Vayeira

פרשת וירא

The Meshech Chochma on this week’s Parshah brings the Gemorah in Bava Basra Daf ט”ו which says that more is said about Iyov then is said about Avraham Avinu. The Gemorah proves this by virtue of the Torah referring to Avraham as כי ירא אלהים אתה whereas by Iyov it says איש תם וישר ירא אלהים וסור מרע. This Gemorah certainly needs explanation, for Avraham was one of the forefathers and was certainly greater then Iyov!?

The Meshech Chochma resolves this difficulty by explaining that Avraham Avinu required no explanation to perform the will of God whereas Iyov who was not quite as great as Avraham required a certain amount of elucidation in order to carry out the will of God. So it comes out that the Torah is in fact complimenting Avraham by describing his emunah in so few words.

I believe that his holy words require a little further explanation. Iyov did the will of God because after deep contemplation, he came to the conclusion that this is the most productive way to live his life. He obviously did not reach this understanding lightly. So essentially, his Yiras Shamayim was a result of his intense deliberation, and in order to keep God’s will he required intellectual stimuli. Just the knowledge that it is God’s will was not enough for him. Whereas, Avraham Avinu was motivated to serve God solely by a powerful and deep fear of God, and from that fear stemmed all of his actions.

The Malbim on Sefer Iyov explains that one of Iyov’s gripes with God is that this world seems so non-facilitative toward believing in God. He essentially wanted a world in which emunah could be generated solely from his intellect. We see however that Iyov erred in this respect and that a person’s emunah should really stem exclusively from his fear of God.

The passuk in this week’s parshah says in reference to the Heathen king כי אין יראת ה’ במקום הזה – “There is no fear of God in this place”. The Malbim explains that even a person who is a well behaved individual with refined manners and proper etiquette, at the time of great temptation can be easily swayed to do the wrong thing. The only tool which can save a person at a time like this is a fundamental and base fear of God. A person needs to train himself that this should be his only motivation in serving God.

Regarding Avraham Avinu, we see in this week’s parsha to what degree he excelled in this Midah. When God commands Avraham to go and sacrifice his son Yitzchak, Avraham responds to God, “הנני” – I am here. I am willing to listen to all that God asks of me, even though it will be emotionally devastating for me as Yitzchak is my only progeny. Furthermore, intellectually it made no sense as in the previous verses, God already made it clear to Avraham that he planned for Yitzchak to be the one to carry on his lineage.

We find that the commandment to Avraham was not only to sacrifice his only beloved son, but to preserve the love that he had for him and to still do the Mitzvah. The Passuk says “קח נא את בנך את יחידך אשר אהבת” – Take the son that you Love. A normal person in this situation would attempt to emotionally detach themselves from their son before performing such a difficult act. The commandment was to not do this, but to sacrifice him while preserving all of the love of a father to an only son.

The Midrash brings down then when Avraham was about to perform the sacrifice, he was aroused into a powerful cry with flowing tears. Nonetheless he continued with the act with great Simcha to do the will of his creator. It seems from this Midrash that this was the commandment as we explained. To preserve his love for his child, and at the same time, to serve his maker with joy. From here perhaps we can begin to appreciate how dominant Avraham’s desire was to serve his creator.

Another facet of Avraham’s Mitzvah was that he even preformed this seemingly impossible act with enthusiasm. We see this enthusiasm illustrated in three ways. The Torah teaches us that he got up early in the morning to prepare for his journey. Additionally he even saddled his own donkey and chopped his own wood. One could ask, certainly he could have found wood on the way to the mountain where he was going to sacrifice Yitchak, and even if not, he didn’t have to chop it right away. Yet his deep desire to fulfill every aspect of God’s commandment personally and as early as possible motivated him to do this.

There is a Midrash in the Yalkut Shimoni which says that the Jews merited the splitting of the sea through Avraham’s “chopping of the wood”. This Midrash seems bizarre for certainly the actual sacrificing of his son should have generated a greater merit then the “chopping of the wood”. Perhaps we could answer that it was specifically this chopping which portrayed Avraham’s enthusiasm for the Mitzvah more then anything else and spawned the splitting of the sea many years later.

Each and every person has a Mitzvah to ask himself, “When will my actions reach the level of the actions of our forefathers”? The Ramchal in his sefer “Eitz Chayim” says that to perform this mitzvah properly requires actual time set aside during the day to contemplate the actions of our forefathers. In Avraham’s case, we must reach this tremendous level of being able to serve God completely, solely for the sake of serving God.