Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on Abraham, ‘The First Angry Young Man’)

“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.