The Temple and the Binding of Isaac

We all know that back in Genesis, Abraham attempted to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice... but do you know where Abraham did that? The specific location? God tells him to do it atop a mountain in eretz Moriah, the land of Moriah. And interestingly, that place "Moriah" comes up in one other place in the Torah* – and one place only: To refer to the mountain where the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, would be built. And that brings us to Parshat Re'eh, where we find a whole bunch of laws about that very mountain, about how that's the one place in the whole world where God wants us to bring our sacrifices, and how we can't build altars anywhere else.

So... Abraham tried to offer his son as a sacrifice to God atop Mount Moriah, and then Abraham's descendants would be asked to offer their sacrifices to God atop the same mountain. Is it just a coincidence?

In this special podcast conversation, Beth Lesch and Rabbi Fohrman explore the many more links between Parshat Re'eh and Abraham's story... and arrive at some pretty surprising conclusions.

For another audio conversation on Parshat Re'eh that explores these connections and suggests different conclusions, click here.

For a source sheet that illustrates these parallels in the text, see the resources section below.