This Lelamed Dvar is also available in your local App Store (iTunes and
Android). As you hopefully enjoy this Dvar, it would be nice to share these
thoughts (and quote!) with as many people as you can think of, either via
email which I will gladly include in these distributions, or by
word-of-mouth...
Parshat Vayeira records G-d's greatest test of Avraham's faith (22:1) by
ordering him to sacrifice his only son to G-d. Almost all the commentaries
listing G-d’s ten trials list this one as the last. The first test was in
Ur Kasdim, where Avraham stood up for his belief in G-d against other idols
and was thrown into a furnace, where he was miraculously saved. The Lekach
Tov wonders why the first test got an obscure one-line mention in the Torah
(Genesis 15:7), when it seems as if that test would be harder, since G-d
still hadn't appeared to Avraham, and because he wasn't actually commanded
to risk life, yet he did. Why was the sacrificing of Yitzchok that much
greater a test?
Rav Lapian answers that Avraham believed in G-d, and wanted to teach the
world. To that end, throwing himself into burning flames would have shown
the world of his beliefs, and would ultimately help proclaim his belief in
G-d. However, if Avraham were to sacrifice and kill his only son, what
would his countless followers say of him then? They would surely give up
any religion that required killing their own children. Or at least that's
what Avraham could have been thinking when G-d told him to kill his son.
Instead, Avraham didn't make excuses, didn't rationalize ignoring G-d's
commandment, and accepted his orders completely, despite risking the
efforts of over 50 years of his life. That was the real test, and that's
also our test today: To stand up and do what's right, despite what others
will say, or think. As Jews, we should not only avoid reasons to ignore our
convictions, but we should also be proud enough to show them.
Shlomo Ressler
Quotation of the Week:
“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines." - Robert H. Schuller
This Lelamed Dvar is also available in your local App Store (iTunes and
Android). As you hopefully enjoy this Dvar, it would be nice to share these
thoughts (and quote!) with as many people as you can think of, either via
email which I will gladly include in these distributions, or by
word-of-mouth...
_______________________________________________
Parshat Vayeira records G-d's greatest test of Avraham's faith (22:1) by
ordering him to sacrifice his only son to G-d. Almost all the commentaries
listing G-d’s ten trials list this one as the last. The first test was in
Ur Kasdim, where Avraham stood up for his belief in G-d against other idols
and was thrown into a furnace, where he was miraculously saved. The Lekach
Tov wonders why the first test got an obscure one-line mention in the Torah
(Genesis 15:7), when it seems as if that test would be harder, since G-d
still hadn't appeared to Avraham, and because he wasn't actually commanded
to risk life, yet he did. Why was the sacrificing of Yitzchok that much
greater a test?
Rav Lapian answers that Avraham believed in G-d, and wanted to teach the
world. To that end, throwing himself into burning flames would have shown
the world of his beliefs, and would ultimately help proclaim his belief in
G-d. However, if Avraham were to sacrifice and kill his only son, what
would his countless followers say of him then? They would surely give up
any religion that required killing their own children. Or at least that's
what Avraham could have been thinking when G-d told him to kill his son.
Instead, Avraham didn't make excuses, didn't rationalize ignoring G-d's
commandment, and accepted his orders completely, despite risking the
efforts of over 50 years of his life. That was the real test, and that's
also our test today: To stand up and do what's right, despite what others
will say, or think. As Jews, we should not only avoid reasons to ignore our
convictions, but we should also be proud enough to show them.
Shlomo Ressler
_______________________________________________
Quotation of the Week:
“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines." - Robert H. Schuller
