ספר בראשית

‎Genesis 22,12. “for now I know that you are G’d fearing, seeing you ‎have not withheld your only son from Me.” It appears, based ‎on this verse, that there are two types of fear of the Lord. One ‎type is based on a person’s understanding the meaning of the ‎commandment that he performs, i.e. it makes sense to him. The ‎second type of fear of the Lord is shown when he fulfills ‎commandments whose purpose he had not been able to ‎understand. When someone performs commandments without ‎knowing their meaning, his level of fearing G’d is on a higher ‎rung than the person who does so because he believes that he ‎understands the reason why G’d has demanded fulfillment of that ‎commandment, and he “agrees” with G’d. When the latter person ‎observes a commandment, it is not clear that he does so out of ‎love for G’d, as he may be doing so because he feels he is doing ‎himself a favour, as the commandment is logical, and clearly in ‎the interest of mankind as a whole.Before the angel said to ‎Avraham: “do not touch and harm the lad,” people had thought ‎that surely the reason why Avraham set out to do this was ‎because he thought he understood G’d’s reason for issuing such a ‎commandment.After he was now commanded not to proceed, ‎it would be clear to everybody that Avraham had not understood ‎the reason for G’d’s command, as if he had been correct in what ‎he thought, G’d could not have cancelled the command. What ‎had been a valid consideration could not suddenly have become ‎an invalid consideration! Therefore it had emerged retroactively ‎that when Avraham had begun to carry out the commandment ‎to offer Yitzchok as a burnt offering, he had been motivated only ‎by his love for G’d, and how could he possibly refuse the ‎command given by a G’d Whom he loved!? By cancelling His ‎command G’d had demonstrated that there had never been a ‎rationale for such a command. The trial of Avraham had consisted ‎in his performing even a totally irrational command.The only ‎reason for issuing such a command was the desire of G’d to prove ‎that Avraham would not be deterred by the absence of a valid ‎reason for Yitzchok having to die on the altar. All of this is ‎implied in the angel saying: “now I have seen, etc.;” it does not ‎mean that G’d had not known up to now. It means that this was ‎the only way in which G’d had been able to demonstrate to the ‎world what He had known about Avraham’s potential to perform ‎such an act for no other reason than that He loved Gd.