It says, Vayar et hamakom merachok—the same language. He saw this place; he saw it from afar. And he asks the two boys who are with him, says the Midrash (rabbinic interpretation): “Yishmael, do you see what’s on top of that mountain?” Yishmael says, “I see nothing.” “Eliezer, do you see what’s on top of that mountain?” Eliezer says, “I see nothing.” Avraham Avinu says, “Then you are obviously not Hineni people.” Then he asks Yitzchak, “Do you see what’s on top of the mountain?” He says, “Yes, I see a cloud.” It’s in essence the same cloud that Moshe Rabbeinu walked into hundreds of years prior. Avraham and his son Yitzchak can walk into a cloud of confusion, a cloud that doesn’t make sense, a cloud that doesn’t add up, a cloud that doesn’t seem fair. Of all the tests, this is the only one that the Satan could come to Avraham and Yitzchak and try to convince him out of it. Because all the other nine tests were just hard. You can’t convince Avraham out of doing something hard. You can’t convince Yitzchak out of doing something hard. But this one doesn’t seem to make sense. So the Satan just comes to Avraham and says, “Hello, it doesn’t make sense.” He comes to Yitzchak and says, “Hello, it doesn’t make sense.” And they both say, “I don’t care if it doesn’t make sense. Hineni, I’m ready. We’re ready to do it.”
Even in the second level test. Even when it doesn’t seem to come to me. Even when it seems to not make sense to me. Avraham asks Yitzchak, “Do you see the cloud?” He says, “I see the cloud.” He tells the two of them, “Stay back here with the donkey.” You know what a donkey is? Someone who can carry a heavy load. That’s it. These two people can carry a heavy load, but they can’t exactly be ready when it becomes impossible. What does the Pasuk (verse) say? Vayar et hamakom merachok. Literally, it means they see the place from afar. But what is the other definition of hamakom? Hamakom is Hashem. Vayar et hamakom merachok means standing from here. When a place that I don’t understand and a cloud that is so confusing, I could see Hashem. I see Hashem in that.
So know, if you were going through a difficult test and you were hoping that somehow I would tell you how it makes sense, I’m sorry, I wasn’t privy to that. I’m not a prophet, or no one you know is a prophet who could answer that question. But I do know what is supposed to be the response, and that’s very clear from our first forefather. He was tested in a way that it did not add up, and in that cloud and in that confusion, he saw Hashem. Wherever you are in this ridiculous place that seems so brutally, painfully unfair, you can see Hashem right there. That doesn’t mean it gets easy. It doesn’t mean at some point you’re going to sort it out. I hope you will. I hope it does. But it doesn’t always. Sometimes it’s just a test that completely doesn’t make sense to the human brain. But in that test, in that cloud, you find Hashem.
Because the essence of a Jew, whether they’re in the cloud or not, is we live by Hineni. We live by Naaseh v’nishma (We will do and hear). We live by readiness. And the truth is, if you look all around our communities, every single one of them: whether it’s the man coming to pray three times a day, whether it’s the woman putting her kid to school, whether it’s the mother sending her son away to yeshiva and she can’t see him for a month or even much longer than that, whether it’s the person going to minyan (prayer quorum), whether it’s the person preparing for Shabbat, whether it’s the person running to Bikur Cholim (visiting the sick), whether it’s the person giving Tzedakah (charity)—5%, 10%, 15%, 18%, 20%, 22%—people who are going well above and beyond, whether it’s the person who has a test. This captures the Jew. Every organization we have, every institution we have, every rabbi we have, every lay leader that we have, every single one of them is empowered by the word of Hineni.