The 11th Test Revealed!

We read in Vayeira, in particular Genesis 22:1 that God was going to test Abraham with the Akedah, or binding of Isaac.  Maimonides concluded that the Akedah was the final test of ten in total.  This idea of Abraham being tested, which begins in Lech Lecha and for some ends next week in Chaya Sarah, is found as early as 100 BCE in a book called Jubilees that was written some 300 hundred years before we read in Pirkei Avot 5:4; “Our Father Avraham was tested with ten trails and withstood them all.”  In a commentary on Pirkei Avot by Rabbi Judah Lowe ben Bezalel (the Maharal), called the Derek Chaim (the Path of Life), Abraham was indeed tested, but Rabbi Judah used a different word for test than Pirkei Avot, let alone the Bible itself.  For Rabbi Judah, the word for Abraham’s “test” (mivchan) was more like an examination, inquiry or investigation, whereas for Pirkei Avot the test (nis’sayon) is about a personal trial or experiment, a learned experience of one kind or another, how did life "try us" for this or that?  We have to wonder: did God intend to test Abraham, was this how those who wrote it understood the Akedah, or was the mention of a test added later?  That is not the concern of most commentators nor is it the concern here, our concern is why and how it matters.

Why it matters.  If we view this test according to Rabbi Judah it can easily be read as if God will give Abraham a pass/fail grade depending on the outcome.  If we read this idea of a test per Pirkei Avot then it is about Abraham’s handling of his business when the trails of life came upon him.  The former can be understood as a person being investigated by God if they were naughty or nice so to speak and worth their reward whereas the latter can be viewed as when life trials emerge a person should call on divine wisdom as they walk through it, hence the words of Psalm 11:5 "The LORD tests the righteous," in this case God does make inquiry to how a person will respond to the trials of life.  Those are two very different ways to understand this idea of Abraham being tested that will impact how we might understand being tested, or feel as we are being tested.

How it matters. It matters because of a non-test that should have been a test.  In other words the following was not one of the 10 tests although it should have been.  We read concerning God, then, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”  This question was asked by Abraham of God over the ensuing judgement upon Sodom and Gomorrah.  Found quite often both in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and rabbinic literature, we find this idea of a “machaloket,” an argument for the sake of heaven, Abraham having the first one with God.  In short Abraham calls God out over the sanctity of life even though Sodom and Gomorrah were filled with evil and evil people.  As we spoke about with Noah, Noah did not seek to intervene for the lives of the people of his day, yet Abraham did the very opposite with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.  In the end of the story we read that God relented and told Abraham that if 10 righteous people could be found (Abraham started with 50) than Sodom and Gomorrah would not be exterminated, but there were not even 10 so those cities were destroyed.  

In Genesis 18:7 we find an interesting verse where God elects to tell Abraham about the impending doom for Sodom and Gomorrah, suggesting that perhaps God was considering not letting Abraham know. Based on that question posed by God (should we let Abraham know) Rabbi Jonathan Sacks asks his own question; “why did God invite Abraham’s challenge?”  Rabbi Sacks goes on to say that the answer was not so much that Abraham called God out more than God called Abraham out, asking both he and his “descendants” to be "agents of justice.”  In this case, for R’Sacks, God is asking Abraham to be the “defense attorney” for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah even though they are guilty.  Abraham’s God is an ethical God and just not a deity that demands unquestioned loyalty of action.  As Rabbi Sacks also says, in the end, if God allows the judgement from heaven to be challenged by Abraham, “how much more” does God expect a verdict handled down justly in a “human court?”

We are Abrahams “descendants to be agents of justice” as well and God's justice just like then is handed out through people like you and me.  Abraham did not triumph over all his tests, but he withstood them.  We might not pass all of our tests either, but we cannot cease trying to make life more "just" no matter how unpleasant life’s trials may be.  We live in a world where justice matters and we live in a world where we are the agents of that very same justice, whatever your cause may be.  The non-test that should have been the 11th test asks the following of Abraham; will you rise up and be an agent of justice even if you will not win in the end?  That same question is being asked of us.  Will we stand upon our sense of right regardless of the push back that life puts upon us?  Why vote, does my voice really matter?  Why protest for Israel’s sake, the media is always anti-Israel?  Why stand up for this or that (you choose) if abortion rights got over turned, what can I do to make a difference?   Abraham did not get what he wanted in the end, but his sense of justice never failed him.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam