Question: When Abraham speaks with God after the aborted sacrifice God says (and I’m paraphrasing), “Isaac was your son, your only son.” Why state that Isaac was his only son if he also had a son, Ishmael, from Hagar?

Answer: Good question. Additionally, why bother with “your son, the only one, that you love, Isaac” and not just state the intention outright. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 89b) relates this verse as a shortened version of a longer conversation:

G-d asks Abraham to take his son as an offering.

Abraham answers “I’ve got two.”

G-d continues, “your only son.”

“Each son is an only son to his mother.”

“The one whom you love.”

“But I love both of them.”

“Isaac.”

The Talmud explains that the request was drawn out with these obvious questions so as not to startle Abraham with such an impossible task and to let the concept slowly sink in. The Torah commentary of the Ramban offers an alternative answer to your question: Isaac is called the “only son” because he is the son of Abrahams “proper” wife, if you will, and only Isaac is called “Zerah“, meaning seed or offspring.

R’ Daniel Fleksher