The Binding of Isaac

56:7. And He [God] said, “Take your son, [your only son, whom you love, Isaac . . .] (Genesis 22:2). He [God] said to him [Abraham], “Take please—I beg you—your son.”

Your son—He [Abraham] said to Him [God], “Which son?”

He [God] said to him [Abraham], “Your only [son].”

He [Abraham] said to Him, “This one is an only son to his own mother, and that one is an only son to his own mother.”

He [God] said to him, “[The son] whom you love.”

[Abraham] said to Him, “Are there limits to one’s feeling?”

[God] said to him, “[Take] Isaac.”

And why did He [God] not reveal [the matter] to him immediately? In order to make [Isaac] beloved in his [Abraham’s] eyes and to grant [Abraham] a reward for each successive statement. [ . . . ]

65:10. And his eyes grew dim from seeing (Genesis 27:1). [ . . . ] Another interpretation: seeing a specific sight. At the moment when our father Abraham bound his son upon the top of the altar, the ministering angels wept, as it is written, Behold, the angels cry out (Isaiah 33:7). And tears fell from their eyes into the eyes [of Isaac] and were engraved upon his eyes, and when he became old, his eyes grew dim. As it is written: When Isaac grew old (Genesis 27:1).