This week’s Torah portion culminates the ten tests of Abraham with the Binding of Isaac. God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and Abraham stood ready to complete the task. This was the fulfillment of Abraham’s highest, holiest potential and thus his last and final test. We read about the binding of Isaac every day in our prayers and it also plays a central role in the prayers of Rosh Hashanah and as we blow the shofar.

The Torah portion also includes events marked with baseness and debauchery. After Lot and his daughters flee from the city of Sodom, his daughters believe that the world has been destroyed and thus devise a plan to repopulate the world through their father. What does the spiritual low of Lot have to do with the spiritual high of Abraham?

Lesson:

God, out of His abundant kindness allows us to be co-creators in our own reality. He gives us the ability to choose -- to either fulfill our spiritual potential, or to move in the opposite direction towards evil and destruction.

When the shepherds of Lot and Abraham were arguing over muzzling their animals in other people’s property, Abraham told Lot that it’s not good for family to quarrel. As such, Lot should choose where he wanted to go, and Abraham would go the other way. At this point, Lot had a choice: he could have said that Abraham is correct and told his shepherds to muzzle their animals; he could have told Abraham that he does not want to leave his tutelage, that Abraham is the key to greatness. He could have also settled in a place where the people were moral and protect his family from negative influences. However, Lot chose ‘greener pastures’ over greatness. He chose to settle in the land of Sodom that was known for its extreme wickedness and immorality because it had luscious land for his pastures. It was the very choice of being in Sodom that led to the debase situation with his daughters.

Abraham also had choices to make; his spiritual compass lead him to very different decisions. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, it went against every fiber of who he was. Abraham was the epitome of kindness, the last thing he wanted to do was to sacrifice his son whom he had waited a hundred years for! Additionally, God told Abraham that He would fulfill His promise of making a great nation through Isaac. It would seem impossible to fulfill this promise if Abraham sacrificed him. Moreover, Abraham was telling the entire world about God – about one God and His love and compassion for every creation – that God did not require or even want human sacrifices, which was the idolatry of that time.

Asking Abraham to sacrifice his own child went against everything Abraham knew and taught and believed to be true about God. Yet Abraham didn’t question God. He completely subjugated his will to God’s will and made decisions based on that knowledge. This is what led to Abraham’s greatness – through aligning his will to God’s will and making decisions in his life based on that awareness. This is what brought out Abraham’s potential and created Abraham, the forefather of the Jewish nation.

Often times throughout the day, we are faced with choices. Do we make decisions like Lot – caving into our lower selves and moving away from what we know is right, or do we choose that which we know God really wants from us at that moment, no matter how hard it is?

When we keep the awareness of ‘what does God want from me in this moment’ and make decisions based on that, then we emulate Abraham, pass our tests, and activate our highest spiritual potential.

Exercise: When faced with a choice throughout the day, think of what God would want from you and choose based on that. Know that you’ve fulfilled more of your potential.