“Abraham: the first enemy of idolatry. The first
angry young man. The first rebel to rise up against the ‘establishment,’
society and authority. The first to demystify official taboos and suspend ritual
prohibitions. The first to reject civilization in order to form a minority of
one. The first believer, the first one to suffer for his belief. Alone against
the world, he declared himself free. Alone against the world, he braved the fire
and the mob, affirming that God is one and present wherever His name is
invoked; that one is the secret and the beginning of all that exists in heaven
and on earth and that God's secret coincides with that of man.” —Nobel Peace
Prize laureate, Holocaust survivor and human-rights activist Elie Wiesel
(1928-2016), “The Sacrifice of Isaac: A Survivor’s Story,” in Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends (1976)
The image accompanying this post is God Renews His Promises to Abraham (c.
1896-1902), gouache on board, by the French painter James Jacques Joseph Tissot
(French, 1836-1902), at the Jewish Museum, New York.
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