Musar zu Daniel 3:15

Thus it happened to Pharaoh, who said (Ex. v. 2), "Who is the Lord?" and Goliath when he spake (I Sam. xvii. 10), "I defy the armies of Israel ; " and Sennacherib for his boastfulness in saying (II Kings xviii. 35), "Who are they among all the gods of the countries "; and Nebuchadnezzar in that he said (Dan. iii. 15), "Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" and others who follow them in the manner of their speech and whose end was complete abasement and utter obscurity. Whosoever is in this state is not secure from error and sin. Thus saith the sage (Prov. xxi. 24), "Proud and haughty scorner is his name." He mentions craftiness, because it is the source of boastfulness.

Whoever has the quality of arrogance ought to try and turn away from it for it is very base, and the damage caused by it is great and ever-present, and the worth that is in it is very little. Therefore, we must distance ourselves from it with all our might, for arrogance brings man to ruin and to humiliation, as it is said: "Pride goes before destruction" (Prov. 16:18), and it is also said: "A man's pride shall bring him low" (Prov. 29:23). And you already know what happened to Pharaoh when he said, "Who is the Lord, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go?" (Exod. 5:2), and to Goliath, the Phillistine, who said: "I do taunt the armies of Israel this day" (I Sam. 17:10), and to Sennacherib, who said, "Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand ?" (Is. 36:20). And Nebeuchadnezzar, when he said, "And who is the god that shall deliver you from my hand?" (Dan. 3:15), and similar instances of those who spoke thusly, and their end was shame and disgrace. And whoever clings to this quality is not saved from sin and wrongdoing, as the Sage said, "A proud and haughty man, scorner is his name. Even he that dealeth in overbearing pride" (Prov. 21:24).

The issue is the following: Since Abraham meant to demonstrate his dedication to G–d when he refused to recognize Nimrod as a deity and allowed himself to be thrown into the furnace, i.e. to die in order to sanctify the name of G–d, he should have been burned. A צדיק does not perform an act of קידוש השם, expecting to be saved by a miracle. On the contrary, his major merit accrues to him when his intention is carried out. This is why the Ten Martyrs at the time of Hadrianus are extolled by us thousands of years later, [see the liturgical poem אלה אזכרה in the Mussaf prayer of the Day of Atonement. Ed.] On the other hand, there is a reason that G–d saved Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah, who submitted to exactly what Abraham submitted to at the hands of Nimrod, and whom G–d saw fit to save (Daniel 3,21); they are not mentioned there by their Jewish names). At that point in the story it was necessary to refute the scoffers and non-believers seeing that Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah had proclaimed their belief in G–d's ability to save them from the fiery furnace, after Nebuchadnezzar had challenged G–d by saying: "Who is the god who can save you?" Had G–d allowed these three men to die, His name would have been desecrated rather than sanctified. Abraham was good, and under normal circumstances he would have been burned, -as he had expected to be; however, the reason G–d saved him was that Isaac had as yet not been born. Since it was part of G–d's plan that Jacob should be born to Isaac, and that Jacob should found the Jewish nation with his twelve sons, and the purpose of מעשה בראשית (seeing that Israel is called ראשית), was for the Jewish people, the descendants of these twelve tribes, to accept the Torah at Mount Sinai, Jacob had to "save" Abraham from that furnace so that G–d's plan should not be frustrated.