Our Shemona Esrei, the staple point of prayer, begins with a Tefila called Avos. Avos goes through how Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov each accepted and were accepted by Hashem. The Bracha ends off with ברוך אתה…מגן אברהם.
The Beis Yosef in in the Tur brings down a Midrash from Shivulei Haleket that says that each Brachaof Shemona Esrei is in essence what the angels said when an awe-inspiring event happened in the history of the Jews. For example when Yitzchak was brought as a Korban the Melachim cried out Mechayay Hamasim or when Yosef was taught 70 languages by the Malaach Gavriel, the Melachim cried out חונן הדעת. So what is the story behind מגן אברהם ?
In this weeks Parsha (15:7) G-d proclaims to Avraham “I am Hashem who took you out of Ur Kasdim to give to you this land as an inheritance”. (Rashi 11:28). Many of the Meforshim bring down that אברהם figured out on his own that there was a monotheistic creator and traveled around the world preaching this claim. Nimrod, the leader of the World at the time, wasn’t satisfied with him and threw him into a fire from which he walked out 3 days later, unscathed as Hashem had protected him. At this point the Melachim in heaven screamed out מגן אברהם‘’ – ‘the G-d who protects Avraham ‘ which is what we do too in our Shemonah Esrei to commemorate this incredible miracle.
This is a beautiful Midrash which shows how Avraham was willing to give up his life for G-d even before He showed Himself to Avraham. There is only one question: Why didn’t the Torah tell us about this incident? The Tanach brings so many other cases of people dying Al Kiddush Hashem, why not mention this one? Yes, it is mentioned in Oral Torah , but this looks like one of the focal points of Avrahams life, so why wouldn’t the Torah mention it any other form other than בדרך רמז (hint)? (רשי 11:28)
The Shela asks this question (Sefer Yad Hashela) and gives an incredible answer. We have a Halacha that at certain times (when forced to kill someone, have illicit relations, or commit the sin of idol worship) a Jew must give up his life rather than committing a forced sin upon himself (Please ask your Rav for confirmation). This is called dying אל קידוש ה’ .
The Shela says that this Halacha is true only when a Jew is forced to commit the sin. But, if the Jew brought the issue on himself, it would not be called dying אל קידוש ה’ . He brought it upon himself to be killed and that is not what G-d wanted. Avraham did just that. He went too far trying to convince the world that there was a G-d and he brought it upon himself to be thrown into the furnace. Since Avraham acted against Halacha the Torah couldn’t have written it down because as we know the Torah is a book of laws, not a story book. Therefore the only way we could mention this incredible act of Avraham is in the Oral Torah . The Shela finishes and asks why did Avraham go against Halacha? He answers that it was at a time when the world was so entrenched with idol worship that Avraham needed to go against Halacha to put an end to it. This is fine for Avraham as Hashem obviously agreed with his course of action, but it is not a way of living for us to emulate and thus it is only hinted in our Torah in the two words Ur Kasdim.