What is the source of our generosity? Why do we act selflessly at times and selfishly at others? How do we deal with competing just causes, or conflicting priorities?
(1) And it came to pass after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him: ‘Abraham’; and he said: ‘Here I am.’ (2) And He said: ‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell you.’
(10) And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. (11) And the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said: ‘Abraham, Abraham.’ And he said: ‘Here I am.’ (12) And he said: ‘Lay not your hand upon the lad, don't do a thing to him; for now I know that you are a God-fearing man, seeing that you did not withhold your son from me.
(18) and it come to pass, when he heard the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying: ‘I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness(confidence) of my heart—that the watered be swept away with the dry’; (19) the LORD will not be willing to pardon him, but then the anger of the LORD and His jealousy shall be kindled against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven;
"I used to think that the most important line in the Bible was “Love your neighbour as yourself”. Then I realised that it is easy to love your neighbour because he or she is usually quite like yourself. What is hard is to love the stranger, one whose colour, culture or creed is different from yours. That is why the command, “Love the stranger because you were once strangers”, resonates so often throughout the Bible. It is summoning us now. A bold act of collective generosity will show that the world, particularly Europe, has learned the lesson of its own dark past and is willing to take a global lead in building a more hopeful future. Wars that cannot be won by weapons can sometimes be won by the sheer power of acts of humanitarian generosity to inspire the young to choose the way of peace instead of holy war."
- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Former Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth