Welcome!

Welcome to the blog! Bound is my first play, so I'm looking for all the responses I can get. Please let me know what you thought! And if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

I'm particularly interested in the reactions of people with different experiences of the Isaac story. I know that some people will only dimly remember the story from childhood Sunday School, others will have studied it as adults, and some will be coming to it for the first time—and I'd like you all to enjoy the play. So my first question for you is how the play as it was read worked with your own version of the Isaac story, if any.

I'd also like to know if, while you were watching, you were wondering how it would end... either because you didn't know or remember the Scripture, or because you were wondering if the play would change the ending. Were you afraid for Isaac? Did you think that the characters didn't know how it would end, either?

And a last question, before you can start with questions for me—did you like it?

Thanks,
-Ed.

Primary Documents: Legends of the Jews

To add to the older sources, here’s a bit out of Louis Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews, Vol. 1, pp. 276-278 (in the 1909 edition in my library):

Abraham departed with Isaac amid great weeping, while Sarah and the servants returned to the tent. He took two of his young men with him, Ishmael and Eliezer, and while they were walking in the road, the young men spoke these words to each other. Said Ishmael to Eliezer: “Now my father Abraham is going with Isaac to bring him up for a burnt offering to the Lord, and when he returneth, he will give unto me all that he possesses, to inherit after him, for I am his first-born.” Eliezer answered: “Surely, Abraham did cast thee off with thy mother, and swear that thou shouldst not inherit anything of all he possesses. And to whom will he give all that he has, all his precious things, but unto his servant, who has been faithful in his house, to me, who have served him night and day, and have done all that he desired me?” The holy spirit answered, “Neither this one nor that one will inherit Abraham.”

And while Abraham and Isaac were proceeding along the road, Satan came and appeared to Abraham in the figure of a very aged man, humble and of contrite spirit, and said to him: “Art thou silly or foolish, that thou goest to do this thing to thine only son? God gave thee a son in thy latter days, in thine old age, and wilt thou go and slaughter him, who did not commit any violence, and wilt thou cause the soul of thine only son to perish from the earth? Dost thou not know and understand that this thing cannot be from the Lord? For the Lord would not do unto man such evil, to command him, Go and slaughter thy son.” Abraham, hearing these words, knew that it was Satan, who endeavored to turn him astray from the way of the Lord, and he rebuked him that he went away. And Satan returned and came to Isaac, and he appeared unto him in the figure of a young man, comely and well-favored, saying unto him: “Dost thou not know that thy silly old father bringeth thee to the slaughter this day for naught? Now, my son, do not listen to him, for he is a silly old man, and let not thy precious soul and beautiful figure be lost from the earth.” And Isaac told these words to his father, but Abraham said to him, “Take heed of him, and do not listen to his words, for he is Satan endeavoring to lead us astray from the commands of our God.” And Abraham rebuked Satan again, and Satan went from them, and, seeing he could not prevail over them, he transformed himself into a large brook of water in the road, and when Abraham, Isaac, and the two young men reached that place, they saw a brook large and powerful as the mighty waters. And they entered the brook, trying to pass it, but the further they went, the deeper the brook, so that the water reached up to their necks, and they were all terrified on account of the water. But Abraham recognized the place, and he knew that there had been no water there before, and he said to his son: “I know this place, on which there was no brook nor water. Now, surely, it is Satan who doth all this to us, to draw us aside this day from the commands of God.” And Abraham rebuked Satan, saying unto him: “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Begone from us, for we go by the command of God.” And Satan was terri fied at the voice of Abraham, and he went away from them, and the place became dry land again as it was at first. And Abraham went with Isaac toward the place that God had told him.

Satan then appeared unto Sarah in the figure of an old man, and said unto her, “Where did thine husband go?” She said, “To his work.” “And where did thy son Isaac go?” he inquired further, and she answered, “He went with his father to a place of study of the Torah.” Satan said: “O thou poor old woman, thy teeth will be set on edge on account of thy son, as thou knowest not that Abraham took his son with him on the road to sacrifice him.” In this hour Sarah’s loins trembled, and all her limbs shook. She was no more of this world. Nevertheless she aroused herself, and said, “All that God hath told Abraham, may he do it unto life and unto peace.”

Mr. Ginzburg cites texts from collections of works from the medieval period to the nineteenth century; he is gathering all the legends from various times into a single definitive narrative. I don’t have access to all the sources Mr. Ginzburg cites (the Midrash HaGadol, the Neweh Shalom, the Midrash Va-Yosha, Adolph Jellinek’s Bet ha-Midrash, the Yalkut Reubeni), or the language skills to make use of them if I did. Still, I love this version.

Thank you,
-Ed.

Primary Documents: Midrash

The spark for the show came from the Midrash; here are some of the texts. To begin with, the thing I found most startling is this almost off-hand line from Leviticus Rabbah:

26:7 …What does it say of Abraham? And Abraham rose early in the morning… and took two of his young men with him (Gen. 22,3). Who were they? Ishmael and Eliezer.

The next quotes are all from Genesis Rabbah.

LV:4 Isaac and Ishmael were engaged in a controversy: the latter argued, ‘I am more beloved than thou, because I was circumcised at the age of thirteen’; while the other retorted, ‘I am more beloved than thou, because I was circumcised at eight days.’ Said Ishmael to him: ‘I am more beloved, because I could have protested, yet did not!’ At that moment Isaac exclaimed: ‘O that Gd would appear to me and bid me cut off one of my limbs! then I would not refuse.’ Said Gd: ’Even if I bid thee sacrifice thyself, thou will not refuse.’ (Another version: Said Ishmael to him: ‘I am more beloved than thou, because I was circumcised at the age of thirteen, but thou wast circumcised as a baby and couldst not refuse.’ Isaac retorted ‘All that thou didst lend to the Holy One, blessed be he, was three drops of blood. But lo, I am now thirty-seven years old, yet if Gd desired of me that I be slaughtered, I would not refuse.’ Said the Holy One blessed be He, ‘This is the moment!’ Straightway, Gd did prove Abraham.)

LVI:2 He then said to him [Isaac]: ‘Isaac, my son, seest thou what I see?’ ‘Yes,’ he relpied. Said he to his two servants: ‘See ye what I see?’ ‘No,’ they answered. ‘Since you do not see it, Abide ye here with the ass,’ he bade them, for ye are like the ass…

LVI 4 Samael went to the Patriarch Abraham and upbraided him saying: ‘What means this, old man! Hast thou lost thy wits? thou goest to slay a son granted to thee at the age of a hundred!’ ‘Even this I do,’ replied he. ‘And if He sets thee an even greater test, canst thou stand it?’ said he, as it is written, If a thing be put to thee as a trial, wilt thou be wearied (Job 4:2)? ‘Even more than this,’ he replied. ‘To-morrow He will say to thee, “Thou are a murderer, and art guilty”,;’ ‘Still am I content,’ he rejoined. Seeing that he could achieve nought with him, he approached Isaac and said: ‘Son of an unhappy mother! He goes to slay thee.’ ‘I accept my fate,’ he replied.

And one more, this one from Midrash Tanchuma

He came to the place to which God had told him to go, and he bound Isaac, his son: When Abraham came to slaughter Isaac, Isaac said to him: “Father, bind my hands and legs, for the soul is impudent and when I see the knife I may be frightened and the sacrifice will be no good because my trembling will cause you to make a blemish.”

All of these made their way either into the text of the play itself or into my thinking about the characters.

Thanks,
-Ed.

Primary Documents: Genesis

I've tried to make Bound a play for people who have all levels of knowledge of the story that Jews traditionally call the Binding of Isaac, from those with a vague memory from a childhood Sunday School tale to those who have done serious comparative scholarship. I hope that some people are taken with an itch to go back to the story, so for them, I thought I would collect some of the texts that I used as inspiration. These are some of the quotes from Genesis.

First, Gen 22:1-14, which we call the Binding or Akedah

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, [here] I [am]. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only [son] Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid [it] upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here [am] I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where [is] the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here [am] I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son] from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind [him] a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said [to] this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.

This is very sparse story-telling. Not a lot of details. I began writing with the idea that I would not contradict the text at all, while of course adding lots and lots and lots of my own imagination. There are two places where I decided to break with the text. First, there is no donkey on stage. This was a technical decision on my part. I did briefly consider having two guys in a donkey suit, but upon reflection I decided that would be distracting, without adding anything other than the opportunity for a brief dance routine in between scenes. The other is in a line of dialogue: I have Abraham address the line to Eliezar alone rather than to the two (unnamed) men of the text. I’ll probably talk a bit more about that line in a later post.

Also relevant is Gen 21:9-21, the casting out of Ishmael:

And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, [even] with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.

And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he [is] thy seed.

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave [it] unto Hagar, putting [it] on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against [him] a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against [him], and lift up her voice, and wept.

And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he [is]. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

These events do not take place within the play, but they are important in the characters’ backgrounds, of course, and they are discussed a couple of times, from different points of view. I did not feel compelled to maintain any fidelity to the text, because of the filtering through the characters’ memories, but I did try to encompass the details in my character building. Ishmael’s character and his relationship with Abraham are of course largely formed by the expulsion, but then Abraham’s relationship with Isaac is formed in the wake of that expulsion as well.

I’ll just put one more bit in before finishing up with Genesis: Gen 15:2-4

After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I [am] thy shield, [and] thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house [is] this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD [came] unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

This is the only mention of Eliezar of Damascus by name in Genesis. Whenever Abraham deals with servants, they are mentioned in the text only as servants, or lads, or something vague like that. So we don’t really know who they are. Later, when the Rabbis start to ask who went with Abraham to visit Lot? and who was the servant who finds Rebecca for Isaac? and who were the servants who go with Abraham and Isaac to Moriah? they answer themselves that it was always Eliezar of Damascus. And why not? But that makes Eliezar of Damascus a pretty interesting guy, don’t you think?

Thanks, -Ed.

Bound: A Play

Bound is a new play by Ed Bernstein, taking place in the three days between Genesis 22:3 and Genesis 22:3. Its first public reading will be on February 1, 2008 at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Kent, Connecticut. More to come. Thanks, -Ed.