For paradise to be possible either the lion must lose his nails, or the lamb must grow his own.
HANS BLUMENBERG
Before setting out to Moriah, where he intends to obey God’s command to sacrifice his son, Abraham loads the wood into Isaac’s arms and carries the burning torch and a sharp knife himself. On the way his son asks, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? The question is devastating, as is Abraham’s answer: My son, God will provide himself a lamb. It is a scene of unspeakable cruelty. (The murder of Abel is a crime statistic by comparison.) For Isaac is doubly innocent. Unaware of God’s command, and presumably too inexperienced to beware fathers bearing torches, he is psychologically innocent. And since he has presumably done no wrong, he is morally innocent as well. All this weighs on Abraham, and it is meant to. He has agreed to be the hand by which innocence is extinguished.