NOVEMBER 10 • 2022 | 49

This is a remarkable speech. By what 
right does a mere mortal challenge God 
Himself?
The short answer is that God Himself 
signaled that he should. Listen carefully to 
the text: Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide 
from Abraham what I am about to do? 
Abraham will surely become a great and 
powerful nation, and all nations on earth 
will be blessed through him” … Then the 
Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and 
Gomorrah is so great and their sin so griev-
ous that I will go down and see if what they 
have done is as bad as the outcry that has 
reached Me.
” Gen. 18:17–21
Those words, “Shall I hide from Abraham 
what I am about to do?” are a clear hint that 
God wants Abraham to respond; otherwise, 
why would He have said them?
The story of Abraham can only be under-
stood against the backdrop of the story 
of Noah. There, too, God told Noah in 
advance that he was about to bring punish-
ment to the world.
So God said to Noah, “I am going to put 
an end to all people, for the earth is filled 
with violence because of them. I am surely 
going to destroy both them and the earth.
” 

Gen. 6:13
Noah did not protest. To the contrary, 
we are told three times that Noah “did as 
God commanded him” (Gen. 6:22; 7:5; 7:9). 
Noah accepted the verdict. Abraham chal-
lenged it. Abraham understood the third 
principle we have been exploring over the 
past few weeks: collective responsibility.
The people of Sodom were not 
Abraham’s brothers and sisters, so he was 
going beyond even what he did in rescuing 
Lot. He prayed on their behalf because he 
understood the idea of human solidarity, 
immortally expressed by John Donne:
No man is an island,
Entire of itself …
Any man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent 
Occasions, Meditation XVII.
But a question remains. Why did God 
call on Abraham to challenge Him? Was 
there anything Abraham knew that God 
didn’t know? That idea is absurd. The 
answer is surely this: Abraham was to 
become the role model and initiator of a 
new faith, one that would not defend the 
human status quo but challenge it.

Abraham had to have the courage to 
challenge God if his descendants were to 
challenge human rulers, as Moses and the 
Prophets did. Jews do not accept the world 
that is. They challenge it in the name of 
the world that ought to be. This is a critical 
turning point in human history: the birth 
of the world’s first religion of protest — the 
emergence of a faith that challenges the 
world instead of accepting it.
Abraham was not a conventional leader. 
He did not rule a nation. There was as yet 
no nation for him to lead. But he was the 
role model of leadership as Judaism under-
stands it. He took responsibility. He acted; 
he didn’t wait for others to act. Of Noah, 
the Torah says, “he walked with God” (Gen. 
6:9). But to Abraham, God says, “Walk 
before Me,
” (Gen. 17:1), meaning: be a lead-
er. Walk ahead. Take personal responsibility. 
Take moral responsibility. Take collective 
responsibility.
Judaism is God’s call to responsibility. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as the 

chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of 

the Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His teachings have 

been made available to all at rabbisacks.org. This 

essay was written in 2018.

SPIRIT

The Depth of Faith
P

arshat Vayera is packed with 
interesting stories that our people 
have been telling for generations. 
One of these, the Akedah, the binding 
of Isaac, I continue to turn over in 
my mind in order to understand. 
This moment is one of the most 
famous in the Torah. It is depicted 
in art that goes back centuries and 
is written about in ancient and 
modern commentary, which brings 
me some comfort to know that 
humans have been wrestling with 
this story for a long time. It’s nice to 
know that I’m not the only one. 
Sarah was 99 and Abraham was 
100 when Isaac was born. They 
longed to have a child together, 
though Abraham has another son, 
Ishmael, with Hagar. Isaac was a miracle 
child and very much wanted. When Isaac 
was in his mid-30s, God tested Abraham, 

commanding him to take Isaac, his miracle 
child, up to Mount Moriah and sacrifice 
him. And Abraham just agreed! In the 
Torah, Abraham didn’t ask why; he just had 
faith in God and went. 
There are many things that stand 
out about this moment, but my 
question has always been: What about 
Sarah? She gave birth to this child and 
she treasured him. Sarah and Abraham 
were serving the same God, but he 
didn’t even run this idea by her. Did he 
know that she would do anything to 
stop him from sacrificing Isaac? 
Every time we hear this part of the 
Torah, I wonder why her voice was 
excluded from the narrative and what 
she would have said. I am so curious 
what this would have looked like if 
Abraham and Sarah had discussed this 
choice together. 
I am also always so taken aback by 

Abraham’s deep faith in God to respond 
in this manner to this test. Abraham just 
seems to know and believe that everything 
is going to be OK, and God is doing the 
exact right thing. I yearn to operate in 
my life with that kind of deep trust and 
belief. Sometimes I am able to tap into 
that and sometimes it’s much harder to 
do. Abraham, though the circumstances 
are quite unique, can serve as an example 
for us that having faith can get us through 
even the most complicated and difficult 
moments.
As we continue to wrestle and engage 
with the text of the Torah, may we know 
that these ancient words, protected by and 
handed down to us from our ancestors, are 
ours to debate, to struggle, to learn and to 
love. 

Rabbi Alicia Harris is rabbi of Congregation Shir 

Tikvah in Troy.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Alicia 
Harris

Parshat 

Vayera: 

Genesis 

18:1-22:24; II 

Kings 4:1-37.

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