A friend recently said to me that she envies people who have faith. It seems so comforting and clear. How nice it would be to have the reassurance that “everything happens for a reason” or “it all will work out.” I didn’t quite agree but I wasn’t exactly sure how to communicate the complexity of Jewish faith.
In the Book of Breisheet, Abraham, our first Jewish ancestor, is given the ultimate challenge – the sacrifice of his son Isaac. This is a traumatizing narrative in the Torah; one that Judaism (and other faiths) has struggled with for generations. How could a loving God ask this price of his chosen first Jew?
I learned many explanations of the Binding of Isaac but none has shifted my understanding as much as the following one.
Rabbi Jonathan Sachs z”l teaches that the challenge for Abraham was not whether or not he would sacrifice his son. Surely he would have. Abraham had just sent away his son Ishmael, he had witnessed the death and destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah. Abraham was not some naive simpleton unaware of God’s wrath.
The real test, according to Rabbi Sachs z”l, was whether Abraham could tolerate the contradiction of God’s commands. In several places in Genesis, God tells Abraham he will be the father of a great nation, that his descendents will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands of the seas. And then in Genesis Chapter 22 Abraham is commanded to kill his only remaining son.
How can both be true? How can Abraham be a father of a great nation if he has no children? What is God’s plan? What is Abraham to make of this contradiction?
And therein lies the crux of Jewish faith: uncertainty is intertwined with belief. We can believe in God and simultaneously be uncertain about how life will unfold.
This explanation rings especially true to me in our modern world. Faith is not some simple, blind trust that everything happens for a reason. It is an acknowledgement of our human limitations.There will be contradictions and injustices. There will be Abraham-like challenges when we can’t see how conflicting truths can exist at the same time.
Jewish faith accepts this uncertainty. In fact, Judaism operates in the real world with its messiness and gray areas, therefore, Jewish faith must allow for uncertainty within our faith.
Just like our Biblical ancestors are imperfect, Noah gets drunk after the flood, Abraham betrays his wife, Moses strikes the rock,
Jewish faith has room for questions, anger, disappointment and even doubt.
We learn this from Abraham and we learn this in our personal lives as well.
Shabbat Shalom & Love,
Rabbi Amy