-Why did Avraham dare argue with God, wasn’t he scared?
-Why is G-d questioning himself when he knows what going to happen?
-God could have killed Avram right there and then but Avram still argued with God. WHY?
-Why did God give him so many chances? He sounded very exasperated.
-Why do God and Abraham make an agreement that the city will be saved if 50 good people are there? Why not agree to just save the people themselves?
(22) The men went on from there to Sedom, while Abraham remained standing before the LORD. (23) Abraham came forward and said, “Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? (24) What if there should be fifty innocent within the city; will You then wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent fifty who are in it? (25) Far be it from You to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
Avraham's challenge against Hashem is a ____________ challenge.
"There is no precedent, nothing in the history of civilisation, to prepare us for this remarkable confrontation whose echoes reverberate through Jewish history: the argument with Heaven, against Heaven, for the sake of Heaven, the covenantal dialogue between God and man, the protest against suffering in the name of justice."
(י) וְעַתָּה֙ הַנִּ֣יחָה לִּ֔י וְיִֽחַר־אַפִּ֥י בָהֶ֖ם וַאֲכַלֵּ֑ם וְאֶֽעֱשֶׂ֥ה אוֹתְךָ֖ לְג֥וֹי גָּדֽוֹל׃(יא) וַיְחַ֣ל מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶת־פְּנֵ֖י יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהָ֑יו וַיֹּ֗אמֶר לָמָ֤ה יְהוָה֙ יֶחֱרֶ֤ה אַפְּךָ֙ בְּעַמֶּ֔ךָ אֲשֶׁ֤ר הוֹצֵ֙אתָ֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם בְּכֹ֥חַ גָּד֖וֹל וּבְיָ֥ד חֲזָקָֽה׃
(10) Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation.”(11) But Moses implored the LORD his God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand.
(1) "Now leave me be to make an end of them." Had Moses caught the Holy-One-Blessed be He in his grip that He had to say: "Leave Me Be"?
But to what may this be compared? To a king who became angry with his son and took him to a side room and set about to try and kill him. There he shouted from the room: Leave me alone to kill him!
The boy's tutor who was standing outside, said to himself: Both the king and his son are in a room together inside. Why then does he shout: Leave me alone? The reason must be that the king really wants me to go in and make peace between him and his son. That is why he cries out: Leave me alone!
This shows us that what Hashem wanted Moshe to do is ________ with Him and _____________ B'nei Yisrael.
(17) Now the LORD had said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, (18) since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him? (19) For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is just and right, in order that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what He has promised him.”
But a question remains. Why did God call on Abraham to challenge Him? Was there anything Abraham knew that God didn’t know? The idea is absurd. The answer is surely this: Abraham was to become the role model and initiator of a new faith, one that would not defend the human status quo but challenge it.
Abraham had to have the courage to challenge God if his descendants were to challenge human rulers, as Moses and the Prophets did. Jews do not accept the world that is. They challenge it in the name of the world that ought to be. This is a critical turning point in human history: the birth of the world’s first religion of protest – the emergence of a faith that challenges the world instead of accepting it.
What, though, is the obvious question?
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