Divrei Emet

One may also say, for I heard in the name of the holy Rav, the head of the rabbinical court of the holy community of Nikolsburg, on the verse "Because you have done this thing..." (Genesis 22:16). Earlier it says, "and you have not withheld... from Me" (22:12), but now it is written "and you have not withheld" without "from Me."

The Akedah was one test, and our father Avraham, peace be upon him, did it for the sake of His honor, may He be blessed, and he overcame his compassion with love. Afterward, when He, may He be blessed, prevented him, it would seem that he should have taken his son down from the altar with joy, since he had fulfilled his duty toward Heaven. But Avraham did not act so, rejoicing that he was kept from offering his son out of love for him. On the contrary, he would have been very glad to slaughter him. Just as he rejoiced to slaughter him for His sake, so when He, may He be blessed, commanded, "Do not send forth your hand," he rejoiced in doing His will, to let him live. His son was not in his heart at all. It was only that it was His will, may He be blessed, that he bring him down from the altar. And this is a higher level of love.

So too I heard it said in the name of him, of blessed memory: it is easier for a person to bear being insulted than to bear being praised, so that he take no pleasure in it. That is how it was here: he had no joy in the return of his son, which he regarded only as being for the sake of the Blessed Creator, who had commanded it so, and not because he was his only son.

And this is the meaning of "Because you have done this thing...": that you did not withhold your son, your only one, but did His will, as explained above. And this was the test of Avraham, and not of Yitzchak.