And Abraham extended his hand and took the knife to slay his son. (Bereishis 22:10)

There are different approaches as to how to enter a swimming pool. Some people go in inch-by-inch, and others just take the plunge, jumping right in. It seems to me that the difference of approaches are based on prolonged small amounts of pain versus a large pain for a minimal amount of time.

It is said of Reb Yeruchum, the former Mashgiach of the Mir Yeshiva, that when he would call a bochur into his office, the way he would move his hand to point to the bochur in the Beis Medrash was stilted. It was not fluid. The reason for this type of pointing was that every action that he did was thought out. Just as a small child when taking his first steps has a cognizant awareness of everything he is doing, so too a true tzaddik puts meticulous thought into all his moves and actions.

In fact, there is a story told about the Chasam Sofer, that while sitting on a bench, he picked himself up to move a few inches to the side. His son the Kesav Sofer understood that there must be some reason and asked his father why he moved? The Chasam Sofer responded, “I am not going to tell you, but this much I will say: From the time that I had clarity of thought, I have not made even the minutest movement without scrutinizing if this is what Hashem wants.”

Imagine if one must do a mitzvah that is painful. There are many who would say, “Just jump in and do the mitzvah!” In fact, it might be so painful that even those who go into the pool little-by-little would realize that they don’t have the nerve to withstand the prolonged pain and they also will just jump in. I would like to venture to say that the person who just jumps in has less of a struggle with his evil inclination because it is a “Yes or No” issue. Whereas the person who proceeds slowly can make an about-face at every moment.

The Torah tells us every movement of Avraham Avinu took during the Akeida in great detail. One possible reason for this is so that we will understand that each movement was made with a cognizant realization that the Akeida was a test in which Avraham consistently had to overcome his personal desires in order to serve Hashem.

I would like to dispel a possible extrapolation that people may have from this idea. When waking up in the morning, should a person get out of bed slowly or with a start. Chazal tell us that he should get up quickly, like a lion, which seems to fly in the face of this suggested lesson learnt from Avraham. I think this is incorrect because the purpose of getting out of bed with gusto is to show that we are excited to serve Hashem. Whereas in the case of a test of slaughtering one’s child there is no issue to show that you are “happy” to do it. Therefore, when Hashem is testing us, deliberate strides would be the better way to serve Hashem.

May we merit not only to make the right choices but to do them with the mode of emotion that each mitzvah warrants.