While Abraham was binding Isaac to Mount Moriah he was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Who could this be?" he thought. "We don't even own a door," he cried. So he continued binding Isaac to the altar. Again, a knock that could make the deaf hear. Abraham had to stop and look for the door. He yelled, "Leave me alone, I'm doing God's work!" and returned to continue the akedah. And again a knock interrupted him, and again, and again---Abraham did not know what to do, whether to laugh or to cry. And then he thought: "This will be the history of my children. When we will be doing our work or God's work there will always come a knock at the door to interrupt us...whether we own a door or not." And it came to pass that the history of the Jews is a history of interruptions.
Line 12 *akedah* from the Hebrew meaning the act of binding cf. Genesis 22:9.
This poem was written in September 1981, now 35 years ago and was first published 30 years ago in the now long defunct Orim; A Jewish Journal at Yale 2:1 (Autumn 1986) p. 35.