“It was after these matters, God tested Abraham and said to him: Abraham, and he said: Here I am” (Genesis 22:1). “He said: Please take your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go you to the land of Moriah, and offer him up there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains that I will tell you” (Genesis 22:2). “It was after these matters, God tested Abraham.” It is written: “You have given those who fear You a banner [nes] to wave [lehitnoses], because of truth [koshet], Selah” (Psalms 60:6) – test [nisayon] after test,1This accounts for the double expression nes lehitnoses.
Abraham, alluded to here as “those who fear You,” was subjected to test after test. elevation after elevation,2Each time Abraham successfully passed one of these tests he became further elevated. in order to test them in [the eyes of] the world, and in order to exalt them in [the eyes of] the world, like an ensign [nes] on a ship. Why to such an extent? It is because of truth [koshet] – so that God’s attribute of justice would be proven true in the world.
If a person says to you: ‘He [God] makes wealthy whom He wishes to make wealthy, he makes poor whom he wishes, and he crowns as king whom he wishes, [all arbitrarily]; when He wished, He crowned Abraham king, when He wished, He made him wealthy,’ you can respond and say to him: ‘Are you able to do what Abraham our patriarch did?’ And when he says: ‘What did he do?’ You tell him: ‘“Abraham was one hundred years old when [his son Isaac] was born to him” (Genesis 21:5), and after all that suffering, it was said to him: “Take now your son, your only one,” yet he did not hesitate.’ That is, “You have given those who fear You a banner to wave.”