It is one of the most famous of the early synagogue mosaics-that from Bet Alpha, in the Galilee, and dating from the 520s CE-that is the direct inspiration for Jonathan Mandell's Brit Milah. That is, Mandell has reproduced, in mosaic form, with his own carefully-chosen elements, the central moment in the mosaic akeda scene from Bet Alpha, but where the words ". . . send forth not thy hand [against the lad] . . ." appear in the original, he has written "brit milah." This refers to the idea of the ritual circumcision-the brit-as a continuation of the process of transmitting the Covenant-the brit. It is not merely, though, that the akeda is the forerunner, in the sacer covenantal sense, of the brit milah, but that the instrumentation of the akeda accentuates this: the knife glistening in Abraham's hand becomes a symbolic forerunner of the circumcision knife in the hand of the mo'el (ritual circumciser). The simple complexity of the ancient mosaic has been transmitted towards a modernist concept.

B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum, "Reconfiguring the Questions," The Binding of Isaac: Genesis XXII and Its Progeny, p. 11. Washington, DC. In cooperation with Creighton University Art Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska.