Before the world was created, God hid the Torah. Not in a vault, not in a distant heaven — hidden in the fabric of things, waiting for the right person to find it. And then Abraham came. The rabbis said he unlocked it.
The proof text is from Genesis: "Because Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws" (Genesis 26:5). The verse lists everything — charge, commandments, statutes, laws. Rabbi Yonatan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai that Abraham even kept the laws of cooking. How? He had no written Torah. Sinai was centuries away. The rabbis' answer: Abraham studied God through the world. He intuited the commandments the way a gifted reader intuits the author's meaning before they've reached the end of the book.
The light the rabbis were chasing here was the hidden light of the first day — the primordial light created before the sun, immediately concealed for the righteous to find at the end of days (a concept explored in Bereshit Rabbah 11:2 and other midrashim). Torah was that light in textual form. And Abraham, walking in a world before revelation, saw it anyway. This is what makes him the father of faith — not that he followed instructions, but that he found the instructions before they were given, because he was paying attention to the right things.
Chapter 12: Writings [1] A Psalm of David. "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" (Psalm 27:1) The Sages explained that "close are my righteous ones" (Isaiah 50:8) means that if the nations of the world seek to harm Israel, God will come to their aid and the nations will be unable to prevail, just as no one can stand before a judge who is a close relative of his. We are God's relatives, and therefore the nations can harm us only if God permits it. As it is written, "close are my righteous ones" and so forth. Moreover, when a judge calls someone his relative and says that he is close to him, it is the highest praise that person can receive. Therefore, Israel says that they are God's relatives even though they were called "close are my righteous ones" first, because God called us His relatives at the beginning. As it is written, "He has raised up a horn for His people, praise for all His saints, for the children of Israel, a people close to Him" (Psalm 148:14). Therefore, we say "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" because I do not fear any creature when God is with me, and His name is associated with war, as it is written, "The Lord is a man of war" (Exodus 15:3), and in His name Israel prevails. The nations also fear God when we engage in Torah study, as it is written, "All the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the Lord is called upon you, and they will fear you" (Deuteronomy 28:10). David also said to Goliath, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts" (1 Samuel 17:45), and Israel prevailed through God's name. Similarly, Asa called upon the Lord his God and said, "Lord, there is none besides You to help in the battle between the mighty and those who have no strength; so help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude" (2 Chronicles 14:11). Therefore, it is said, "All the peoples of the earth will see and so forth." (Deuteronomy 28:10)
