there are many books of varying value about abraham and the other genesis stories. particularly i enjoyed reading bruce feiler's abraham: a journey to the heart of three faiths. feiler mentions that one of the things about abraham that is much noticed by jews today is that he argued with the holy one. but it struck me that the reason abraham had the standing to argue, as he famously does when the holy one told him of his plans to destroy the cities of the plain, is that abraham had been faithful in following the holy one's command. indeed again and again the biblical text says that abraham immediately did whatever he had been asked to do. only when he is asked to send ishmael and hagar into the wilderness did he even wait until the next day.
this makes me wonder whether the first thing we, or at least i, might learn from abraham is that in order to become a friend of the holy one, whose voice he might recognize when i say "here am i," is to recognize his voice, and say "yes" to his requests.
