraham's plea on behalf of Ishmael. On the surface it reads as a father asking that his older son not be cast aside. But Rabbi Epstein traces the request to something far larger: Avraham's understanding of the four exiles, Esau's conditional claim over the Jewish people, and why Ishmael's continued presence in the world may be exactly what allows the Jewish people to be redeemed when the time comes, without having to be perfect first.