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foreign
and Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the
place from a distance
okay now I may be going a little bit out
of the Comfort zones here I try to not
get too mystical and multi-dimensional
here but uh you know there are different
understandings of these words but they
can all be true at the same time and
it's really interesting to learning all
of them can provide this new dimension
that each one by itself wouldn't provide
so let me explain what I'm saying don't
get too intimidated by that preface so
the word that's used in the text for the
place is
which means place so the place from a
distance now there are those who say
that the users of the word the place is
an allusion to Jacob for as we know just
six chapters down the road Jacob they've
got Jacob Jacob stumbled upon the place
and avraham this was an allusion to
Jacob and avram was foreseeing Jacob
right he saw Jacob from a distance he
simply could not understand how how just
the day before Hashem promised him that
in Yitzhak will be called your seed
meaning that Yitzhak will inherit him
and now Hashem you're telling me to
sacrifice my son Yitzhak for a reason it
even has any children how is that even
possible hashem's internal logic seemed
to be falling apart I mean avram had to
doubt himself is he losing his mind or
these really voices hearing so this
opinion is conveying that when when it
says he saw the place from a distance it
was saying that he saw the Jacob issue
that irreconcilable contradiction within
his command to sacrifice Isaac and he
sought at a distance
meaning he simply distanced it from his
minds and moved forward with simple
Faith he saw the Jacob as you just
distanced it from his mind he didn't
need to understand it or make sense of
it he distanced the question itself from
his mind now the second explanation that
uh biederman shared here really touched
me deeply now remember we're back on
that same verse
the place from the distance the word
hamakum is a reference here to Hashem
himself
right which is not hard to believe at
all for we know that the word hamakum is
one of the names of Hashem we've talked
about this in many past fellowships a
reference to the place right the
ultimate place of the world and the wind
the verse says that he saw the place
meaning Hashem from a distance it's
telling Instead at that moment Hashem
removed from Ava avraham his Advanced
levels that he was at of clarity and of
faith and all of a sudden he saw Hashem
from a distance right he no longer
perceived Hashem all of a sudden you
know what's happening he didn't perceive
Hashem as close or as near or as clear
to him we all know that uh you know that
as they viewed Mount Moriah from a
distance it was covered with this heavy
layer of dark clouds and these clouds
were not just physical these were clouds
of doubt and confusion that Hashem
thrust upon avram confusion about how
Isaac would carry on the lineage if he
were to have children if he had didn't
have children yet and and now he was
going to be sacrificed confusion about
where Hashem all of a sudden disappeared
to and why he couldn't feel him any more
sense him anymore and confusion about
why he had spent his entire life's
Mission and purpose teaching the world
about a god of loving kindness who is
repulsed and disgusted by the very
popular practice at the time of child
sacrifice and now he was being asked to
sacrifice his own child
meaning not negating not only his
physical lineage lineage but but also
the truth of his message his very self
and that's and it was exactly this
confusion this paradoxical irrationality
that made this the ultimate test because
none of it none of it made any sense to
avraham and the only way he could pass
was by flexing this muscle of
simple faith
