According to Jubilees, when Abraham's love of God was praised in heaven, Satan sarcastically remarked that the patriarch's infatuation with his son exceeded his love of the Almighty. In his foreknowledge that he would remain faithful, God accepted Satan's challenge and subjected Abraham to the ordeal.

The rabbis sought further clarification regarding the nature of Isaac's self-sacrifice and the effects of the atonement obtained through it. 

Was the binding of Isaac a real sacrifice? After all, according to the Talmudic principle, "Without blood there is no expiation", a principle formulated already in the first century CE as shown in the Epistle to the Hebrews (9:22): "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." The rabbis assumed therefore that Isaac had lost at least a few drops of blood, having accidentally been scratched by Abraham's knife. In the early second century CE, Simeon ben-Yohai claimed that Isaac had shed a quarter of his blood. In the previous century, Pseudo-Philo ascribed the election of Israel to Isaac's blood. 

The rabbis were also preoccupied by the impact of the Binding of Isaac on Temple worship. For them, the lamb sacrifice offered twice daily in the sanctuary until 70 CE, derived its efficacy from the belief that it reminded God of the Binding of Isaac. This is explained in the Palestinian Targums on Leviticus 22:27: "Our sacrifices atone for our sins. The lamb has been chosen to revive the memory of Abraham's lamb who bound himself on the altar and stuck out his neck in order to honour your holy name." 

In contemporary Jewish liturgy, the Binding of Isaac is commemorated at the New Year festival. The blowing of the shofar, the ram's horn, on that day recalls the animal that was offered in Isaac's stead. 

However, the Binding of Isaac is associated also with the feast of Passover. According a rabbinic interpretation of Exodus (Mekhilta of R. Ishmael), the survival of the firstborn sons of the Jews in Egypt was due to the merit of Isaac. "When Israel entered the sea, Mount Moriah was moved from its place, with the altar of Isaac built on it, the pile of wood placed on it, and Isaac as it were bound and put upon the altar, and Abraham as it were stretching out his hand and holding the knife to slay his son."

According to the Book of Jubilees (second century BCE), keen on chronological details, the sacrifice of Isaac occurred on the 15th day of the first month (Nisan), the calendar day of the future Mosaic feast of Passover.