Bar Mitzvoth speech given November 3, 2001 at Temple Sholom in Chicago:

The Test

Marcus R. Semmel

My Torah portion, from Genesis Chapter 22, reads, “And God did test Abraham, And he said to Abraham, here I am. And he said take your son, your favored one Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. . .” The Torah states that God did test Abraham, but the nature of the test is not clear.

What first comes to mind is that this is only a test of Abraham’s unquestioned obedience to God, yet I do not believe that this is the true nature of the test. If God knew how we would act in all situations or we all just followed His instructions blindly, we would not have any freedom or responsibility. But God gave us free will, the option to choose right from wrong and with it, the ultimate responsibility for our actions.

So what was the test? One answer could be that by making such a harsh demand on him, God was testing Abraham’s most basic sense of right and wrong. We do not know what Abraham believed to be right. One can only imagine his horror at the prospect of having to kill his favorite son. Very likely he had an even stronger dread of the prospect of disobeying a direct commandment from God. In life, we are often faced with similar ‘no-win’ situations. Quite possibly God was challenging Abraham specifically, and the human race in general, to see how we come to make our own hard decisions and difficult choices.

I believe this was also a test of Abraham’s faith. He could only obey God’s commandment to sacrifice Isaac if he truly believed in God’s love and His omniscience. He had to believe that God loved him and his son, and that God ultimately knew and wanted what was best for them. Abraham had to have faith enough to believe that if he followed God’s instructions to sacrifice Isaac that somehow everything would be all right in the end. Abraham passed the test of faith, and everything did turn out for the best. God did not allow Isaac to be sacrificed and Abraham earned God’s faith.

And finally, could this be a test of Abraham as a father? I think that Abraham should have told Isaac of God’s commandment and trusted and respected Isaac’s opinions. As a parent, Abraham owed it to his son try to save Isaac. As a man, Abraham owed it to his fellow man to not kill an uninformed innocent in expressing his faith, especially not his own son. Since Abraham intended to sacrifice Isaac he owed an explanation to him, which he never gave. The Torah tells us that they traveled for days without speaking so Abraham had ample time to confide in Isaac, bond with him and trust in his son to share in the sacrifice decision. But he did not. So by passing the test of obedience Abraham failed the test of being a good father.

In my own day-to-day life, I am constantly faced with the choice of following the instructions of my parents and teachers or doing as I wish. In the past months I have been instructed to study my torah portion for about one hour each day. Personally, I felt that this was a bit too much. I believed that I could get by with a little less studying. However, I knew my parents had my best interests at heart. I had faith in my parents’ love for me, and complied with their wishes. Today, thanks to my faith, I stand here at the bimah as a Bar Mitzvah, confident in my abilities and grateful to my parents and teachers for their guidance.

The horrific terrorist attacks of recent weeks have brought on a test of faith on all levels, emotional, moral and spiritual. Now is the time when we all need to draw on this lesson from Torah to pass the tests of right and wrong, tests of father and motherhood and the test of faith in God.