After the akeida, Hashem offers Avraham Avinu the following promise: "Vayomer, bi nishbati n'um Hashem ki ya'an asher asisa es hadavar hazeh v'loh chasachta es bincha es yichidecha. Ki varech avarech'cha v'harbah arbeh es zaracha k'chochvei hashamayim v'chachol asher al s'fas hayam v'yirash zaracha es sha'ar oivav. V'hisbarachu v'zaracha kol goyei ha'aretz ekev asher shamata b'koli" (Breishis 22: 16-8).
"Because you did what I said...I will bless you and multiply you like the stars in the heavens and sand...and your children will be blessed because you listened to me"
The Ramban (22:16) explains this as a promise that nothing would ever occur to permanently wipe out Avraham's children, nor would they fall prey to any of their enemies. Ultimately, Avraham is promised that all will culminate in a complete redemption for his people. The Ramban writes "v'hinei zu havtacha shleima b'geulah ha'asidah lanu be'ezras Hashem."
Unquestionably the akeida was a true act of mesiras nefesh. But the question must be raised: Why is this magnificent reward the natural result of Avraham's deed? What is the midah k'neged midah dictating that Avraham's great deed should culminate in the redemption?
All of the nations of antiquity have disappeared. The Caananites, Emorites, Moabites, and Greeks have all faded into oblivion. Even the mighty Roman nation has ceased to exist. Only one nation has survived the trials and tribulations of some 3000 years not only with its national identity intact but even its laws and customs: The Jewish People. This would seem to defy all logic. Of all the ancient peoples, the Jews have certainly been the most persecuted, and yet they have prevailed.
Non-Jewish thinkers and writers have marveled at the miracle of the Jews' existence. Prof. Nicholai Berdisev wrote in 1935, "I remember how the materialist interpretation of history when I attempted in my youth to verify it by applying it to the destinies of peoples, broke down in the case of the Jews, where destiny seemed absolutely inexplicable from the materialistic standpoint (sic)… Its survival is a mysterious and wonderful phenomenon demonstrating that the life of this people is governed by a special predetermination transcending the processes of adaptation expounded by the materialistic interpretation of history (sic)."
Mark Twain, the famous humorist, wrote in 1891, "If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought not be heard of… The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian race filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed and made a vast noise, and they are gone… The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew. After other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?"
We, of course, know that the secret is Hashem's promise at the akeida. We who are alive today, almost 3700 years later, can derive a strengthening of our faith in witnessing what is clearly an ongoing expression of that promise - against all odds and contrary to what should have been the normal course of history.
Avraham Avinu was called upon at the akeida to sacrifice "…es bincha es y'chidcha asher ahavta." He was asked to resist all natural, psychological, and emotional forces in performing this special mission. "Es bincha" - he was asked as a father to kill his son; "es y'chidcha" - his only son, born miraculously when Avraham was at an advanced age and lacked any natural way to replace him; "asher ahavta" - whom he loved. Avraham was prepared to perform the murderous act in the face of the most powerful emotional forces to resist.
Now we can understand the secret of the midah k'neged midah of the akeida. Avraham Avinu defies natural forces in the service of Hashem. In return, he is promised that his children will defy natural forces, will continue to exist throughout eternity, culminating in a final redemption where all nations will recognize that this persecuted and downtrodden nation is truly the Chosen People. May we be zocheh to see Mashiach speedily in our days.