God speaks the incredible words to Abraham, “go forth to the land that I will show you”, yet the Torah tells us very little about Abraham, other than his deeds. His few identified attributes—gentle, kind, gracious—don’t generally relate to the founder of a new faith. Rabbi Sacks quotes Lionel Trilling, who observed that courage was never mentioned in rabbinic literature. While the rabbis did in fact speak of courage—gevurah, Judaism has never had heroes like in Greek culture. Read the article