God Seeks Responsibility

“In Judaism, God does not command blind obedience: Ein haKadosh Barukh Hu bat biturnya im beriyotav; “God does not deal despotically with His creatures.” (Avoda Zara 3a). If He sought no more than mindless submission to the Divine will, He would have created robots, machines, or genetically programmed people who responded automatically to commands as dogs to Pavlov’s bell. God wants us to be mature, deliberative, to do His will because we understand or because we trust Him when we do not understand. He seeks from us something other and greater than obedience, namely responsibility.”

Covenant and Conversation: Genesis, p. 46