Vayeira

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Vayeira, Vayera, or Va-yera (וירא — Hebrew for "and He appeared,” the first word in the parshah) is the fourth weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 18:1–22:24. Jews in the Diaspora read it the fourth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in October or November.

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (painting by John Martin)

[edit] Summary

Abraham and the Three Angels (engraving by Gustave Doré)

[edit] Abraham’s three visitors

As Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent by the terebinths of Mamre at the heat of the day, he looked up and saw God in the form of three men, and he ran, bowed to the ground, and welcomed them. (Gen. 18:1–3.) Abraham offered to wash their feet and fetch them a morsel of bread, and they assented. (Gen. 18:4–6.) Abraham rushed to Sarah’s tent to order cakes made from choice flour, ran to select a choice calf for a servant-boy to prepare, set curds and milk and the calf before them, and waited on them under the tree as they ate. (Gen. 18:6–8.)

One of the visitors told Abraham that he would return the next year, and Sarah would have a son, but Sarah laughed to herself at the prospect, with Abraham so old. (Gen. 18:10–12.) God then questioned Abraham why Sarah had laughed at bearing a child at her age, noting that nothing was too wondrous for God. (Gen. 18:13–14.) Frightened, Sarah denied laughing, but God insisted that she had. (Gen. 18:15.)

[edit] Abraham bargains with God

The men set out toward Sodom and Abraham walked with them to see them off. (Gen. 18:16.) God considered whether to confide in Abraham what God was about to do, since God had singled out Abraham to become a great nation and instruct his posterity to keep God’s way by doing what was just and right. (Gen. 18:17–19.) God told Abraham that the outrage and sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was so great that God was going to see whether they had acted according to the outcry that had reached God. (Gen. 18:20–21.) The men went on to Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before God. (Gen. 18:22.) Abraham pressed God whether God would sweep away the innocent along with the guilty, asking successively if there were 50, or 45, or 40, or 30, or 20, or 10 innocent people in Sodom, would God not spare the city for the sake of the innocent ones, and each time God agreed to do so. (Gen. 18:23–32.) When God had finished speaking to Abraham, God departed, and Abraham returned to his place. (Gen. 18:33.)

[edit] Lot’s two visitors

As Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom in the evening, the two angels arrived, and Lot greeted them and bowed low to the ground. (Gen. 19:1.) Lot invited the angels to spend the night at his house and bathe their feet, but they said that they would spend the night in the square. (Gen. 19:2.) Lot urged them strongly, so they went to his house, and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. (Gen. 19:3.)

[edit] Lot bargains with the Sodomites

Before they had retired for the night, all the men and women of Sodom gathered about the house shouting to Lot to bring his visitors out so that they might be intimate with them. (Gen. 19:4–5.) Lot went outside the entrance, shutting the door behind him, and begged the men of Sodom not commit such a wrong. (Gen. 19:6–7.) Lot offered the men his two virgin daughters for them to do with as they pleased, if they would not do anything to his guests, but they disparaged Lot as one who had come as an alien and now sought to rule them, and they pressed threateningly against him and the door. (Gen. 19:8–9.) But the visitors stretched out their hands and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door and struck the people with blinding light that made them unable to find the entrance. (Gen. 19:10–11.)

Flight of Lot (illustration by Gustave Doré)

[edit] The flight of Lot

The visitors directed Lot to bring what family he had out of the city, for they were about to destroy the place, because the outcry against its inhabitants had become so great. (Gen. 19:12–13.) So Lot told his sons-in-law that they needed to get out of the place because God was about to destroy it, but Lot’s sons-in-law thought that he was joking. (Gen. 19:14.)

As dawn broke, the angels urged Lot to flee with his wife and two remaining daughters, but still he delayed. (Gen. 19:15–16.) So out of God’s mercy, the men seized Lot, his wife, and daughters by the hand and brought them out of the city, telling them to flee for their lives and not to stop or look back anywhere in the plain. (Gen. 19:16–17.) But Lot asked them whether he might flee to a little village nearby, and the angel replied that he would grant Lot this favor too, and spare that town. (Gen. 19:18–21.) The angel urged Lot to hurry there, for the angel could not do anything until he arrived there, and thus the town came to be called Zoar. (Gen. 19:22.)

Lot and His Daughters (painting by Lucas van Leyden)

As the sun rose and Lot entered Zoar, God rained sulfurous fire from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah and annihilated the entire plain. (Gen. 19:23–25.) Lot’s wife looked back, and she turned into a pillar of salt. (Gen. 19:26.) Next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before God and looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and saw the smoke rising like at a kiln. (Gen. 19:27–28.)

Lot and his Daughters (painting by Hendrik Goltzius)

Lot was afraid to dwell in Zoar, so he settled in a cave in the hill country with his two daughters. (Gen. 19:30.) The older daughter told the younger that their father was old, and there was not a man on earth with whom to have children, so she proposed that they get Lot drunk and lie with him so that they might maintain life through their father. (Gen. 19:31–32.) That night they made their father drink wine, and the older one lay with her father without his being aware. (Gen. 19:33.) And the next day the older one persuaded the younger to do the same. (Gen. 19:34–35.) The two daughters thus had children by their father, the older one bore a son named Moab who became the father of the Moabites, and the younger bore a son named Ben-ammi who became the father of the Ammonites. (Gen. 19:36–38.)

[edit] Wife as sister

Abraham settled between Kadesh and Shur. (Gen. 20:1.) While he was sojourning in Gerar, Abraham said that Sarah was his sister, so King Abimelech had her brought to him, but God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him that taking her would cause him to die, for she was a married woman. (Gen. 20:1–3.) Abimelech had not approached her, so he asked God whether God would slay an innocent, as Abraham and Sarah had told him that they were brother and sister. (Gen. 20:4–5.) God told Abimelech in the dream that God knew that Abimelech had a blameless heart, and so God had kept him from touching her. (Gen. 20:6.) God told Abimelech to restore Abraham’s wife, since he was a prophet, and he would intercede for Abimelech to save his life, which he and his household would lose if he failed to restore her. (Gen. 20:7.)

Early next morning, Abimelech told his servants what had happened, asked Abraham what he had done and why he had brought so great a guilt upon Abimelech and his kingdom. (Gen. 20:8–10.) Abraham replied that he had thought that Gerar had no fear of God and would kill him because of his wife, and that she was in fact his father’s daughter though not his mother’s, so he had asked of her the kindness of identifying him as her brother. (Gen. 20:11–13.) Abimelech restored Sarah to Abraham, gave him sheep, oxen, and slaves, and invited him to settle wherever he pleased in Abimelech’s lands. (Gen. 20:14–15.) And Abimelech told Sarah that he was giving Abraham a thousand pieces of silver to serve her as vindication before all. (Gen. 20:16.) Abraham then prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and the women in his household, so that they bore children, for God had stricken the women with infertility because of Sarah. (Gen. 20:17–18.)

[edit] The birth of Isaac

God took note of Sarah, and she bore Abraham a son as God had predicted, and Abraham named him Isaac. (Gen. 21:1–3.) Abraham circumcised Isaac when he was eight days old. (Gen. 21:4.) Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born, and Sarah remarked that God had brought her laughter and everyone would laugh with her about her bearing Abraham a child in his old age. (Gen. 21:5–7.) Abraham held a great feast on the day that Sarah weaned Isaac. (Gen. 21:8.)

The Expulsion of Hagar (painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo)

[edit] The expulsion of Hagar

Sarah saw Hagar’s son Ishmael playing, and Sarah told Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out, saying that Ishmael would not share in Abraham’s inheritance with Isaac. (Gen. 21:9–10.) Sarah’s words greatly distressed Abraham, but God told Abraham not to be distressed but to do whatever Sarah told him, for Isaac would carry on Abraham’s line, and God would make a nation of Ishmael, too. (Gen. 21:11–13.) Early the next morning, Abraham placed some bread and water on Hagar’s shoulder, together with Ishmael, and sent them away. (Gen. 21:14.)

Hagar and Ishmael (painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo)

Hagar and Ishmael wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba, and when the water ran out, she left the child under a bush, sat down a bowshot away so as not to see the child die, and burst into tears. (Gen. 21:14–16.) God heard the cry of the boy, and an angel called to Hagar, saying not to fear, for God had heeded the boy’s cry, and would make of him a great nation. (Gen. 21:17–18.) Then God opened her eyes to a well of water, and she and the boy drank. (Gen. 21:19.) God was with Ishmael and he grew up in the wilderness and became a bowman. (Gen. 21:20.) Ishmael lived in the wilderness of Paran, and Hagar got him an Egyptian wife. (Gen. 21:21.)

[edit] Beersheba

Abimelech and Phicol the chief of his troops asked Abraham to swear not to deal falsely with them. (Gen. 21:22–24.) Abraham reproached Abimelech because Abimelech’s servants had seized Abraham’s well, but Abimelech protested ignorance. (Gen. 21:25–26.) Abraham gave Abimelech sheep and oxen and two men made a pact. (Gen. 21:27.) Abraham then offered Abimelech seven ewes as proof that Abraham had dug the well. (Gen. 21:28–30.) They called the place Beersheba, for the two of them swore an oath there. (Gen. 21:31.) After they concluded their pact, Abimelech and Phicol returned to Philistia, and Abraham planted a tamarisk and invoked God’s name. (Gen. 21:32–33.) Abraham lived in Philistia a long time. (Gen. 21:34.)

Trial of Abraham's Faith (engraving by Gustave Doré)

[edit] The binding of Isaac

Some time later, God tested Abraham, directing him to take Isaac to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. (Gen. 22:1–2.) Early the next morning, Abraham saddled his donkey and split wood for the burnt offering, and then he, two of his servants, and Isaac set out for the place that God had named. (Gen. 22:3.) On the third day, Abraham saw the place from afar, and directed his servants to wait with the donkey, while Isaac and he went up to worship and then return. (Gen. 22:4–5.) Abraham took the firestone and the knife, put the wood on Isaac, and the two walked off together. (Gen. 22:6.) When Isaac asked Abraham where the sheep was for the burnt offering, Abraham replied that God would see to the sheep for the burnt offering. (Gen. 22:7–8.)

The Angel Hinders the Offering of Isaac (painting by Rembrandt)

They arrived at the place that God had named, and Abraham built an altar, laid out the wood, bound Isaac, laid him on the altar, and picked up the knife to slay him. (Gen. 22:9–10.) Then an angel called to Abraham, telling him not to raise his hand against the boy, for now God knew that Abraham feared God, since he had not withheld his son. (Gen. 22:11–12.) Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in a thicket by its horns, so he offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. (Gen. 22:13.) Abraham named the site Adonai-yireh. (Gen. 22:14.)

The angel called to Abraham a second time, saying that because Abraham had not withheld his son, God would bless him and make his descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore, and victorious over their foes. (Gen. 22:15–17.) All the nations of the earth would bless themselves by Abraham’s descendants, because he obeyed God’s command. (Gen. 22:18.) Abraham returned to his servants, and they departed for Beersheba; where Abraham stayed. (Gen. 22:19.)

Later, Abraham learned that Milcah had borne eight children to his brother Nahor, among whom was Bethuel, who became the father of Rebekah. (Gen. 22:20–23.) Nahor’s concubine Reumah also bore him four children. (Gen. 22:24.)

[edit] In classical rabbinic interpretation

[edit] Genesis chapter 18

The Mishnah taught that Abraham suffered ten trials (several in this parshah), and withstood them all. (Avot 5:3.)

A Baraita taught that in Genesis 18:1, “in the heat of the day” meant the sixth hour, or exactly midday. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 27a.)

Rab Judah said in Rab’s name that Genesis 18:1–3 showed that hospitality to wayfarers is greater than welcoming the Divine Presence. Rab Judah read the words “And he said, ‘My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, pass not away’” in Genesis 18:3 to reflect Abraham’s request of God to wait for Abraham while Abraham saw to his guests. And Rabbi Eleazar said that God’s acceptance of this request demonstrated how God’s conduct is not like that of mortals, for among mortals, an inferior person cannot ask a greater person to wait, while in Genesis 18:3, God allowed it. (Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 127a.)

The Tosefta taught that God rewarded measure for measure Abraham’s good deeds of hospitality in Genesis 18:2–16 with benefits for Abraham’s descendants the Israelites. (Tosefta Sotah 4:1–6.)

The Gemara reported that sages in the Land of Israel (and some said Rabbi Isaac) deduced from Sarah’s practice as shown in Genesis 18:9 that while it was customary for a man to meet wayfarers, it was not customary for a woman to do so. And the Gemara cited this deduction to support the ruling of Mishnah Yevamot 8:3 that while a male Ammonite or Moabite was forbidden from entering the congregation of Israel, a female Ammonite or Moabite was permitted. (Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 77a.)

At the School of Rabbi Ishmael, it was taught that Genesis 18:12–13 demonstrated how great is the cause of peace, for Sarah said of Abraham in Genesis 18:12, “My lord [Abraham] being old,” but when God reported Sarah’s statement to Abraham, God reported Sarah to have said, “And I [Sarah] am old,” so as to preserve peace between Abraham and Sarah. (Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 65b.)

Reading “set time” in Genesis 18:14 to mean the next “holy day” (as in Leviticus 23:4), the Gemara deduced that God spoke to Abraham on Sukkot to promise that Isaac would be born on Passover, and that there must have been a leap year that year, as those deductions allow the maximum 7 months between any two holy days. (Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 11a.)

[edit] Genesis chapter 19

Rabbi Eliezer taught that Lot lived in Sodom only on account of his property, but Rabbi Eliezer deduced from Genesis 19:22 that Lot left Sodom empty-handed with the angels telling him, “It is enough that you escape with your life.” Rabbi Eliezer argued that Lot’s experience proved the maxim (of Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:5) that the property of the wicked, whether inside or outside the town, will be lost. (Tosefta Sanhedrin 14:4.)

Rabbi Meir taught that while Genesis 9:11 made clear that God would never again flood the world with water, Genesis 19:24 demonstrated that God might bring a flood of fire and brimstone, as God brought upon Sodom and Gomorrah. (Tosefta Taanit 2:13.)

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi (according to the Jerusalem Talmud) or a Baraita in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yose the son of Rabbi Chanina (according to the Babylonian Talmud) said that the three daily prayers derived from the Patriarchs, and cited Genesis 19:27 for the proposition that Jews derived the morning prayer from Abraham, arguing that within the meaning of Genesis 19:27, “stood” meant “pray,” just as it did in Psalm 106:30. (Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 43a; Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 26b.)

[edit] Genesis chapter 20

The Mishnah deduced from the example of Abimelech and Abraham in Genesis 20:7 that even though an offender pays the victim compensation, the offence is not forgiven until the offender asks the victim for pardon. And the Mishnah deduced from Abraham’s example of praying for Abimelech in Genesis 20:17 that under such circumstances, the victim would be churlish not to forgive the offender. (Mishnah Bava Kamma 8:7.) The Tosefta further deduced from Genesis 20:17 that even if the offender did not seek forgiveness from the victim, the victim must nonetheless seek mercy for the offender. (Tosefta Bava Kamma 9:29.) In the Talmud, Raba derived from Genesis 20:17 and 21:1–2 the lesson that if one has a need, but prays for another with the same need, then God will answer first the need of the one who prayed. Raba noted that Abraham prayed to God to heal Abimelech and his wife of infertility (Gen. 20:17), and immediately thereafter God allowed Abraham and Sarah to conceive (Gen. 21:1–2). (Babylonian Talmud Baba Kamma 92a.)

[edit] Genesis chapter 21

The Rabbis linked parts of the parshah to Rosh Hashanah. The Talmud directs that Jews read Genesis 21 (the expulsion of Hagar) on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and Genesis 22 (the binding of Isaac) on the second day. (Babylonian Talmud Megillah 31a.) And in the Talmud, Rabbi Eliezer said that God visited both Sarah and Hannah to grant them conception on Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Eliezer deduced this from the Bible’s parallel uses of the words “visiting” and “remembering” in description of Hannah, Sarah, and Rosh Hashanah. First, Rabbi Eliezer linked Hannah’s visitation with Rosh Hashanah through the Bible’s parallel uses of the word “remembering.” 1Samuel 1:19–20 says that God “remembered” Hannah and she conceived, and Leviticus 23:24 describes Rosh Hashanah as “a remembering of the blast of the trumpet.” Then Rabbi Eliezer linked Hannah’s conception with Sarah’s through the Bible’s parallel uses of the word “visiting.” 1Samuel 2:21 says that “the Lord had visited Hannah,” and Genesis 21:1 says that “the Lord visited Sarah.” (Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 11a.)

[edit] Genesis chapter 22

The Sifra cited Genesis 22:11, Genesis 46:2, Exodus 3:4, and 1Samuel 3:10 for the proposition that when God called the name of a prophet twice, God expressed affection and sought to provoke a response. (Sifra 1:4.)

[edit] Commandments

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are no commandments in the parshah. (Maimonides. Mishneh Torah. Cairo, Egypt, 1170–1180. Reprinted in Maimonides. The Commandments: Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth of Maimonides. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, 2 vols. London: Soncino Press, 1967. ISBN 0-900689-71-4. Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 1:87. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1991. ISBN 0-87306-179-9.)

[edit] In the liturgy

The rabbis understood Abraham’s devotion to God in the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22:1–19 to have earned God’s mercy for Abraham’s descendents when they are in need. The 16th Century Safed Rabbi Eliezer Azikri drew on this rabbinic understanding to call for God to show mercy for Abraham’s descendents, “the son of Your beloved” (ben ohavach), in his kabbalistic poem Yedid Nefesh (“Soul’s Beloved”), which many congregations chant just before the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service. (Reuven Hammer. Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, 14. New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2003. ISBN 0916219208.)

[edit] Haftarah

The haftarah for the parshah is:

The parshah and haftarah in 2 Kings both tell of God’s gift of sons to childless women. In both the parshah and the haftarah: God’s representative visits the childless woman, whose household extends the visitor generous hospitality (Gen. 18:1–15; 2Kings 4:8–16); the husband’s age raises doubt about the couple’s ability to have children (Gen. 18:12; 2Kings 4:14); God’s representative announces that a child will come at a specified season in the next year (Gen. 18:10; 2Kings 4:16); the woman conceives and bears a child as God’s representative had announced (Gen. 21:1–2; 2Kings 4:17); death threatens the promised child (Gen. 22:1–10; 2Kings 4:18–20); and God’s representative intervenes to save the promised child (Gen. 22:11–12; 2Kings 4:32–37).

Goswell argues that the haftarah make the binding of Isaac, "into a kind of resurrection story",^[1] which is exactly how the New Testament interprets it in Hebrews 11:19.

[edit] References

^ Gregory Goswell, "The Hermeneutics of the Haftarot," Tyndale Bulletin 58 (2007), 87.

[edit] Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

Hammurabi

[edit] Ancient

Code of Hammurabi 170–171. Circa 1780 BCE.

[edit] Biblical

Genesis 7:12–23 (God’s destruction in the flood); 12:10–20; 15:5 (numerous as stars); 26:1–33.
Exodus 2:3 (abandoned infant); 12:29–30 (God’s destruction of Egypt’s firstborn); 13:11–15; 22:28–29.
Numbers 22:21–22 (rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and his two servants were with him).
Deuteronomy 1:10 (numerous as stars).
Judges 11:1–40; 19:1–30.
2 Kings 3:26–27; 16:2–3; 21:1–6.
Jeremiah 32:27 (nothing too hard for God).
Ezekiel 9:4–6 (God’s destruction of Jerusalem’s sinners); 16:3–5 (abandoned infant); 16:46–51 (Sodom); 20:25–26.

[edit] Early nonrabbinic

Euripides. Iphigeneia at Aulis. 410 BCE.
Virgil. Georgics 4:456. 37-30 BCE. (Orpheus and Eurydice.)

Josephus

Jubilees 17:1-18:19.
Josephus. Antiquities, 1:10:5; 1:11:1–4; 1:12:1–4; 1:13:1–4. Circa 93–94. Reprinted in, e.g., The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition. Translated by William Whiston. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 1987. ISBN 0-913573-86-8.
4 Maccabees 13:11–12; 16:18–20.
Epistle of Barnabas 7:3–4.
Hebrews 11:11–19.
James 2:20–24.
Qur'an 2:124–32; 11:69–83; 15:51–79; 29:31–35; 37:99–113; 51:24–37; 53:53–54; 69:9–10. Arabia, 7th Century.

[edit] Classical rabbinic

Mishnah: Bava Kamma 8:7; Avot 5:3. 3rd Century. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4.
Tosefta: Berakhot 1:15; Maaser Sheni 5:29; Rosh Hashanah 2:13; Taanit 2:13; Megillah 3:6; Sotah 4:1–6, 12, 5:12, 6:1, 6; Bava Kamma 9:29; Sanhedrin 14:4. 3rd–4th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, with a New Introduction. Translated by Jacob Neusner. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 2002. ISBN 1-56563-642-2.
Sifre to Deuteronomy 2:3. Reprinted in, e.g., Sifre to Deuteronomy. Translated by Jacob Neusner, vol. 1, 26. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. ISBN 1-55540-145-7.
Jerusalem Talmud: Berakhot 4b–5a, 43a–b; Peah 8b. 4th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Yerushalmi: Tractate Peah. Edited by Chaim Malinowitz, Yisroel Simcha Schorr, and Mordechai Marcus. Vols. 1 & 3. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006.
Genesis Rabbah 48:1–57:4. 5th Century.

Talmud

Babylonian Talmud: Berakhot 26b–27a, 29a, 56b, 62b; Shabbat 127a; Pesachim 4a, 54a, 88a, 119b; Yoma 28b, 38b; Rosh Hashanah 11a, 16b; Taanit 8a-b, 16a; Megillah 28a, 31a; Moed Katan 16b; Yevamot 63a, 65b, 76b-77a, 79a; Ketubot 8b; Nedarim 31a; Sotah 9b-10b; Kiddushin 29a; Bava Kamma 92a, 93a; Sanhedrin 89b; Chullin 60b. Babylonia, 6th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr, Chaim Malinowitz, and Mordechai Marcus, 72 vols. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006.

[edit] Medieval

Rashi. Commentary. Genesis 18–22. Troyes, France, late 11th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Rashi. The Torah: With Rashi’s Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated. Translated and annotated by Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg, 1:173–240. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1995. ISBN 0-89906-026-9.
Judah Halevi. Kuzari. 2:14, 80; 5:20. Toledo, Spain, 1130–1140. Reprinted in, e.g., Jehuda Halevi. Kuzari: An Argument for the Faith of Israel. Intro. by Henry Slonimsky, 91, 130–31, 282–83. New York: Schocken, 1964. ISBN 0-8052-0075-4.
Shalom Spiegel and Judah Goldin. The Last Trial: On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to Offer Isaac as a Sacrifice: The Akedah. Jewish Lights: 1993. ISBN 1-879045-29-X
Zohar 1:97a–120b. Spain, late 13th Century.

[edit] Modern

Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, 3:34, 36, 38, 40, 42. England, 1651. Reprint edited by C. B. Macpherson, 436–37, 456–57, 460, 486, 500–01, 584–85. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Classics, 1982. ISBN 0140431950.
Søren Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling. 1843. Reprint, London: Penguin Classics, 1986. ISBN 0-14-044449-1.

Dickinson

Emily Dickinson. Poem 1317 (Abraham to kill him —). Circa 1874. In The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Edited by Thomas H. Johnson, 571–72. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1960. ISBN 0-316-18414-4.
Wilfred Owen. The Parable of the Old Man and the Young. 1920.
Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers. Translated by John E. Woods, 9, 54, 79–82, 91, 97–98, 141, 147–49, 152–55, 159–60, 227–28, 294, 347, 363–64, 386, 400, 425, 471, 474–75, 488, 498, 520–22, 693, 715–16, 748, 806. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-4001-9. Originally published as Joseph und seine Brüder. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
Martin Buber. On the Bible: Eighteen studies, 22–43. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.
Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death, 21–22. New York: Dell, 1968. ISBN 0-440-18029-5.

Wiesel

Elie Wiesel. “The Sacrifice of Isaac: a Survivor’s Story.” In Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits & Legends, 69–102. New York: Random House, 1976. ISBN 0-394-49740-6.
Charles Oberndorf. Testing. New York: Spectra, 1993. ISBN 0-553-56181-2.
John Kaltner. “Abraham’s Sons: How the Bible and Qur’an See the Same Story Differently.” Bible Review 18 (2) (Apr. 2002): 16–23, 45–46.
Elie Wiesel. “Ishmael and Hagar” and “Lot’s Wife.” In Wise Men and Their Tales: Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Masters, 3–28. New York: Schocken, 2003. ISBN 0-8052-4173-6.
Aaron Wildavsky. Moses as Political Leader, 133–36. Jerusalem: Shalem Press, 2005. ISBN 965-7052-31-9.
Rosanna Warren. “Hagar.” In Harold Bloom. American Religious Poems, 379. Library of America, 2006. ISBN 978-1-931082-74-7.