A Nation with a Mission: The Clash Between Nimrod and Abraham

Nimrod, ruling over the land between the rivers, had placed Abraham in prison. But Abraham could not recant. The moment the abstract understanding dawned upon him that there is one power behind everything, it was irreversible. That was the point of no return for Abraham and for all of humanity. One power lies behind all things in the world. Even if they are far apart, seem strange, or contradictory, they all have purpose and meaning, parts of one plan, aiming for goodness for us.

Goodness? the listeners scoffed, where is the good in this world? Only swords devour from right and left, wars, diseases, pandemics, natural disasters.

All this is the fruit of sin, Abraham replied. It is clear to me as daylight: the one plan of the world's Creator is for our good. We spoiled the world, the ground was cursed because of us. If we mend our ways and be good one to another, the world will return to being a paradise.

"Good to each other?" the listeners scoffed again, well, cross into the land of Lagash, try being "good" to the border guards, and they will throw you to the dogs. One cannot be good to each other, everyone looks after themselves.

The day will come, young Abraham replied, when all people in the world will wish to be good to each other, as per the will of the one God. They will heed His voice, believe in Him, and the entire world will look like paradise. A person will be able to travel to a foreign land, and no one will want to kill him to take his bundle. He will traverse the land to see its trees and rivers, its mountains and valleys, and return home joyful and happy-hearted.

"Even if all people are good, as you imagine," they replied to him, "the gods will not be silent. In every land, there is a god that rules it, and he will want to be honored, and sacrifices to be made to him."

There is no true power to any god, replied Abraham. They all act only by the power of the one God. If the prince of the sea has flooded the land, it is because the one God allows him to do so, because people are not walking the path for which He created the world. I can smash all the idols of Haran, and nothing will happen to me, because I come in the name of a God greater than them, in the name of the one God who created the whole world.

Some of the listeners scoffed, some twirled a finger by their temple, but at that moment a new kind of human was born: the person who recognizes the unity of the universe. Just as there is a difference between an animal and man in abstract understanding, so is there a difference between a mere human being, capable of forming abstract patterns, and the person who sees the unity in the whole world. The first person to reach this level was Abraham. "Who raised up the righteous from the east," said the prophet Isaiah. This global justice came from this new creature, created somewhere on the outskirts of the east. The ability to see unity and aspire for unity, the unity of humanity and the unity of creation as a whole. Until that moment, the world was cyclical, no one imagined that the world could advance in any direction. Once humanity discovered unity, they understood that the world is advancing towards the revelation of this unity. No moral or scientific progress could occur without this revelation.

Through all the troubles and hardships of the world, a person also experiences beauty and goodness. Nature is beautiful, moments of closeness and kindness hold endless beauty within them. If one sees the unity behind them, they understand that all of life could appear this way. All the beauty and goodness have something connecting them – the wisdom of the Creator, and thus an ultimate goal for humanity. There is a purpose to strive towards, uniting all that is good and beautiful in the world. To delight in Hashem.

Even before Abraham, there were ancestors of the world who believed in the one God: Shem and Ever, who lived even after the time of Abraham. But they did not succeed in shattering idolatry. They held onto the tradition they had received from their ancestors, stretching all the way back to Adam. Abraham understood these things by himself and thus conveyed them forward. He shattered the pagan mindset. He did not rely on tradition, for the idolaters also had their "tradition" from their ancestors. He shattered the idols inherently; he simply saw the Creator within reality.

Nimrod smirked beneath his mustache at the young Hebrew boy who thought he was wise. "Perhaps he is wise – but I am the king," he said, and ordered Abraham to be burned in the fiery furnace. And then, Abraham discovered not only that the Creator of the world indeed exists, He also chose him, Abraham, to lead him out of Ur of the Chaldees. This is not his destiny: not to be here, and certainly not to be burned here. Hashem rescued Abraham from the fiery furnace and later revealed Himself to him. There are different opinions among the sages about when Hashem revealed Himself to him, but it is clear that it was after Abraham had already come to this understanding himself, that reality proves there is one power behind it, a power that is necessarily infinite wisdom and goodness, and following it is the world's salvation. And that infinite power revealed itself to him, commanding him to go to the land of Canaan, to which he arrived as a prophet of God, and Hashem named him: "The God of Abraham." By this name, the Creator of the world has become known and revealed from then until now, four thousand years later: "The God of Abraham," admired by five billion of the world's inhabitants today.