Avraham’s Trials:
Action and Attitude
R. Yaakov Bieler
Parshiot Lech Lecha, VaYera, Chaye
Sara
5769
Each year when the portions of the Tora
describing Avraham’s life are read over the course of three consecutive Shabbatot,
a Mishna in the tractate of Avot invariably comes to mind:
Avot 5:3
Avraham,
our father, may he rest in peace, faced 10 trials, and he passed all of them,
to make known[1]
the extent of His (God’s) Love[2]
for our father Avraham, may he rest in peace.
It is
appropriate to wonder whether Avraham faced exactly 10 difficult situations
intended to test his commitment and faith—is the number 10 to be taken
literally, is it merely symbolic[3]
or was it chosen for the purpose of literary parallelism?[4]
Furthermore,
on practically every list that commentators on the Mishna suggest for which
situations and actions constitute these 10 trials,[5]
the last trial cited is Akeidat Yitzchak (the binding of Isaac.) Yet, a Talmudic view of Avraham’s life
recognizes that an event subsequent to the Divine Request that Avraham
sacrifice his son was not only another trial, but perhaps the most profound one
of all:
Bava
Batra 16a
(Iyov
1:18-2:2) And God Said to Satan: From where do you come? And Satan answered God
and said: From going to and fro on the earth.
He
said: Lord of the Universe. I have
covered the entire earth and have not found one like Your servant Avraham. For
You Said to him: (Beraishit 13:17) “Rise up and walk the length and
width of the land, for to you I willGive it. And when he wanted to bury Sara,
he could not find a place to bury her, (see Beraishit 23:3 ff.) and yet
he did not entertain doubts regarding
Your Ways.
Based
upon this Talmudic passage we could proceed to point to additional trials that
occur subsequent to Akeidat Yitzchak:
a)
(Beraishit
24) Sending Eliezer to look for a wife for Yitzchak, without any guarantees
regarding whom, if anyone, his servant will choose;
b)
(Ibid.
25:6) Sending away the numerous additional children that he fathered with
Ketura (Hagar?—see RaShI on Beraishit 25:1; RaDaK on Shoftim
8:24) in order to maintain Yitzchak’s singularity as Avraham’s true
offspring;
c)
(Ibid.
25:9) Never knowing that Yishmael eventually repented (see RaShI on Beraishit
25:9; RaShI on Ibid. 15:15 seems to contradict this and contends that
Yishmael already repented during Avraham’s lifetime, thereby fulfilling “BeSeiva
Tova” [a good old age.])[6]
The two assumptions
that 1) Avraham dealt with trials even beyond Chapter 22, and 2) the total
number of this forefather’s trials far exceeded 10, are supported by a Midrash
that imagines an interchange between Satan and Avraham while on his way to
Beraishit
Rabba 56:4
Sam’uel[7] came to our father Avraham and
said to him: Old man! Old man! Have you lost your mind? The son that was given
to you after 100 years, you are now going to slaughter him?
He
said to him: I know what is in store and I am prepared to carry it out.
He
said to him: If He Tests you even beyond this, will you be able to withstand? (Iyov
4:2) “If one gives you a(n additional) trial will you be grieved?”
He
said to him: Even if there are more, I am prepared to carry them out.
He
said to him: Tomorrow He will Say to you, “You are a murderer (for having
slaughtered Yitzchak) You are culpable because you shed the blood of your son!”
He
said to him: I know what is in store and I am prepared to carry it out.
While it
could be contended that Satan’s threats never came to fruition—Avraham never
actually slaughtered Yitzchak and therefore it would have been impossible to
bring murder charges against him—that does not necessarily mean that there also
weren’t additional trials subsequent to the Akeida.
One way in which the 10 trials
mentioned in the Mishna could be interpreted to refer to a far greater
number of situations than only 10, is to posit that these 10 instances are
comparable to “Avot” (primary categories), which by definition implies
that there are “Toldot” (subcategories)[8]
much like the dichotomies that we encounter with respect to the Melachot
of Shabbat, the categories of ritual impurity, and the different forms
of damages—see Bava Kamma 2a-b. Such an approach would appear to be
justified by sources such as the following Midrash:
Pirkei
D’Rabbi Eliezer,
Chapt. 27.
The
sixth test: Amrafel and his allies came to kill him (Avraham). They said let us
begin first his nephew, and only afterwards we will begin with him (Avraham).
And in order to deflect attention from Lot, they took all the spoils of
Avraham
took with him his three students (Avner, Aner and Eshkol) and Eliezer his
servant and pursued them until Dan…
And
he took Eliezer his servant with him…and he emptied (out of their houses of
study) his students, and he pursued after them until a place to the left of
Hillel
HaZaken said that Avraham took the spoils of
And
Avraham was afraid and said: It is impossible that I killed so many people and
there was not among them a single righteous person. The Holy One Blessed Be He
Said to him: (Beraishit 15:1) Do not be afraid Avram…
Avraham
rose and prayed before the Holy One Blessed Be He and he said: Master of the
Universe! Not with the strength of my hand did I do all this but rather by means
of the power of Your Right Hand, because You Protect me in this world and in
the world to come…
This Midrash
suggests that there were at least four separate trials enmeshed within the
rescue of
a)
Avraham
knew he was walking into a trap that had been deliberately set for him;
b)
He
was incredibly undermanned for the mission;
c)
He
was troubled that even inadvertently, his actions had led to the death of at
least one righteous individual;[10]
and d)
He was careful to resist the urge to allow his military victory to go to
his head and therefore lose some of his
humility.
But the source in Bava Batra 16a does more than simply alert us to the
open-ended nature of the trials of Avraham, despite the number affixed to them
in the Mishna in Avot; it defines what the essence of each of the
trials actually was. Apparently the thing that brought Avraham to Satan’s
attention was not his specific behavior, but rather his attitude in the
face of difficulty and frustration:
"...ולא
הרהר אחר
מדותיך"
“…he did not entertain
doubts regarding Your
Ways.”
Consequently,
in using RaMBaM’s list as an example:
1)
When Avraham was Commanded to leave his homeland, he never had a second
thought about doing so;
2)
The fact that shortly after reaching Canaan, a famine forced him to
relocate to
3) Sara’s being taken by Pharoah did not lead
to Avraham’s questioning why this terrible thing was happening to him and his
wife;
4)
Rather than wondering why God
would Expect him to endanger himself during the course of rescuing
5)
Despite loving Sara deeply, and now having to bring another woman into
their intimate circle, Avraham did not question why he and Sara had been unable
to conceive a child up to this point;
6)
The entire act of circumcision would give anyone pause, and yet Avraham
personally carried out this Command without so much as a challenge or concern;
7)
The second time that Sara is taken to the house of the local potentate
could have suggested to Avraham a pattern of the Divine engendering personal
hardship for him and his family, but no such thought occurred to him;
8) + 9) If Hagar and Yishmael had
become wife and son to Avraham, to banish them from his home was understandably
difficult and the text (Beraishit 21:11) indicates that he was reluctant
to comply with Sara’s demand. However in the next verse (21:12) God Ratifies
Sara’s instruction and Avraham carries it out without wondering why he has been
Commanded to do so;
10) Whereas the three days journey
offered Avraham ample opportunity to give voice to his doubts regarding what
God has Commanded him to do to his son, he never does so, and therefore it is
presumed that not only did he not express such challenges, but he never even
allowed such questions to cross his mind.
In
light of the insight of Bava Batra 16a, Avraham’s serving as an exemplar
of a “Knight of Faith” becomes so much more profound, i.e., it is not only his
readiness to carry out difficult Commands that reflect his piety and deep
seated Bitachon, but the fact that internally, mentally, emotionally, he
was able to suspend all personal considerations and doubts about Divine Conduct
and Principle and simply fulfill the Divine Will.[11]
When the Mishna in Avot
(5:19) instructs us in the various ways by which we might be considered
“students of Avraham,” another profound virtue to which we ought to aspire is
the degree of faith that he displayed over the course of a long and challenging
life.
[1] The assumption that a trial is not intended to clarify the degree of commitment of the individual being tested, but rather to make that commitment apparent to all onlookers, is inherent in the following Midrash:
Beraishit Rabba
55:1
(Beraishit 22:1) “And it was after these things and God ‘Nissa’ (Tested) Avraham.”
It is written (Tehillim 60:6) “You have Given to those that fear You ‘Neis’ (a flag) ‘LeHitnoseis’ (to “flag themselves”) because of the truth, Selah.” Test after test, testimony to greatness after testimony to greatness. In order to “fly them” in the world, to aggrandize them in the world, like this flag of a boat. And why to such an extent? For truth, to reinforce the Attribute of Justice in the world, that if a person would say: Whomever He Wishes, He Makes wealthy (arbitrarily; based upon favoritism), and to whomever He Wishes, He Makes poor, and whomever He Wishes to turn into a king, He Coronates him, e.g., Avraham, when He Wanted to make him rich, He Enriched him, when He Wished to make him a king, He Made him a king, you can answer him and say: Can you do the things that Avraham did? And he will say: What did he do? And you can say to him: (Beraishit 21;5) “And Avraham was 100 years old when his son Yitzchak was born to him,” and after all of this travail, it was said to him: “Take now your son, your only son…” and he did not object. Behold, “You have Given to those that fear you ‘Neis’…”
[2] The term “Chibato” includes a third person masculine pronoun (the “Vav” at the end of the word.) Since the antecedent of the pronoun is unclear, it is also possible to understand the statement as praising the love of Avraham for God, reflected in his unflinching embrace of each of the 10 trials.
[3] In the same vein as the number 70 with regard to the peoples of the world and the variety of languages, 10 is similarly representative of multiplicity—according to MaHaRaL “10” is simultaneously a singular unit, comprised of a number of individuals, as in the case of a Minyan—but not based upon a specific objective calculation.
[4] The first six Mishnayot in the fifth chapter of Avot focus on the number “10”:
1) The world was created with 10 Divine Utterances;
2) There were 10 generations from Adam until Noach; 10 generations from Noach until Avraham;
3) There were 10 trials faced by Avraham;
4)
There were 10 miracles enjoyed by the
Jews in
5)
There were 10 miracles that were
performed on behalf of our ancestors in the
6) 10 things were created on “Erev Shabbat” (just before the Creation was completed).
[5] E.g., RaMBaM:
1) Beraishit 12:1 Leave your land…
2) Ibid. 12:10 There was a famine in the land
(that forced Avraham to relocate to
3) Ibid. 12:15 Sara is taken to Pharoah’s palace.
4) Ibid. 14: 15 The war with the 4 kings in
order to rescue
5) Ibid. 16:2 The necessity to marry Hagar when Sara fails to conceive.
6) Ibid. 17:10 Circumcision.
7) Ibid. 20:2 Sara is taken to Avimelech’s palace.
8) Ibid. 21:10 Sending away Hagar.
9) Ibid. 21:11 Sending away Yishmael.
10) Ibid. 22 The binding of Isaac.
R. Ovadia MiBartenura:
1) Ibid. 11:28, 31 Uhr Kasdim where Avraham was thrown into the fiery furnace. (See Beraishit Rabba 38:13).
2) Ibid. 12:1 Leave your land...
3) Ibid. 12:10 There was a famine….
4) Ibid. 12:15 Sara is taken…
5) Ibid. 14:15 The war with the 4 kings…
6) Ibid. 15:13 Covenant between the pieces during the course of which Avraham learns that his descendents will be enslaved.
7) Ibid. 17:10 Circumcision.
8) Ibid. 20:2 Sara is taken…
9) Ibid. 21:10-11 Sending away Hagar and Yishmael.
10) Ibid. 22 The binding of Isaac.
GR”A (Vilna Gaon) based upon Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer, Chapt. 26.
1) Ibid. ? From birth until the age of 13, Avraham had to be miraculously hidden since repeated attempts were made to murder him.
2) Ibid. 11:28, 31. Uhr Kasdim…
3) Ibid. 12:1 Leave your land…
4) Ibid. 12:10 There was a famine…
5) Ibid. 12:15 Sara is taken…
6) Ibid. 14:15 The war with the 4 kings.
7) Ibid. 15:13 Covenant between the pieces.
8) Ibid. 17:10 Circumcision.
9) Ibid. 21:10-11 Sending away Hagar and Yishmael.
10) Ibid. 22 The binding of Isaac.
[6] R. Amnon Bazak, in his book Nekudat Peticha, suggests that the point at which Yishmael repented can be identified by the language in Beraishit 21:17 “And God Heard the voice of the youth and an angel of God called to Hagar from Heaven and he said to her: What is your problem Hagar? Do not be afraid because God Heard the voice of the youth where he is there.” Whereas until this point, Yishmael might have acted badly as is suggested by the traditional interpretations of Ibid. 21:9, now his cries to God are a form of prayer and indicate his change of heart. Once again, just as in the case of the verse describing Avraham’s funeral, Avraham would seem not to be in a position to know what has taken place, 21:17 also occurs after Avraham has thrown Hagar and her son out of his encampment, that does not mean that the father could not have learned of Yishmael’s repentance by means of reports from others. After all, all of the guests that he and Sara entertained were a highly likely source of information.
[7] Bava Batra 16a
Said Reish Lakish: He is Satan he is the Evil Inclination, he is the Angel of Death.
Machzor Vitri #334 substitutes “Sam’uel” for “Satan” indicating that these terms can all be used interchangeably.
[8] With respect to the three lists that appear in fn. 5, the pairs of a) Sara being taken first by Pharoah and then by Avimelech , as well as b) the sending away of Hagar and Yishmael would seem to be identical and therefore counted as separate trials with difficulty. This in turn would undermine the hypothesis of “Avot” and “Toldot” as far as the 10 trials are concerned. However, perhaps after the first time that Sara is taken, although Avraham was determined that it not happen again, it did, and the trial was exacerbated. Similarly while Hagar and Yishmael could easily be considered a single unit with respect to their being mother and son, from Avraham’s point of view, Hagar was a wife and Yishmael a son, requiring two different emotional mindsets to be able to carry out God’s Directives.
[9] See fn. 5.
[10] See RaShI on Beraishit 14:18, which suggests that one of the kings killed in Avraham’s attack, Kidral’omer, was the son of Malki Tzedek who in actuality was Shem, the son of Noach. Since Shem was a righteous individual, it is assumed that his son was of similar moral standing. Naturally that begs the question why this supposedly righteous king had thrown in his lot with Amrafel, who traditionally is identified as Nimrod, the pursuer of Avraham from the time of the fiery furnace incident in Ur Kasdim.
[11] Yet if
this is the picture that the Talmudic reference in Bava Batra is
attempting to paint with regard to Avraham, we are challenged to account not
for why he did not argue more vociferously against Akeidat Yitzchak, but
rather why he did argue with God regarding the impending
destruction of