Knowing Hashem in All Your Ways: Avraham's Test

1“Hashem said to Avram, ‘Go for yourself from your land’ …”¹ The holy Ohr HaChaim notices that the verse does not first say “Hashem appeared to him.” This implies that Hashem spoke with Avraham without first revealing Himself to him in a prophetic vision. But why did Hashem do this? Why did He speak to Avraham before appearing to him, when we do not find that He did so with any of the other prophets?

2Rashi explains: “‘Go for yourself’: for your benefit and for your good … and also, so that I may make your nature known in the world.” His words raise three questions. The first is raised in the holy sefarim, in R' Yitzchak Karo's Toldos Yitzchak.² The Midrashim teach that the command “Go for yourself” was one of the ten tests of Avraham Avinu.³ But he was told from the start that the journey was for his own good, so why did it count as a test? The second question: why did Hashem tell him at all that his reward would be great for going to the land of Canaan? Could anyone imagine that this would make him more eager to do Hashem's command? Chazal said, “Do not be like servants who serve the master in order to receive a reward,”⁴ and this applies all the more to Avraham Avinu. Doing Hashem's will for the sake of a reward is a lowly kind of service, and it surely did not befit him. The third question: what does Hashem mean by “I will make your nature known in the world”? Avraham Avinu said of himself, “I am but dust and ashes.”⁵ Did such a man have any need for his name to become famous in the world?

3We must also ask about a verse a little further on: “So Avram went, as Hashem had spoken to him.”⁶ At first glance these words seem unnecessary. The going itself is stated right afterward: “Avram took … and they went forth to go …”⁷ And if the verse means to tell us that he went because Hashem commanded it, we already know that too, from the opening words of the passage: “Hashem said to Avram, ‘Go for yourself from your land.’”

4My holy father and teacher, zt"l, noticed the wording here: “as He had spoken (dibber).” As is well known, dibbur, “speaking,” is a harsh word, unlike the gentle amirah, “saying.” Why, then, would the verse use a harsh word here, after the Holy One, blessed be He, had promised Avraham so much good for this journey? My holy father explained that the promise is itself the reason. Avraham had been promised a reward for this journey, yet he served the Creator solely for the honor of His Name, with no thought of any reward at all. So the verse says “as He had spoken,” to tell us that Avraham Avinu went as though a harsh word, a king's decree, were upon him. He went only because Hashem had commanded him, and not because of the promised reward. Those are his holy words.

5We may explain all this through a well-known saying of Chazal: “Which is a small passage on which all the essentials of the Torah depend? ‘Know Him in all your ways.’”⁸ The Shulchan Aruch teaches the same: in everything a person does, even in physical things like eating, he must intend to act for the honor of Hashem.⁹ In this way he serves the Creator constantly, without a break, and fulfills “Know Him in all your ways.” This avodah is “a difficult service in the Beis HaMikdash,”¹⁰ and it is the passage on which all the essentials of the Torah depend.

6aChazal say of Avraham Avinu: “The coin of Avraham Avinu: an old man and an old woman on one side, and a young man and a maiden on the other side.”¹¹ Tosafos, the medieval commentators on the Gemara, ask how Avraham Avinu could issue a coin bearing an image, when it is forbidden to make an image in relief.¹² Following our approach, we may say that Chazal are hinting here that Avraham Avinu elevated and sanctified all his faculties for the sake of Hashem's Name. As we find in Chazal: “How did Avraham Avinu know to keep the Torah? The Holy One, blessed be He, appointed his two kidneys to be like two sages for him, and they would teach him and advise him.”¹³

6bThis is like the teaching of the holy R' Menachem Mendel of Rimanov, zt"l, on the verse “Avraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.”¹⁴ He asked why the verse needs the words “Avraham stretched out his hand.” He explained that Avraham Avinu had sanctified his limbs so completely that he reached a level where all his limbs did the Creator's will on their own. At the Akeidah, the binding of Yitzchak, Hashem did not truly want Avraham to slaughter Yitzchak. So Avraham's limbs did not reach for the knife of their own accord, and he had to stretch out his hand by force to slaughter him. That is the meaning of “Avraham stretched out his hand”: he had to thrust it out by force.

6cBy way of allusion, we may say that this is what Chazal meant by “the coin (matbea) of Avraham Avinu.” The “coin” is Avraham's nature (teva): the middos, the character traits, that he had stamped (hitbia) into his soul, and his way of serving the Creator. These were like “an old man and an old woman on one side, and a young man and a maiden on the other side.”¹⁵ “A young man and a maiden” hints at the warmth and fiery enthusiasm of youth, the years when the blood boils. “An old man and an old woman” hints at coolness. When these two forces are set right, all of a person's faculties are set right along with them, as explained in Maggid Devarav LeYaakov [by the Maggid of Mezritch].¹⁶ Avraham Avinu united these two root forces and served his Creator with both. In this he taught us, too, that we must unite all the faculties within us and bring them into avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem.

7The general principle is this: Avraham Avinu's way was to bring all his faculties, all his middos and all his ways into holiness and into avodas Hashem. My holy father's explanation of the verse “So Avraham went, as Hashem had spoken to him”¹⁷ fits with this. Even where the journey served Avraham's own needs and benefit, he went only because of Hashem's command, “as Hashem had spoken to him.” That is the meaning of Rashi's words “for your benefit and for your good.” We asked: since the Holy One, blessed be He, told Avraham the journey was for his good, why did it count as a test? The answer is that this itself was the test: the mitzvah was given to him for his benefit, yet he went only because Hashem had commanded it. For Avraham Avinu served the Creator in everything. Even in things that were for his own benefit, he brought everything into holiness, with no thought at all of his own pleasure.

8This also answers the question we began with: why did Hashem not appear to Avraham before speaking with him? When a person reaches the level of serving Hashem “in all your ways,” he finds Hashem in everything, for, as the Tikkunei Zohar says, “there is no place empty of Him.”¹⁸ He sees and feels Hashem in every single corner. For such a person, Hashem no longer needs to reveal Himself first, as in “Hashem appeared”; it can be “Hashem said” at once.

9aThere is a lesson in this for our own generation. On one hand, we do have warmth in serving the Creator: thank God, people learn Torah and serve Hashem. On the other hand, we can plainly see that the vitality in doing mitzvos and the diligence in learning that earlier generations had are missing in ours. The reason is that we do not work enough on “Know Him in all your ways.” We do not strive and exert ourselves as we should to reach even a small part of this service.

9bThis is exactly what Avraham Avinu commanded us. The Torah says that he would “command his children and his household after him,”¹⁹ and with this he charged all the generations to come “that they keep the way of Hashem, doing righteousness and justice.” In all our ways and wherever we turn, we should act by the ways of the Torah, as the law and decree of Hashem's wisdom require, and bring everything into holiness. That is what “keep the way of Hashem” means: all our avodah should be of this kind, so that everything is “the way of Hashem” and we know Hashem in all our ways. Our generation needs this very much. We must make an effort so that our children see us serving Hashem even while we do physical things or do business, conducting ourselves by the way of the Torah and the ways of our fathers. This has a great influence on our children and leads them to walk on the straight path.

10This is what Rashi meant by “so that I may make your nature known in the world.” We asked: did Avraham Avinu need to be famous? Rather, Hashem meant that Avraham Avinu's nature and middos in avodas Hashem should become known among the people of the world and take root in them. It is the same “coin of Avraham Avinu” we saw earlier, the nature he stamped into his soul: he brought all his faculties into holiness, which is “Know Him in all your ways.” And that is what “so that I may make your nature known in the world” means.

11May Hashem help us to serve Him as we should, so that wherever we turn and whatever we do is “the way of Hashem.” Through this may great abundance flow to us and to our children, and may we be privileged to see the coming of King Moshiach. Amen.