In response to Ben Greenfield's essay that argues the Zohar Hadash interpreted the attributes of hesed, gevurah, and emet as qualities the forefathers wrestled with, the writer presents three thirteenth-century sources that support the traditional understanding of these attributes.

In kabbalistic and Hasidic thought, each of the forefathers is associated with a defining characteristic - Avraham with kindness (hesed), Yitzhak with strength (gevurah), and Yaakov with truth (emet).