In this weeks Parsha we find one of the most profound stories of faith and obedience to Hashem in the whole Torah, Akeidat Yitzchak, the Binding of Isaac. In the story Hashem asks Avrhaam to take his precious son Yitzchak and sacrifice him. Now it is important to understand that Yitzchak was promised to Avraham as his heir and the future of the covenant with Hashem. All the hopes and aspirations of Avraham were pinned onto Yitzchak. Avraham does not hesitate for a second and goes with Yitzchak to the place that Hashem has told him to go. In the last second Hashem sends an angel to stop Avraham from actually sacrificing his son.
Rav Forshlager raises two questions. Firstly, he points out that the original command to Avraham was directly from Hashem’s mouth while the second command to not sacrifice Yitzchak was through an angel. Why change? Secondly, he asks why was Avraham’s willingness to sacrifice Yitzchak such a big deal. We see that throughout Jewish history many Jews have been willing to sacrifice themselves Al Kiddush Hashem, to sanctify G-ds name.
He answers with the following concept. Hashem’s words create reality as we know it. So when Hashem told Avraham to take “your son, your only one, the one you love, Yitzchak”, Hashem infused into Avraham the most incredible love for a son that is possible. No one had ever been asked to sacrifice a son with a love that was expanded so much as Avraham who was told by Hashem the words “that you love”.
Additionally, when someone is asked to make such a big sacrifice the way they might do it is by suppressing their natural feelings. So it would be easier for Avraham to do the sacrifice by trying to suppress his feelings towards Yitzchak. But Hashem told him “Take your son who you love and sacrifice him”. His command was to sacrifice him while loving him as a son. And that is the difficulty that Avraham faced and overcame.
And to answer the first question, Hashem could have sent an angel to tell Avraham of the command to sacrifice his son but He didn’t because he want Avraham’s love to increase through the Word he said “the son you love” and that only could have been the case if He Himself said those words.
So to summarize, the Akeidah was unique in the sense that Hashem himself told Avraham what to do. And reality manifests through Hashem’s words. So Avraham’s love for Yitzcak was divinely increased, more so than any other human in history. And despite the greatness of the love Hashem asked Avraham not to suppress it but to feel it and still do His will. And this is something that only Avraham was able to do. However the part where he is told to not sacrifice Yitzchak did not require anything special so Hashem was able to send an angel.