A story that (should) keep you up at night

In honor of Father's Day, today's post focuses on the patriarch of 3 religions and many nations.

“There were countless generations that knew the story of Abraham by heart word for word. How many did it make sleepless?”

Søren Kierkagaard, Fear and Trembling

Photo by Mark Basarab on Unsplash

I’m one of those moms who at times had to be both mother and father. So, maybe it’s not surprising that sometimes I identify with dads.

In my writing, I’ve identified with not just any father, but with Abraham, the father of three monotheistic religions.

He is a complex character and one for whom I share Sarah’s deep affection. In the spirit of their story, I maintain my right to lovingly question, disagree, and argue sometimes, too.

In honor of Father’s Day Weekend, today’s post and poem are dedicated to Abraham.

Abraham is remembered and revered for his unquestioning faith. But that same fierce devotion also leads to one of the most disturbing chapters in Genesis: The Binding of Isaac.

For those who missed that day in Sunday school, Abraham answers God’s call to sacrifice his son. Yes, it’s okay to gasp at that sentence! It’s shocking to our modern sensibilities. And it was shocking back then too, although there was precedent for child sacrifice in biblical and pre-biblical times.

But for those who can bear it, careful study of the story in its historical and theological context has a lot to offer, as the quote from Kierkegaard above implies.

‘The Binding’

In today’s poem, “The Binding,” I create a dialogue of spoken — and unspoken — words between Isaac and Abraham as they climb the mountain where Abraham will prepare a bed of kindling and restrain his son with leather ties as if the boy were a goat being prepared as a ritual offering to God.

But first, here are a couple of notes to help you appreciate the poem:

• The name Abraham means father of multitudes, and the Hebrew word for father is abba, a word that you’ll hear in the poem.

• The poem is written in two voices. On the page, Isaac and Abraham’s words are distinguished by italic and regular typeface. In the audio version below, I try to distinguish the two characters by pausing and altering my voice slightly.

• This is an ekphrastic poem, meaning that it was inspired by a work of art: in this case, “Untitled 3,” a photograph of a Chasidic father and son by Dylan Kelly, then an 11th Grader. Kelly’s photograph was featured in an exhibit of works by young artists at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. To see the photo use this link and scroll down.

Press the blue arrow to hear today’s poem, “The Binding” by Tzivia Gover. Copyright Tzivia Gover, all rights reserved.

My choice of Abraham as a subject makes for an incongruous pairing. For one thing, I was raised in a mostly-secular household, so Abraham’s story wasn’t part of my consciousness growing up. Then, as a young adult, I became a radical feminist who rejected patriarchal religions (and patriarchal anything for that matter).

And yet, the patriarch of patriarchs had a lesson to teach me. Abraham’s story literally — and figuratively — woke me up.