Talking Machshava | 3 | Can Human Reason Know God's Will? Avraham's Answer

Can Human Reason Know God's Will? Avraham's Answer, by Rav Ezra Bick and Rav Eli Weber

Avraham raised the knife with tears in his eyes. What was he still holding on to?

Judaism trusts human reason to discern God's will, even where the Torah is silent. Rav Ezra Bick argues, following the Ramban, that genuine ethics demands understanding, not mere obedience. Avraham embodies this: he fought to save Lot on his own moral conviction, yet at the Akeida he submitted to an explicit divine command. He did so without abandoning his conscience, and so he wept as he obeyed.