From Avraham to Avinu 

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah (www.bircas.org)

Parshas Lech Lecha begins with one hard test after another. Hashem tells Avraham to leave his land, his family, and his father’s house, and to go “to the land that I will show you” (Bereishis 12:1). He arrives in Eretz Yisrael, and immediately there is a famine. Because of the famine he must go down to Mitzrayim, and there Pharaoh’s men take his wife Sarah away from him. Yet Avraham passes every test.

The Mishnah in Avos (5:3) says that Hashem gave Avraham Avinu ten tests, and that passing them showed how much he loved HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Later in the parsha, Hashem says to Avraham, “Walk before Me and be complete” (Bereishis 17:1). Rashi explains what Hashem meant: once you pass all ten tests, you will be complete. Until then, you will not be.

This is hard to understand. Avraham Avinu was the first person to make Hashem known in the world. Everyone around him worshipped idols, yet he stood up against all of them, even against his own father, and broke the idols. He came to believe in Hashem on his own, with nobody to teach him, and then he taught emunah (faith) to the whole world. Why wasn’t that enough? What could tests add to a man like that?

The question is not only about Avraham; it is about us too. The Mesillas Yesharim writes in his first chapter that a person is put into this world to do mitzvos, to serve Hashem, and to pass tests. That means a person can keep every mitzvah, even the hard ones, and still not have accomplished what he was put here to do. Why are tests, even the much smaller ones we face, so important?

The Ramban (Bereishis 22:1) answers that a test brings out abilities a person already has, but has never used. Every person has hidden inner strengths. As long as life is easy, he never needs them, so they stay hidden. Then a test comes, and he has no choice but to use them. Hashem does not test a person to find out what he can do. Hashem already knows. He tests him so that these hidden strengths will finally show themselves in real life.

Let me give an example. I have a relative whose son was born with a severe disability. At first he did not know what to do. Then he decided, “I have to open a special institution for children like this,” and he built one. He never knew he had that ability in him. The test brought it out.

According to the Ramban, once a hidden strength has been brought out in this way, the person gains in two ways. First, the strength is now active, and he can keep using it to accomplish things he could never have done before, just as my relative’s institution now serves many children with the same needs. Second, he earns far greater reward. This world is a world of action, and good that is actually carried out is worth much more than good that remains only potential.

The Ruach Chaim (Avos 5:3) adds another point. When a test is really hard, and a person has to fight and give things up in order to pass it, the thing he is fighting for stops being something he does and becomes something he is. Before the test, his emunah, a certain middah (character trait), or a certain mitzvah may have been only external. After he has struggled for it, it becomes part of his nature, and something that is part of a person’s nature can be handed down to his children.

The Ruach Chaim proves this from the wording of the Mishnayos in Avos. The previous Mishnah in the same perek (Avos 5:2), which does not speak about tests, mentions him simply as “Avraham.” But in our Mishnah, which speaks about his ten tests, he is suddenly called “Avraham Avinu,” Avraham our father. Why there? Because the tests made Avraham’s strengths part of his nature, and that is what allows him to pass these spiritual strengths down to his children. He showed mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) when he was thrown into the furnace of Ur Kasdim, and because of that, his children find it easier to make sacrifices for Hashem, even to give up their lives when they must. He left everything behind to go to Eretz Yisrael, and because of that, Jews still long to come to Eretz Yisrael, even though it is easier to live outside it. When he found a famine in the land, he accepted what Hashem did without a question, and because of that, we too can accept what happens to us even when we do not understand it. All of this is our inheritance from Avraham Avinu.

The same is true for each of us in our own lives. Let’s say a person doesn’t have much money, but he pushes himself to keep learning. The Torah becomes part of him, and later on his children will find it easier to learn. Or let’s say a person goes through a hard test in emunah, holds on, and comes through it. That emunah is now truly his, and it will pass down to his children much more easily.

Rav Yitzchak Zev says something very similar, based on the Midrash Tanchuma in our parsha. Hashem said to Avraham, “You have already served Me and made My Name known. But if you will be like a wall, I can build Klal Yisrael on you. If you will be like a door, I cannot.” A wall stands firm; a door swings open and shut and is often removed. If a person’s emunah is like a wall, he will not budge even if they throw him into a furnace, and his emunah is solid enough to build a whole nation on. If his emunah is like a door, firm at some times and giving way at others, nothing can be built on it. Avraham’s emunah was a wall, and that is why he became Avraham Avinu.

Rav Yerucham Bordiansky gives another reason why Avraham is called “Avinu.” He did not only hand down the strength to pass tests; he also showed us how to pass them: with complete emunah and bitachon (trust in Hashem), and without asking questions. When he reached the land Hashem had sent him to and found a famine there, Rashi (Bereishis 12:10) points out that he did not ask why. He simply went down to Mitzrayim. When Sarah died, the Gemara (Bava Basra 15b) says that he had to search for a place to bury her and pay a fortune for it, in the very land that Hashem had promised him. He did not ask, “Isn’t this land supposed to be mine?” Also before the Akeidah, Hashem had already promised him that Yitzchak would be called his offspring (Bereishis 21:12). Now Hashem was telling him to bring Yitzchak as an offering. He did not ask how both things could be true. Hashem told me, he said to himself, and Hashem will make it work.

Every day in the siddur we say about Avraham, “You found his heart faithful before You.” After all the tests, what Hashem found in Avraham was a faithful heart, full of emunah and bitachon, and that is the key to passing tests.

We can do the same with our own tests. When something hard happens, the first step is to remember that it comes from Hashem, and that Hashem is with us. Look back at all the kindness He has done for you until now. The same Hashem is the One giving you this test. Maybe something good will come from it, and one day you will see it. Maybe this test will make you more complete in your avodas Hashem (service of Hashem), like Avraham Avinu. But you do not need to know the reason. It is enough to know that Hashem is with you, and that He will give you the strength to go through it.

Rav Zilberstein tells a story about a religious Jew who worked in the Haifa port for many years. One day the manager called him in and said, “Our financial situation is not good. You have to work on Shabbos. If you don’t, I’m going to fire you.” This was his parnassah (livelihood). He ran to the Zvhiler Rebbe, Reb Zusha, and asked what to do.

The Rebbe asked him very simply, “There are billions of people in the world. Do you believe that Hashem gives parnassah to all of them?” “Yes,” the man said. “Are they all working in the Haifa port?” “No.” “So the Hashem who gives parnassah to everybody can give it to you too. Tell your boss you can’t work on Shabbos, because Hashem doesn’t allow it. And if he fires you, the Hashem who took care of you until now will take care of you later too.”

The man thought it over, and the Rebbe’s words really struck home. He went back with strong emunah and told the manager, “I can’t work on Shabbos. If this means you fire me, then fire me. I don’t care; I’ll find other work.” The manager was surprised. “What happened to you today?” “I went to the Rebbe,” the man said, “and he strengthened my emunah. Hashem is with me. Hashem gives me parnassah.” The manager was so moved that he said, “Fine. Everybody else works on Shabbos, but you don’t have to.”

Rav Zilberstein asks: Did the Rebbe tell him anything new? Of course the man knew that Hashem gives parnassah. But he needed someone to give him a little push, and with that push he was able to withstand the test.

In our tests sometimes all that we need is a little push: perhaps learning Sifrei Mussar to deepen our emunah in Hashem, speaking over the problem with a Rav or a friend or sitting quietly and thinking it through.

May we be zocheh to strengthen our emunah, and to grow from all our tests.