GEN1002 [The
Rashba [Shlomo ben Aderet (1235–1310)] attributes the Jewish people’s great love of truth to several reasons, including the inheritance of Torah, a Torah of truth, and the fact that they are descendants of
Yaakov, whose defining characteristic was truth. The
Rashba also alludes more subtly to a third reason – that they are “entirely an offspring of truth.” That is, our entire nation descends from the patriarch
Avraham, who could not be persuaded to worship idols by his father and his entire generation, all of whom were heathens. Rather, he investigated the matter on his own, until he arrived at the truth and his soul became attached to the true God. Thus, the very founding of our nation came about as a result of
Avraham’s tireless search for the true path, and it thus became the defining characteristic of our nation. This explains the
Rashba’s later statement about “a powerful testament to how much the nation of the God of
Avraham loves the path of truth.” Thus, he mentions only the God of
Avraham, and not the God of
Yitzchak and
Yaakov, because
Avraham was the first to bequeath to his children and household the true path, as it is written [this verse]: “because he commands his children and his household after him that they keep the way of
HaShem, doing charity and justice.” EYES 437-8
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