By Ido Rumianek

So what did we have this week? Almost everything! And what do we have in the Parasha? Also almost everything! 4 different stories with so much emotion and depth. Sefer Bereshit (Genesis) is full of stories. Every story has many faces and endless interpretations. When you read some of the stories in this parasha, like Sodom and Gemorrah, you immediately think about Trump and the world he wants to create. When you read about Ishmael's exile from Abraham's family and the conflict with Isaac, you can't think about anything else apart from the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Above all of those subjects, I chose to focus on Akedat Isaac (the Binding of Isaac) and to bring you this wonderful song by the best Jewish (and non Jewish) songwriter and singer who passed away last week - Leonard Cohen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr0HCqiD1C8

Story Of Isaac

The door it opened slowly,

my father he came in,

I was nine years old.

And he stood so tall above me,

his blue eyes they were shining

and his voice was very cold.

He said, "I've had a vision

and you know I'm strong and holy,

I must do what I've been told."

So he started up the mountain,

I was running, he was walking,

and his axe was made of gold.

Well, the trees they got much smaller,

the lake a lady's mirror,

we stopped to drink some wine.

Then he threw the bottle over.

Broke a minute later

and he put his hand on mine.

Thought I saw an eagle

but it might have been a vulture,

I never could decide.

Then my father built an altar,

he looked once behind his shoulder,

he knew I would not hide.

You who build these altars now

to sacrifice these children,

you must not do it anymore.

A scheme is not a vision

and you never have been tempted

by a demon or a god.

You who stand above them now,

your hatchets blunt and bloody,

you were not there before,

when I lay upon a mountain

and my father's hand was trembling

with the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,

forgive me if I inquire,

"Just according to whose plan?"

When it all comes down to dust

I will kill you if I must,

I will help you if I can.

When it all comes down to dust

I will help you if I must,

I will kill you if I can.

And mercy on our uniform,

man of peace or man of war,

the peacock spreads his (deadly) fan.

Leonard Cohen wrote about this song in 1972:

"This is a song I wrote to the people who feel it is within their right to sacrifice the young for some purpose which they conceive to be holy or just. It's a song for them, and it's also a song for those who would enlist my aid in defeating those men. Because I don't want to join any program. I don't want to write my name at the end of any manifesto..."

One year later, during the Yom Kippur war, the worst of the Israeli wars, when Israel's existence was seriously threatened, Cohen joined the IDF soldiers in Sinai and sang for them for 2 weeks. My father watched him in his base, whilst he worried about the future.

The contradiction between the song and his choice to join the soldiers makes me think differently about what we are prepared to sacrifice for our beliefs. I, like Cohen, can't imagine how crazy it is

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