Medieval Jewish readings of the Akedah, the Binding of Isaac, remain almost entirely oblivious to the antinomy between ethics and the revealed divine command that many modern interpretations find at the heart of the story. This study explores an exception, the teaching of the fourteenth-century rationalist, Eleazar Ashkenazi ben Nathan Ha-Bavli. In his Revealer of Secrets, Eleazar seeks a remedy for what he takes to be the theological and moral scandals that arise when the Akedah is read according to its plain sense. While Eleazar’s treatment of the Akedah builds in many ways on that of Maimonides, it also adds novel layers regarding this most difficult of biblical accounts. For this reason, the study begins with a substantial review of Maimonides’ intentionally elusive treatment of the Akedah and its reception among some representative later medieval interlocutors. Turning to its main focus, the article supplies a case study in medieval Jewish rationalism at its limits, in both matter and manner.

中文翻译：

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“他怎能不抗议神处死正义的孩子呢？”

中世纪犹太人对《阿基达》《以撒的结合》的解读几乎完全忽视了道德与许多现代解释在故事核心中发现的神圣命令之间的矛盾。本研究探讨了一个例外，即 14 世纪理性主义者埃利亚撒·阿什肯纳齐·本·内森·哈巴夫利 (Eleazar Ashkenazi ben Nathan Ha-Bavli) 的教学。在他的揭秘者在《阿基达》中，以利亚撒寻求一种补救办法，以解决他认为根据其简单含义阅读《阿基达》时出现的神学和道德丑闻。虽然以利亚撒对阿基达的处理在很多方面都建立在迈蒙尼德的基础上，但它也为这个最困难的圣经记载增添了新的层次。出于这个原因，本研究首先对迈蒙尼德对《阿基达》刻意难以捉摸的处理方式及其在一些中世纪晚期对话者中的接受情况进行了实质性回顾。转向其主要焦点，本文提供了一个关于中世纪犹太理性主义在物质和方式上的局限性的案例研究。