[Avodah] Telling the Truth About Great Men

[SBA]

The following is from RSRH's commentary on Bereishis 12: 10 - 13
After pointing out that the RAMBAN concludes "Our father Avraham
inadvertently committed a grave sin by placing his virtuous wife before a
stumbling block
of iniquity because of his fear of being killed . . . His leaving the Land,
about which he had been commanded, because of the famine was another
sin he committed." Rav Hirsh writes:

The Torah does not seek to portray our great men
as perfectly ideal figures; it deifies no man. It says of no one: Here you
have the ideal; in this man the Divine assumes human form! It does
not set before us the life of any one person as the model from which
we might learn what is good and right, what we must do and what we
must refrain from doing. 
>>

IMVHO, the Malbim's excellent explanation of these events make a lot of
sense even bederech pshat, thus allowing us to revert to the recognition
that Avraham Avinu was indeed an unconditional - perfect - tzaddik.

SBA