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Akeidat Yitzhak is called a "test" in this week's parsha, or a "nisayon". However, how can an explicit command to Avraham be considered a test? Even if this command involves an extreme form of mesirut nefesh, isn't it clear that Avraham will choose to fulfill the command? Does he really have a choice?

Rav Shach writes that he indeed did. Avraham did not receive an explicit command. The wording of the command that we read about in chumash was the wording of Hashem when he related the story of the akeida to Moshe at matan torah. Moshe had clear prophecy, so the command recorded in chumahs sounds explicit. But no other prophet had the clarity of Moshe's, including Avraham Avinu. When Avraham heard the command, it was enigmatic, and required Avraham's own interpretation. This was the test: Avraham could have theoretically "plugged" any interpretation into the words of the command, without blatantly disobeying his creator, and clearly he had a strong desire to see to it that the command wasn't too "costly". Was he going to interpret the will of G-d objectively, with the mida of "emet", with the sole purpose of seeking the true meaning of G-d's command, or was he going to "bend" the truth in order to fit his own ideas of morality? This is a true nisayon.

"Maase avot siman labanim" - Avraham Avinu passed the test, and has passed down this legacy to us. May we all be successful in finding what G-d wants from each and every one of our lives, at all of life's junctures, not with preconceived notions, but with the mida of "emet" that we inherited from Avraham.