This chapter deals with the class of problems which includes the trial of Abraham concerning the sacrifice of his son Isaac. Maimonides gives us an explanation for why Abraham had to undergo the trial of sacrificing his son; the explanation is a bit long-winded, but the important thing to know is that the explanation, for Maimonides, is not that God wanted to ‘test’ Abraham; he seems to think this is nonsensical because God already knows everything, so a different explanation must be sought. His explanation is two-fold:

  • Firstly, it confirms the truth of prophecy, because what Abraham was asked to do is the ultimate sacrifice; no one would actually proceed to act on a dream or vision on which he had the slightest doubt.
  • Secondly, it shows us how far we must go to fulfill the Divine commandments and the Divine Law, which have to be followed not for the hope of reward or fear of punishment (Maimonides seems to think that these carrot-and-stick approaches are unlikely to work for someone who is asked to kill his own son …) but because the fear or reverence of God is the whole point of the Law.

This is the way how we have to understand the accounts of trials; we must not think that God desires to examine us and to try us in order to know what He did not know before. Far is this from Him; He is far above that which ignorant and foolish people imagine concerning Him, in the evil of their thoughts. Note this.

Commentary

I’m interested in what word Friedlander seems to have translated as ‘fear’. The Hebrew appears to be ‘וְהַנּוֹרָא֙’ which, according to the dictionaries I can see, is a conjugation of the verb ירא, and whose meanings include something like ‘to stand in awe of’.