Parashat Vayera tells the famous story of "akeidat Yitzchak," God's command to Avraham to offer his only son as a sacrifice to God. As Avraham made his way to Mount Moriah, where the offering was to take place, we are told, "On the third day Avraham looked up and saw the place from afar" (22:4). Several Midrashim interpret this verse in a homiletic sense, offering various suggestions as to what Avraham truly "saw" at this moment. One Midrash of unknown origin, cited in the compendium "Damesek Eliezer" (as recorded by Rabbi Shemuel Altar in his "Likutei Batar Likutei"; surprisingly, the encyclopedic "Torah Sheleima" does not cite this passage), writes that Avraham actually foresaw his grandson, Yaakov Avinu. How are we to understand this "vision" of Avraham as he made his way to the akeida?
One explanation is cited in the name of the "Sha'arei Simcha." A famous Midrash associates the three patriarchs - Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, with three types of places - a mountain, a field, and a house, respectively. Some commentators have explained this analogy as reflecting the different degrees of difficulty involved in the belief and worship of patriarchs. For Avraham, belief in God was like climbing a mountain; he championed the revolutionary notion of ethical monotheism, and confronting the rest of humanity with regard to this most fundamental religious doctrine was a monumental challenge, analogous to a tall, steep mountain. Avraham's efforts paved a smooth road, prepared a level "field," for his son, Yitzchak. Yitzchak didn't need to undertake the bulldozing campaign of his father; he was spared the climbing, and had only to walk through the level surface of a field. For Yaakov Avinu, serving the Creator was as permanent and natural as walking in and out of one's home.
The Sha'arei Simcha suggests explaining the aforementioned Midrash in this light. The Midrash informs us that by this point in Avraham's spiritual career, walking to the akeida, planning to slaughter his beloved son to fulfill God's command, was as instinctively natural as Yaakov's service of God, which came on the heels of two generations of monotheistic teaching. Although Avraham was the first, at this point his fulfillment of God's word occurred as naturally as it did for his grandson, the third.
We may, however, suggest a different approach, based on an opposite perspective on the akeida. As the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Yehuda Amital, has noted many times, the Midrashim specifically emphasize Avraham's very human, emotional response to the command of the akeida. He did not react with mechanical instinct at all; to the contrary, this experience was fraught with deep, emotional pain and grief. This could perhaps be the intent of the Midrash cited by Rashi on our verse, that Avraham beheld a cloud hovering over Mount Moriah. This cloud perhaps symbolized confusion and uncertainty. Avraham was perplexed by this entire situation, whereby God suddenly overturns, without explanation, years of promises that Avraham and Sara would produce a large nation. At this point, Avraham's future appeared "cloudy," impossible to comprehend.
To this feeling of bewilderment, perhaps, the Midrash refers when it describes Avraham's prophetic vision of his grandson, Yaakov. As he prepares to kill his son, Avraham cannot help but think of his hopes and prayers for Yitzchak's future, his dreams that Yitzchak would continue his heritage by having a righteous son of his own, who would establish the great nation to represent God. Upon seeing the location where he was to slaughter Yitzchak, Avraham saw in his cloud of confusion Yitzchak's future, the fulfillment of God's promise which he now prepared to eradicate. Avraham's greatness, of course, lay in his emotional perseverance, in his having overcome all his questions, all his confusion, and all his trauma, to faithfully abide by the word of God.