The story of the Binding of Isaac (also called Sacrifice of Isaac) is the story where Abraham is asked to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.

Let's try to understand what it means.

Just a quick linguistic note, the word "Akeda" in hebrew (name of the Binding episode) refers to the tying the legs of an animal before slaughtering it, that's why the story is understood as a sacrifice, but we will see how the meaning of "Binding" comes actually into play here.

Abraham and Isaac are 2 opposite attributes inside of us. These two qualities, giving and receiving, do not go together, like oil and water.

That's why the binding (akeda) of the attribute of receiving is required here: "Please take your son, your only son, and bring him up there to the altar." - like the text is saying.

A "son" in Hebrew is "ben" which has the same root as "avana" understanding. And "your only son" is the only understanding that we have, the desire to receive for our own benefit, which we guard in our heart and soul so that no harm will come to it.

"And raise it to the altar", that is, raise the ego to the altar, sacrifice selfishness on the altar, slaughter the evil instinct - the desire to receive for one's own benefit - and work only with the desire to bestow.

But then, a voice was heard: "Don't put your hand on the boy." Do not eliminate the desire to receive, the ego, but learn to work with it properly, to turn it from a negative force to a positive force - instead of for yourself for the benefit of others.

So Abraham took a "deer" instead of his son Isaac, and sacrificed the animal part inside of him, the material part, and corrected the soul.

That is the gist of the Binding of Isaac, a story with much more depth, but even from this short introduction we can start to understand the general spirit of the text, which does not talk about a father sacrificing his only son, but actually only an opportunity to sacrifice the heart for love.