Parshat Vayeira offers unique insight into the development of a personal, intimate relationship between Hashem and the Jewish people. Before the destruction of Sodom and Amorah, Hashem invites Avraham to engage in a dialogue, teaching him to ask questions as a means of searching for justice and truth.

As the dean of Yeshiva College and Stern College at Yeshiva University, I view this episode as a foundation of our mandate to provide a broad education to our young people. This education does not only aid in their social and economic mobility. It also opens their minds, fosters their growth as responsible community members and citizens, and allows them to achieve their potential in understanding Hashem and His world.

Avraham’s role as a discoverer and an educator is shown in the lead-up to the destruction of Sodom and Amorah. Hashem asks:

Shall I hide from Avraham what I am about to do, with Avraham set to become a great and populous nation through whom all the nations of the world will be blessed? For I have identified him, so that he will command his children and their households after him to keep the way of Hashem, to do what is just and right, in order that Hashem will fulfill for Avraham what has been promised him.

In this extraordinary soliloquy, Hashem bequeaths to Avraham the legacy of moral education. Even more, the question, “Shall I hide from Avraham…,” empowers Avraham to develop his knowledge of Hashem’s ways—specifically by asking questions that have not been asked before. Herein lies the power of an expansive education.

Education is not about simply mastering technical skills that have already been invented by someone else. Rather, education is about empowering all students to participate in the search for knowledge. That search means that students join ongoing conversations among scholars in their fields, ask new questions and find new answers that help move those fields forward.

At Yeshiva University, our undergraduate students follow in Avraham’s footsteps by accepting Hashem’s invitation to ask questions about countless aspects of the world. They do this through personalized attention from our outstanding faculty—in particular, through small seminars and hands-on research opportunities that would be restricted to graduate students and postdocs at many other universities.

Our students ask new questions in the beit midrash, where they join a millennia-long tradition of asking questions, and where our Roshei Yeshiva, Rebbeim and educators model the creation of new ideas every day.

Our students ask new questions in Dr. Radhashree Maitra’s biology lab, where they contribute to discoveries that advance therapies for colon cancer.

Our students ask new questions in Dr. Michelle Levine’s Tanach classes, where they read the Ramban and other commentators as creative literary authors. Students develop new insights into these classical texts.

Our students ask new questions in Dr. Carrie Shanafelt’s English classroom, where they bring the energy of Talmudic argumentation to the pressing moral questions raised by nineteenth-century British literature.

Our students ask new questions in Dr. Elizabeth Goldman’s psychology lab, where they discover how children interact with their peers and with technologies.

Our students ask new questions in Dr. Erica Brown’s classes on leadership, where they learn to communicate across differences.

Our students ask new questions in Dr. Ran Drori’s chemistry lab, where they uncover the secrets of ice crystals. While this research has practical implications for the food industry and for energy conservation, an equally important outcome is to open students’ minds and train them to ask new questions. These habits of questioning enable our students to become leaders in their fields and contribute to the knowledge of the world around them.

Yeshiva University’s undergraduate programs have outstanding records of success in job placement and career outcomes, acceptances to medical and dental schools, law schools, graduate schools and much more. Our graduates go on to careers in rabbinics, teaching, business, communication, research, healthcare, nonprofit administration and countless other fields. All these successes mean that our alumni are well-positioned, from a practical standpoint, to start their lives and their families.

Equally important, however, is that Yeshiva University’s alumni are prepared for a life of commitment to the discovery of Hashem’s world and the furthering of our covenant with Him and to recognizing that life begins with asking questions.

Rebecca Cypess is the Mordecai D. Katz and Dr. Monique C. Katz dean of the Undergraduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yeshiva University.