Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/181

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The have had

to

sacrifice

even their beloved children, and time

and again they have made the unqiiestioningly,

in

163

Sacrifice of Isaac

the

spirit

sacrifice

of

unhesitatingly

Abra'ham of

old.

and

Israel

Ever it has trusted and ever has never lost faith in God. for good; this, too, is God's is it has repeated, 'This, too, divine purpose of wisdom, His will, and in accordance with goodness, and love

for

Ever,

men".

all

when

the clouds

seemed darkest, and their sufferings too heavy to bear, they themselves with the thought of God's protection comforted

and promise, and repeated

in perfect faith the

words of the

Psahnist, I

will lift

up mine eyes unto the mountains

From whence

shall

my

help

come?

My help cometh from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. will not suffer thy foot to be moved; that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth Israel

He He

Doth neither slumber nor

This has ever been

sleep.

Israel's faith in

God, exemplified

in this

Abraham, our great father. And on Rosh Hashonah, our sacred New Year's Day, the blasts of the Shofar remind us of Abraham's sacrifice,

beautiful story of

and of God's promise to him. According to tradition, the Shofar was first made from the horn of the very ram which Abraham sacrificed in place of Isaac. Therefore the Shofar on New Year's Day proclaims, unto Israel and all mankind, peace and forgiveness, and a new period of life and faith in

God.

Moriah where Abraham erected his altar became later, so the rabbis told, the field of the two brothers, about whom we have already heard, and the site of the glorious Temple of Solomon. The spot which was sanctified by Abraham's faith and devotion, and by the mutual love of the two brothers, was deemed worthy of becoming the

The

spot on Mt.