GEN843 With ten trials was Abraham our Father proved. Pirkei Avot V:4  “For ten years he was imprisoned: three years in Cutha, and seven in Kardu … Then he was taken and cast into the fiery furnace. But the supreme king of glory stretched forth His right hand [so to speak] and rescued him from the fiery furnace; for Scripture sates [that He later told him] I am the Lord who brought you forth out of ur casdim, the fire of the Chaldees.” [this verse. Ramban to Genesis 11:28 sees in הוצאתיך, “brought you forth,” a connotation of freeing from prison.] Why was he imprisoned? In other sources [Ma’ase Abraham in Beth haMidrash I pp. 25-27; Sefer haYashar, Noah] we find the answer: With all the zeal, passion, and perseverance that a secular world attributes to Socrates, Abraham worked relentlessly to make others share his truth. He could not and would not let his fellow-man continue blindly in future idol worship. We know the Midrash’s story in which he smashed all his father’s idols. According to another account, he set fire to Nimrod’s idols Midrash haGadol, Genesis 11:28. But people fight against a new, disturbing truth. And when one of the key fighters was King Nimrod himself, Abraham found himself in prison soon enough. SINAI3 26-7