5786/2025
"וַיְהִ֗י אַחַר֙ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְהָ֣אֱלֹקים נִסָּ֖ה אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֔יו אַבְרָהָ֖ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר הִנֵּֽנִי׃ וַיֹּ֡אמֶר קַח־נָ֠א אֶת־בִּנְךָ֨ אֶת־יְחִֽידְךָ֤ אֲשֶׁר־אָהַ֙בְתָּ֙ אֶת־יִצְחָ֔ק"
“Some time afterward, Hashem put Avraham to the test, saying to him, “Avraham.” He answered, “Here I am.”
And [Hashem] said [to Avraham]: “Take your son, your favored one, whom you love, Yitzchak”, (22:1 VaYeira).
Rashi comments on this Pasuk, “את בנך – אמר לו: שני בנים יש לי. אמר לו: את יחידך. אמר לו: זה יחיד לאמו וזה יחיד לאמו. אמר לו: אשר אהבת. אמר לו: שניהם אני אוהב. אמר לו: את יצחק. ולמה לא גילה לו מתחלה, שלא לערבבו פתאום ותזוח דעתו עליו ותטרף, וכדי לחבב המצוה, של חסידים, ולתת שכר על כל דבור.” — “Abraham said to God, “I have two sons”. “He answered him, “Your only son”. Abraham said, “This one is the only son of his mother and the other is the only son of his mother”. God then said, “the one whom you love”. Abraham replied, “I love both of them”. Whereupon God said “Yitzchak”. Why did He not disclose this [i.e, that He is referring to Yitzchak] to him at the very first? So as not to confuse him suddenly lest his mind become distracted and bewildered, and so that he might more highly value God’s command and that God might reward him for each and every expression used here” (modified Sefaria translation).
In the middle of this comment, Rashi asks, “ולמה לא גילה לו מתחלה” - “Why didn’t [Hashem] reveal to Avraham [that He was talking about Yitzchak] from the very beginning?” Rashi proceeds to give several answers, and the commentators on Rashi’s commentary (aka “supercommentators”) try to explain why Rashi needs to list all of these answers. One such supercommentator is the Levush, in his work on Rashi called Levush HaOrah. The Levush says that Rashi’s question, “ולמה לא גילה לו מתחלה”, represents, in reality, two questions. The two questions are as follows:
1 - Why did Hashem ‘wait’ for Avraham to respond “הִנֵּֽנִי”, “here I am”, before telling Him the Mitzvah?
2 - Why did Hashem describe Yitzchak with the terms “אֶת־יְחִֽידְךָ֤” - ‘your favored one’, and “אֲשֶׁר־אָהַ֙בְתָּ֙“ - ‘whom you love’? Why not just say, “take Yitzchak”?
According to the Levush, Rashi condensed these two questions into one question, “ולמה לא גילה לו מתחלה”. The Levush re-words the question, making it a bit clearer: “שהיה לו לומר כך באמירה אחת והאלקים נסה את אברהם ויאמר אליו קח נא את יצחק ולך לך וגומר” - “Hashem should have said as follows, in one phrase: “Hashem tested Avraham and said to him, ‘take Yitzchak’”. Thus, there are really two issues at play, which require two separate answers; but Rashi, in his concise manner, chose to write it as one.
The Levush continues that answer #1 in Rashi, “
שלא לערבבו פתאום ותזוח דעתו עליו ותטרף” - “So as not to confuse him suddenly lest his mind become distracted and bewildered”, is responding to question #1, and answer #2, “וכדי לחבב המצוה”, “to make the Mitzvah more dear”, is responding to question #2. Rashi’s answer #3, “ ולתת שכר על כל דבור”, “and to reward him for each expression used here”, is, according to the Levush, a clarification of answer #2. One might wonder how Hashem’s affectionate description of Yitzchak would “make the Mitzvah more dear” to Avraham; on the contrary, the more love Avraham felt towards Yitzchak, the harder it would be to sacrifice him! Thus, Rashi says that Hashem’s goal in describing Yitzchak that way was not to make the Mitzvah more painful for Avraham; rather, His goal was for Avraham to gain more reward, because “על כל חיבוב שיחבבנו יחשוב אברהם שאעפ״כ יעשה מבוקשו של הש״י הרי יהיה שכרו יותר” - “with every expression of love [that Hashem describes Yitzchak with], Avraham will have in his mind that even still, [despite all of his love for Yitzchak], he is fulfilling the request of Hashem Yitbarach, and therefore his reward will be greater”. Rav Shmuel Abuchatzeira, the patriarch of the great Abuchatzeira family, writes something (VaYomer Shmuel, Sanhedrin 89b) that helps us better understand this. He says that, on Avraham’s spiritual level, “אין לו צער כלל מרוב חיבת המצוה”, “he doesn’t experience any pain [sacrificing Yitzchak], due to the tremendous amount of love for the Mitzvah”. These comments help illuminate the incredibly lofty Middos of Avraham Avinu. However, I believe that there is a deep lesson in this Rashi, and this Levush, that has more practical implications.
In elaborating on answer #1, the Levush says something striking: “שאם היה אומר לו פתאום אברהם קח נא את בנך וגו׳ היה אברהם נבהל ומתערבב ונטרף בדעתו ולא היה יכול להשיב ומה שהיה עושה ע״י אותה אמירה לא היה מצוה כי היה הכל על ידי בהלה וערבוב פתאומי לכך קראו מתחלה בנחת כדי שישוב על הקריאה ויאמר ביישוב הדעת הנני”. “If Hashem had said suddenly, ‘Avraham, take your son…’, Avraham would have been rushed and confused and bewildered, and wouldn’t have been able to respond, and what [Avraham] would have done in response to that command would not have been a mitzvah, because it would have come from a place of hurriedness and sudden confusion. Therefore, [Hashem] called [Avraham] calmly at first, so that he would respond to the call and say, with a level head, ‘here I am’.” The notion that this “hurriedness and sudden confusion” would have, Chas V’Shalom, caused the Akeidah to not even be considered a Mitzvah requires further elaboration. After all, wouldn’t Avraham still be doing what Hashem told him to do? Perhaps this suggestion of the Levush would only apply to the Akeidah. For the Akeidah to ‘work’, Avraham had to be willing to Shecht Yitzchak simply out of Ahavat Hashem and Yirat Hashem, not out of hurriedness. Perhaps the Levush is appealing to the more broad principle of “Mitzvot Tzrichot Kavanah” - a person has to have proper Kavana in order to fulfill certain Mitzvot. But perhaps there is an even broader principle at stake. Our Avodat Hashem should not be from a place of “hurriedness and sudden confusion”. This applies in regard to both our motivations for performing Mitzvot and in regard to the Mitzvah performance itself. In terms of motivation, someone whose Avodat Hashem is driven by “hurriedness and sudden confusion” is, at least partly, not performing the Mitzvot for the right reasons. Instead, he may be rushing through davening in order to ‘get it over with’, or learning Torah for fear that people will view him less highly. While we are comforted by the words of the Rav Yehuda Amar Rav (Pesachim 50b) - “שֶׁמִּתּוֹךְ שֶׁלֹּא לִשְׁמָהּ בָּא לִשְׁמָהּ”, “as through the performance of Mitzvot not for their own sake, one comes to perform them for their own sake”, we should always aspire, in a realistic way, to the Rambam’s standard (Hil’ Teshuvah 10:4), of "לְאַהֲבָה אֶת ה'". כָּל מַה שֶּׁאַתֶּם עוֹשִׂים לֹא תַּעֲשׂוּ אֶלָּא מֵאַהֲבָה.” “[the Pasuk says], ‘To love Hashem’ - all that you do, do it only out of love.” Furthermore, even if a person is generally pure in his motivations, he may occasionally perform a Mitzvah out of confusion. According the Levush, even Avraham Avinu, the quintessential lover of Hashem, would have been susceptible to this, if Hashem hadn’t allowed him to respond “הִנֵּֽנִי”.
As regards the performance of Mitzvot, the Orchot Tzadikim (end of Sha’ar Hazrizut) writes as follows: “אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁהַזְּרִיזוּת טוֹבָה מְאוֹד, יִזָּהֵר שֶׁלֹּא יְמַהֵר בַּעֲבוֹדָתוֹ יוֹתֵר מִדַּי. כִּי הָרוֹכֵב בִּמְהִירוּת – הוּא קָרוֹב מְאוֹד לְהִכָּשֵׁל. וְכֵן מִי שֶׁהוּא רָץ בִּמְהִירוּת – הוּא נוֹפֵל. וְלֹא יִתָּכֵן לְתַקֵּן מַעֲשֶׂה מְתֻקָּן בְּבֶהָלָה, אֲבָל בְּמִתּוּן יְתֻקְּנוּ הָעִנְיָנִים.” “Even though Zrizut [i.e., doing Mitzvot with fire, for lack of a better term] is a very good quality, one must be careful not to work too quickly. For one who rides quickly is liable to stumble, and one who runs quickly may fall. It is not wise to attempt to repair anything in haste, but rather with deliberation.” These analogies point out that even if someone has the proper motivation, there are times when he has to ‘slow down’, so to speak.
I believe that many of these potential obstacles to proper Mitzvah performance can be solved with one word, if we internalize its message. That word is “הִנֵּֽנִי” - “here I am”. Before Hashem commanded Avraham about the Akeidah, He gave him a moment to say “הִנֵּֽנִי”. This allowed Avraham to properly orient himself, and, according to the Levush, ensured that he would not be acting out of “hurriedness and sudden confusion”.
Before performing certain Mitzvot, we can benefit tremendously from taking a short second, a “Hineni moment”, to enter into the proper frame of mind for the Mitzvah. This frame of mind can be nicely summarized in Rashi’s description of Avraham’s “הִנֵּֽנִי”. He says that this is “לְשׁוֹן עֲנָוָה… וּלְשׁוֹן זִמּוּן”, “...an expression of humility and readiness.” In the Hineni moment, we remind ourselves that we should do Mitzvot not out of self-service, but out of love for Hashem; not as a stage performer, but as a humble servant. This will enable us to purify our motivations. Moreover, in the Hineni moment, we ‘ready’ ourselves to perform the action itself, removing all mental or physical distractions which could cause us to ‘stumble’, in the Orchot Tzadikim’s words.
It would be extremely difficult to transform one’s Avodat Hashem over the course of one Hineni moment. But continued, dedicated commitment to taking these Hineni moments can, over time, greatly enhance our brachot, davening, learning, and other spiritual endeavors. May we all actively engage in continuing this legacy of Avraham Avinu.