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Chayei Sarah: Coming Down to Earth

How did Avraham, Sarah  and Yitchak come back from the akedah, the binding of Isaac, a great spiritual height back to the mundane world?

Sarah, so inspired by her son's dedication that she couldn't go on living. She went off to another world and died. Avraham is able to go from the highest mountain of Divine devotion where the Rabbis say he saw angels to go and purchase land and bury Sarah, two supremely mundane, physical acts.

What about Yitzchak? After the binding, he didn't come back. Abraham goes back to his lads vayashav Avraham el nearav, but not Isaac. Isaac did not return. He never comes back, until we meet him again in the field greeting his bride. At the  funeral of Sarah, his mother, he was no where to be found. At the shiduch, the matchmaking of Isaac, he is no where to be found.

Where did Isaac go to? He went to Be'er Lachay Roiy, The Well of Seeing.  According to Ramban, it is a place of  seeing angels, where Hagar had
seen an angel. He had seen angels at Moriah and he only wanted to have that "high" again and remain in the realm of angels. When he came home to see his newly selected bride, Rivka, he scared her since he had a halo, an aura, and she fell off her camel on seeing him.

The Talmud (Hagigah 14b) tells of 4 who entered the Garden (the realm of the mystical). One Ben Azai glimpsed (of G-d) and died. Ben Zoma peeked and was injured (went out of his mind, Rashi). Elisha ben Avuya cut his roots (became a heretic). Rabbi Akiva went out in peace.  Three characters in our parasha saw angels. Avraham saw the angel who told him to stop. Isaac saw the angels crying at his demise. Sarah saw the angel who came to tell her of Isaac's death. Sarah died. She either couldn't process the information or remained on the high plain not fitting for the living. Isaac had trouble coming back down to earth.

When he finally did come back down he may have overdone it, becoming overly enthralled with nature, praying in the field, and selecting his
hunter son over the bookish Jacob. Abraham knew how to find a balance, to go from visions of angels to funerals and being a shadchan, a matchmaker. It is easy to be an iconoclast. It is easy to be man of earth. The challenge is to keep balance between earth and heaven. Abraham represents the ideal blend of the spiritual and the physical we all strive for.