This week we read about one of the most well known events in religious history - the binding of Isaac, the Akeida. The Akeida stands as the quintessential religious happening; unlike Sinai, both Christianity and Islam also claim it as their own (albeit with the Koran replacing Isaac with Ishmael). It is so central because in only 19 verses, it represents the Torah's answer to so many of the fundamental tenets of our faith. Yet, the Akeida seems to raise far more questions than it answers: Why does G-d ask Abraham to kill his own son - an act which patently imitates the Pagan rituals of the era and an act that would wipe out Abraham's family, descendants and G-d's so called 'chosen people'? If G-d needs humans to suffer in order to be G-d, can there be an end to suffering? Why does Abraham follow G-d's wishes? If faith requires such self denial, how can it claim to elavate and improve man?

The Akeida may not make a lot of philosophical sense to us, but there are still many important lessons that we can learn. All the commentators agree that G-d did not really intend a sacrifice, that the central purpose of the Akeida is pedagogic - it is the ultimate act of faith. So what can we gain from such an insight?

The Ramban, Nachmanides, writes that G-d is not testing Abraham to determine whether he will sacrifice his son or not. Rather He is giving Abraham the chance to demonstrate his true inner faith in G-d and to translate this faith into a purposeful act. We may be put into many difficult situations ourselves throughout our day at university. Perhaps we see something and wonder whether we should tell someone about it. Perhaps our friends ask us to do something which, due to our belief in G-d and Judaism, we do not usually do. The Akeida represents, in epic terms, the tensions which we, as Jews today, must live through and control, be it at university or with friends or family. Tensions between our own demands for absolute justice and absolute faith; between our need to obey G-d and rebel against Him; between our yearning and the will to follow these great traditions of our ancestors. It is these struggles that are the essence of our being, and it is these struggles that will forever be in the hearts of people, irrespective of the era or place in which they are born.