Tapping Your inner Core

VAYEIRA Tapping Your inner Core What are we to make of this enormous challenge thrown to a father who had a child in – his only child- in his old age? At the peak moment of the test of the akedah, when Yitzchak lies on the altar with the knife raised at his neck, Avraham hears the angel call, “Do not stretch out your hand against the boy.” Avraham looks out into the distance and sees “another ram caught in the thicket by its horns.” Avraham takes the ram from the bushes and sacrifices it in place of his son. The act of the binding explains the essence of a test and the tremendous opportunity it presents to a person. A test is not an examination or obstacle, but a springboard that elevates a person beyond superficiality. It removes all secondary motives for existence and activates the true source of strength within us. Understanding the essence of a test gives a person the power to overcome it with ease and maximum success, much like the perfect analogy presented in the commentary.