This week’s Torah portion, Vayeira, reflects the complexity of the human condition. Even when tested with a significant moral challenge, we are often inconsistent in our responses, reacting more to the situation and out of the fluidity of our state of mind from moment to moment.
In response to learning of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham challenges God’s decree upon the entire population. While aware that most of its inhabitants are worthy of this punishment, he challenges this collective retribution, even to the extent of declaring with ultimate chutzpah: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justice?”
Later, when asked to sacrifice his only son Isaac as if he were livestock—the only conduit to the fulfillment of God’s covenant of progeny that would come through him—Abraham seems to concede without protest.
While some of this may be attributable to textual variations of different authors, taking the text at its most literal level reveals an abiding truism of our humanity: That we are fallible, limited, and unpredictable beings, aspiring through reason and moral refinement to be more consistent in our attitudes and behavior, thus joining with God in seeking to render more order out of the swirling chaos of a world still in need of repair.