"עשרה נסיונות נתנסה אברהם אבינו עליו השלום ועמד בכולם" – Avraham Avinu was tested with ten tests, and he withstood them all (Avot 5:3).

The Rishonim disagree about what the tenth test of Avraham Avinu was. Rashi (on the Mishna there) holds that it was the Akeda, while Rabbeinu Yona holds that it was the test of burying Sarah. At first glance, Rabbeinu Yona's view is puzzling. After Avraham withstood the great test of the Akeda, was there any need to test him further? Is the test of burying Sarah harder than the test of the Akeda? Let us suggest two answers to this question.

1. Moving Forward

The Gemara in Bava Batra (60a) relates how the perushim (ascetics) conducted themselves after the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash:

כשחרב הבית בשניה, רבו פרושין בישראל שלא לאכול בשר ושלא לשתות יין. נטפל להן ר' יהושע, אמר להן: בני, מפני מה אי אתם אוכלין בשר ואין אתם שותין יין? אמרו לו: נאכל בשר שממנו מקריבין על גבי מזבח, ועכשיו בטל? נשתה יין שמנסכין על גבי המזבח, ועכשיו בטל? אמר להם: א"כ, לחם לא נאכל, שכבר בטלו מנחות! אפשר בפירות. פירות לא נאכל, שכבר בטלו בכורים! אפשר בפירות אחרים. מים לא נשתה, שכבר בטל ניסוך המים! שתקו. אמר להן: בני, בואו ואומר לכם: שלא להתאבל כל עיקר אי אפשר - שכבר נגזרה גזרה, ולהתאבל יותר מדאי אי אפשר - שאין גוזרין גזירה על הצבור אא"כ רוב צבור יכולין לעמוד בה, אלא כך אמרו חכמים: סד אדם את ביתו בסיד, ומשייר בו דבר מועט. שנאמר: אם אשכחך ירושלים תשכח ימיני תדבק לשוני לחכי.

– When the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed the second time, perushim multiplied in Israel who would not eat meat or drink wine. Rabbi Yehoshua joined them and said to them: My sons, why do you not eat meat or drink wine? They said to him: Shall we eat meat, which was offered on the mizbe'ach, now that this has ceased? Shall we drink wine, which was poured as a libation on the mizbe'ach, now that this has ceased? He said to them: If so, let us not eat bread, for the menachot have ceased! – We can manage with fruit. – Let us not eat fruit, for the bikkurim have ceased! – We can manage with other fruits. – Let us not drink water, for the water libation has ceased! They were silent. He said to them: My sons, come and I will tell you. Not to mourn at all is impossible, for the decree has already been issued. To mourn excessively is also impossible, for a decree may not be imposed on the community unless most of the community can withstand it. Rather, this is what the Sages said: A person plasters his house with plaster but leaves a small part bare, as it is said: "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill; let my tongue cleave to my palate."

Those perushim were lamenting the past. They sank into mourning and sadness to the point that the memory of the destruction left them unwilling to eat or drink. Rabbi Yehoshua taught them that one's gaze must be turned toward the future. Memory is indeed supremely important, but it must not cause a person to stop and sink into the past; it must not lead him into endless sadness that leaves him unable to act. However enormous the difficulty of the crisis, it cannot be allowed to bring the future to a halt.

The Gemara in Moed Katan (27a) records the prohibition against a mourner weeping for the dead excessively:

אל תבכו למת - יותר מדאי ואל תנדו לו - יותר מכשיעור. הא כיצד? שלשה ימים - לבכי, ושבעה - להספד, ושלשים - לגיהוץ ולתספורת. מכאן ואילך - אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא: אי אתם רחמנים בו יותר ממני.. כל המתקשה על המת יותר מדי על מת אחר הוא בוכה.

– "Do not weep for the dead" – excessively; "nor bemoan him" – beyond the measure. How so? Three days for weeping, seven for eulogizing, and thirty for pressed clothing and haircutting. From then on, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says: You are not more compassionate toward him than I am... Whoever grieves for the dead excessively will be weeping for another dead person.

Perhaps the reason underlying this halacha is the Sages' wish that, for all the difficulty, a person should keep moving forward while remembering the past.

Perhaps this is how we can explain the test of burying Sarah. Avraham, "זקן בא בימים" – old, advanced in days, suffered a trauma when he lost his wife, with whom he had traveled the whole journey of his life – from crises and tests to the great successes of "הנפש אשר עשו בחרן" – the souls they had made in Charan. Now, right after the Akeda, his wife passed away so suddenly. Had we been told that Avraham spent the rest of his days in sadness, wallowing in memories, we would not have been surprised. Avraham would seem to have had every reason in the world to sit and pity himself. Yet the Torah testifies that despite the sadness and the mourning, Avraham was determined to keep acting: "ויקם אברהם מעל פני מתו" – Avraham rose up from beside his dead. From this moment on, Avraham is caught up in a fever of activity. He works toward two goals: to buy a burial plot for Sarah, and then to find a wife for his son.

In the pasuk "ויבא אברהם לספד לשרה ולבכתה" – Avraham came to eulogize Sarah and to weep for her, the word livkotah (to weep for her) is written with a small kaf, and our Rabbis (the Baal HaTurim) say that Avraham wept only a little for Sarah. At first glance this is puzzling: how could Avraham not have wept much over the passing of his beloved wife? Perhaps our Rabbis are hinting to us that although Avraham felt the pain of Sarah's passing, he understood that he still had to complete his life's missions – national missions for the sake of his descendants. Avraham still has no portion in the Land, he has not yet married off Yitzchak, and he has not yet seen to the continuation of the line. Avraham knows that he still has to secure the offspring and the Land he was promised.

2. A Great Person Is Recognized by Small Deeds

A second answer we can give to why this test was needed after the test of the Akeda is as follows. Avraham did indeed withstand a great test and was ready to offer up his only son, but that act was done with preparation: "וישכם אברהם בבקר" – Avraham rose early in the morning. It was a moment of spiritual elevation, yet it still does not prove Avraham's greatness. A person's greatness shows only in small, everyday deeds, and through these small deeds a person proves that his great deeds, too, flow from a source of greatness. The test of the Akeda is indeed the greatest of them all, but for that test Avraham made great preparations.

It is specifically the test of burying Sarah – when Avraham had to buy a place for Sarah and did not question Hashem – that proves that Avraham's great deeds, too, flow from a source of greatness. With this, all ten tests were complete.

The Gemara in Avoda Zara (18a) relates the exchange between two great Tannaim, Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon and Rabbi Yosei ben Kisma:

תנו רבנן: כשחלה רבי יוסי בן קיסמא, הלך רבי חנינא בן תרדיון לבקרו. אמר לו: חנינא אחי, אי אתה יודע שאומה זו מן השמים המליכוה? שהחריבה את ביתו ושרפה את היכלו, והרגה את חסידיו ואבדה את טוביו, ועדיין היא קיימת, ואני שמעתי עליך שאתה יושב ועוסק בתורה [ומקהיל קהלות ברבים] וספר מונח לך בחיקך! אמר לו: מן השמים ירחמו. א"ל אני אומר לך דברים של טעם, ואתה אומר לי מן השמים ירחמו, תמה אני אם לא ישרפו אותך ואת ספר תורה באש! א"ל רבי מה אני לחיי העולם הבא? אמר לו: כלום מעשה בא לידך? אמר לו: מעות של פורים נתחלפו לי במעות של צדקה וחלקתים לעניים א"ל אם כן, מחלקך יהי חלקי ומגורלך יהי גורלי.

– The Sages taught: When Rabbi Yosei ben Kisma fell ill, Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon went to visit him. He said to him: Chanina, my brother, do you not know that this nation was given its kingship by Heaven? It destroyed His House, burned His Sanctuary, killed His pious ones and wiped out His finest – and still it endures. Yet I have heard that you sit and engage in Torah [and gather assemblies in public], with a scroll lying in your lap! He said to him: Heaven will have mercy. He said to him: I am speaking sense to you, and you say to me, "Heaven will have mercy"? I will be surprised if they do not burn you and the Sefer Torah with fire! He said to him: My master, what is my lot in the World to Come? He said to him: Has any deed come your way? He said to him: My Purim money got mixed up with my tzedaka money, and I distributed it all to the poor. He said to him: If so, may my portion be of your portion, and my lot of your lot.

This is puzzling. Rabbi Chanina, one of the greatest Tannaim, who spread Torah in public in defiance of the Roman decrees, earns the World to Come through tzedaka he gave generously? Will the merit of his mesirut nefesh (self-sacrifice) for spreading Torah not stand him in good stead? The answer is that this was indeed a great thing, but it is human nature that at special moments a person finds within himself extraordinary strengths. They let him rise above ordinary reality and do great things, so such deeds cannot testify to the greatness of the one who does them. This is the meaning of the question "כלום מעשה בא לידך" – Has any deed come your way?: a small deed, a simple everyday practice, and still you stood firm in it. That is where a person is tested.

One of the most wondrous pesukim in the Akeda is "וישב אברהם אל נעריו ויקומו וילכו יחדיו אל באר שבע" – Avraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Be'er Sheva. Precisely after Avraham was ready to offer up his son and reached the highest level – perhaps the greatest act ever done by a human being – he returns to his young men and walks together with them, as one of the people, with no sense of pride or superiority. This is tremendous greatness. It shows that Avraham is great not only in the great act of a moment but in how he conducts himself in everyday life. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch sums it up this way:

בכל שאר חוגי אנשים היו נוהגים אחרת. אחרי התעלות כזאת אל קרבת ה', אחרי התרוממות כזאת מעל לכל תחום ארצי, הרי אנשים כאברהם ויצחק היו מתמלאים עד כדי כך מחשיבות עצמם והענין האלהי, ששוב לא היה להם כל ענין בחיים הארציים הרגילים ובבני אדם ארציים רגילים. קירבה כזאת לה' - אף אם רק מדומה היא - מולידה בדרך כלל בכל מקום מידה של התנשאות, המביטה בגאווה אל שפל מדרגתם של שאר בני אדם כ"בני חלוף מבשר ודם", ונמנעת מלבוא אתם במגע. שונה בתכלית היא הרוח אשר מעשה המופת של אברהם ויצחק ינחילנה לדורות. לאחר שזה עתה השלימו את העליון שבמעשי אדם עלי אדמות, - הנה שבים הם אל האנשים אשר השאירום לרגלי הר המוריה, והולכים עמם יחדיו, ואין מעלתם גבוהה בעיניהם בשום דבר ממעלתם של האחרים. בעיני בן - אברהם נחשבים כל בני האדם שווים במשלוחי ידם, ואין הוא עושה הבדלה בין עצמו ובין חוטבי עצים או משרתים נמוכי דרגה. ככל שהוא מתעלה עילוי רוחני ומוסרי, כן ימעט להתנשא על אחרים, וכן ימעט להכיר את גדולת עצמו. בדין חוככים חכמינו ז"ל בדעתם, איזו היא המידה הגדולה מכל המידות, אם "חסידות גדולה מכולן" או אם "ענוה גדולה מכולן" הרי ענוה היא המידה היחידה שאדם יכול להתנהג בה רק שלא מדעת. משיודע אדם שהוא ענו - הרי בעצם ידיעה זו שוב אין הוא ענו, כי אם מלא מידת התנשאות גרועה ביותר. תמיד יאמר בלבו שאכן הגאווה זכות היא לו, ולו רק שמינית שבשמינית! ואילו אברהם ויצחק שבו מפיסגת הר המוריה - כאילו לא פעלו דבר: וישב אברהם אל נעריו ויקמו וילכו יחדו.

– In any other circle of people, they would have behaved differently. After such an ascent to closeness to Hashem, after being raised so far above every earthly realm, people like Avraham and Yitzchak would have been so filled with their own importance and with the Divine that they would no longer have had any interest in ordinary earthly life or in ordinary earthly people. Such closeness to Hashem – even if it is only imagined – generally breeds, everywhere, a measure of haughtiness that looks down with pride on the lowly level of other people as "passing mortals of flesh and blood," and avoids coming into contact with them. Utterly different is the spirit that the exemplary deed of Avraham and Yitzchak will bequeath to the generations. Having just completed the loftiest deed a person can do on earth, they return to the people they had left at the foot of Mount Moriah and walk together with them, and in their own eyes their standing is in no way higher than that of the others. In the eyes of a son of Avraham, all people are equal in their work, and he makes no distinction between himself and the hewers of wood or servants of low rank. The more he rises spiritually and morally, the less he will raise himself above others, and the less he will be aware of his own greatness. With good reason Chazal hesitate over which is the greatest of all the middot (character traits), whether "piety is the greatest of them all" or "humility is the greatest of them all." For humility is the only middah a person can practise only unknowingly. Once a person knows that he is humble, by that very knowledge he is no longer humble, but full of the worst kind of haughtiness. He will always tell himself that pride is indeed his right, if only an eighth of an eighth! Avraham and Yitzchak, by contrast, return from the summit of Mount Moriah as if they had done nothing: "Avraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together."

May we sanctify every moment of our lives, as Avraham Avinu did.

Do you have a comment or question on the shiur?
Comment below and we'll join the discussion