Ten verses in Genesis establish that arguing with God is permitted, and Jewish practice has treated them as a licence ever since. Abraham is told what is about to happen to Sodom and immediately challenges the plan on grounds of justice: will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked, shall the judge of all the earth not do justice. He then bargains — fifty, forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten — and God concedes every step. The rabbis noticed that he stopped at ten and did not ask about one, and have been uneasy about it for two thousand years. The line runs from here through Moses arguing after the golden calf, through Job, through Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev's Yiddish court case against God for the suffering of Jews, through Elie Wiesel's account of a trial of God held in a camp. The tradition distinguishes this from unbelief with some care: the complaint is addressed, which means it presupposes a listener.