Vayera 2019

Outspokenness and Obedience

In this week's Torah portion, Vayerah, God tells Abraham that he is going to destroy the city of Sodom.  Abraham's response is, "Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?  Perhaps there are 50 righteous people in the city...far be it from You, to kill the righteous with the wicked...will the judge of the entire world not do justly (Genesis 18:24)?"  God agrees with Abraham, though after bargaining God down to 10 righteous people it turns out there aren't that many.  Latter in the portion God tells Abraham "Take Isaac your son, whom you love, and bring him as an offering on the mountain which I will show you (Genesis 22:2).” Abraham does not reply to God but gets up early the next morning to do God's bidding.  (In the end Isaac is not killed, and so we are all here).  The question we must ask is:  What is the Torah teaching us?  Why in one place does Abraham plead with God for the lives of the Sodomites and yet say nothing when God tells him to sacrifice his son Isaac (Isaac was 37 years old at the time)? 

Perhaps there is a time to stand up, even to take God to task ("Will the judge of all the world not do justly?"), and a time to be a humble servant.  Perhaps they are both sides of the same coin of who Abraham was and what we must learn from him.  When do you think we should stand up (even to God) and when do you think we should be obedient humble servants?