{"id":37238,"date":"2018-08-08T09:36:03","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T06:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=37238"},"modified":"2022-03-01T12:41:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T10:41:06","slug":"our-task-to-defend-the-best-of-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/our-task-to-defend-the-best-of-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Task: To Defend the Best of Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[418,466,465],"acf":{"old_id":"37238","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37138,"related_cahpter":"20","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Abraham\u2019s cynicism got the best of him","content":"

\u201cI thought: There is no fear of God in this place at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Genesis 20:11)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

As we sift through the news of the day, we put people, neighborhoods, and even entire countries into categories \u2013 good guys, bad guys. \u00a0It\u2019s probably a survival mechanism.<\/span> Over millennia, the Jewish People has developed a heightened ability to recognize cruelty-on-the-rise. \u00a0We are said to be the canary in the coalmine, the conscience for humanity, a \u201cfence for the world.\u201d When we sense something is wrong, it often is. \u00a0But not always. Not every fear is fact. Abraham learns this the hard way. <\/span><\/p>\n

When Abraham and Sarah approach the border to Gerar, a \u201cstrange\u201d territory, where they feel themselves to be \u201cstrangers,\u201d as they had been in Egypt, Abraham presumes he is entering into another Godless place. \u00a0He falls back on the \u201cshe\u2019s-my-sister\u201d gambit, which saved him from Pharaoh. But here he misjudges Abimelech and his entire kingdom. Abraham\u2019s sixth sense was in overdrive. His cynicism got the best of him and did more harm than good.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Abimelech confronts Abraham, asking: \u201cWhy did you do this?\u201d Abraham answers: \u201cI thought: There is no fear of God in this place at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Abimelech\u2019s very name means \u201cMy Father\/God is Ruler.\u201d \u00a0Verses 3, 6 and 7 reveal he is indeed God-fearing and deserving of God\u2019s attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a dangerous world. \u00a0There is corruption, callousness, and crime. \u00a0Yet most people are good. Most people, even under duress, are God-fearing. \u00a0We ought to be on guard, but never cynical.<\/span><\/p>\n

God is training Abraham in the ways of justice. \u00a0Chapter 20 concludes with Abraham praying for Abimelech. \u00a0He recognizes that he alone is responsible for bringing \u201cgreat guilt\u201d upon Abimelech and his kingdom. \u00a0By the time he reaches Sodom, our patriarch is ready to defend its inhabitants, to reinforce the righteous among them. \u00a0Taken together, these chapters come to teach that God is the True Judge, while our task is to defend the best of humanity, to trust there is always good to be found. \u00a0To believe otherwise, it seems, is an affront to God, <\/span>Yotzer HaAdam<\/span><\/em>,<\/span><\/i> Sculptor of Humankind.<\/span><\/p>\n

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