Absolute Faith

The story of Akeidat Yitzchak, is one of the focuses of Rosh Hashanah. Avraham Avinu’s unshakeable faith is demonstrated by his willingness to sacrifice his beloved son.

There are many lessons to be learned from this story. The relevant message is to remind us that our belief in the truth of the Torah and Judaism, makes certain demands of us.

Specifically, there must be the constant realization that we are not meant to understand all that is demanded of us. Avraham was faced with a situation where he was asked to do the most illogical act imaginable. He was to perform human sacrifice on the son that he waited a century for his birth. He was promised that he would be his successor. And now, he’s asked to offer him as a sacrifice!

The amazing response of our great patriarch, is that none of these thoughts were of significance. All he needed to know was that this was the will of G-d. End of story.

There was once a great rabbi who said that he would certainly not believe in a G-d who he could understand. Because the G-d we believe in is so exalted, we cannot be expected to truly understand His ways. But we are expected to follow the example set by Avraham Avinu, to observe every aspect of the Torah, whether it makes sense to us or not.

All we need to know is that Hashem is the G-d of truth, justice, and mercy. He is perfection, and we must believe that all of our difficulties with belief, will be explained one day, and we will be rewarded for our absolute faith.