[26] Therefore, even if a believers intellectual powers allow him or her to consider the possibility that an ahistorical Torah could be more sophisticated and spiritual than a historical one, nevertheless, he or she cannot ignore the outer voiceor even the inner voicethat makes it difficult to be satisfied with scholarly justifications. [19] The various literary layers identified by biblical scholars in the text do not contradict its status as divine. [19]InThe Guide of the Perplexed(3:31), Rambam sharply criticizes people who believe that it would be best not to ascribe positive human characteristics to God. 7In the third month they began to [e]make the heaps, and they finished them by the seventh month. then he. Narrower concepts. Because of the signs in the heavens that were associated with his birth Nimrod tried to kill him at that time. Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols. Nevertheless, juxtaposed to this more moderate phrasing, we placed a more radical one. father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Abram Rescues Lot. 15 And Terah his father was in those days, still captain of the host of king Nimrod, and he still followed strange gods. If not, I will know., 22The men(N) turned away and went toward Sodom,(O) but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. In a world where there are many doubts about the historicity of core events in the Torahs narrative,[24] establishing the palace of Torah upon a higher foundation would seem to be a constructive goal. Many in Maimonides generation believed that the existence of God was coterminous with Gods physical existence. The plot point of Abrahams fattempted murder for his beliefs is found in four source texts. 21 And Terah said to his son, Behold these are they which made all thou seest upon earth, and which created me and thee, and all mankind. In response to the first question, I admitted that I am not trying at all to prove that the biblical author was God. In an ahistorical reading, we exchange Abraham the man, his biographic detailsonly some of which have any connection to Godwith Gods Abraham. 8When Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and (J)His people Israel. Masoretic Text; an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition. Abraham responds that wind pushes clouds. Abraham and the Idol Shop is a midrash that appears in Genesis Rabbah chapter 38. The first statement, the simpler one, would probably be acceptable to anyone. Would you worship a being like that? But nevertheless our history informs us that the priests were angry and stirred up his father against him. As our rabbis taught us, all is in the hands of heaven except for fear of heaven (b. Berachot 33b); even the historical Abraham would have to fit into this rubric. Does the story become less powerful, less complete, less true? Lets imagine that Gods message is cloaked with descriptions of events that modern day historians believe cannot be accepted as factso what? So he got a club, or some other weapon, and knocked off the heads of some, the arms and legs of others, and made a general wreck among the idols, but left the biggest untouched. 47 Bible Verses about Destroying Idols Deuteronomy 12:2-3ESV / 14 helpful votes HelpfulNot Helpful You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 36 And Terah entered the room and found all the idols fallen down and broken, and the hatchet in the hand of the largest, which was not broken, and the savory meat which Abram his son had made was still before them. 28 And it was on the next day that Abram directed his mother concerning the savory meat, and his mother rose and fetched three fine kids from the flock, and she made of them some excellent savory meat, such as her son was fond of, and she gave it to her son Abram; and Terah his father did not know of it. Sons were born to them after the flood. This is a false dichotomy. Nimrod becomes angry with Abraham and declares that Abraham shall be cast into the fire, and if Abraham is correct, i.e. Can these idols in which thou trustest deliver thee? 12-26 [Hebrew] and afterwards in his book.Pirkei Moadot(Jerusalem, 5746), p. 22 [Hebrew]. Something went wrong while submitting the form. The commentary explains what happened to Abraham when he was a young boy working in his father's idol shop. Abraham is to be killed for his righteousness, and is saved by God Inasmuch as Abrahams fight against idolatry is a common theme in the Bible, so is the prophet of God, in the face of adversity, being persecuted for his beliefs. It is thou that didst place the hatchet in the hand of the big god, and thou sayest he smote them all. Abraham answered his father, and said: How, then, canst thou serve these idols in whom there is no power to do anything? All rights reserved worldwide. [5]A lot has been written about the principle of the slippery slope. See, for example, the essay by Yuval Cherlow, Halacha and the Slippery Slope,Akdamut23 (5769): 33-48 [Hebrew]. Nations Descended from Noah. Ep 200 | Luke 12-17; John 11, Come Follow Me 2023 (May 1-7), Ep 199 | John 7-10, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 24-30), Ep 198 | Matthew 18; Luke 10, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 17-23), Ep 197 | Matthew 15-17; Mark 7-9, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 10-16), Ep 196 | Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5-6, Come Follow Me 2023 (March 27-April 2). 1, pp. Douay-Rheims Bible And when he had destroyed the altars, and the groves, and had broken the idols in pieces, and had demolished all profane temples throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. How is one to deal with such a tremendous challenge? A business deal that took place before witnesses, but without documentation, can end up being a source of dispute and fraud if the witnesses disappear and never return. The first and simplest is, What the Torah says about the event is what is important. The second is shorter but sharper, What the Torah says is what is important.. [Abraham] understood that there was a God in heaven, a living and true God, and that no man should worship any other God but Him. Is there a truer story than this? either making or worshiping idols or "other gods.". , was an idol-maker and merchant in Ur.1 Terah. This one, enraged against them on account of their behavior, took the hatchet and broke them all, and, behold, the hatchet is yet in his hands, as thou mayest see., Then Terah turned in wrath upon Abraham, and he said: Thou speakest lies unto me! And Nimrod and all his princes and servants were that day sitting before him, and Terah sat also before them. Kush was the son of Ham, the lowest and least important of Noah 's three sons. 25 And his mother did so, and she fetched a kid, and made savory meat thereof, and brought it to Abram, and Abram took the savory meat from his mother and brought it before his fathers gods, and he drew nigh to them that they might eat; and Terah his father, did not know of it. 1 Kings 15:13 And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron. Abraham responds that water puts out fire. 20 And Abram said to his father, My lord, shew them to me I pray thee; and Terah brought Abram into the chamber of the inner court, and Abram saw, and behold the whole room was full of gods of wood and stone, twelve great images and others less than they without number. 54 And the king said to Abram, Had they power to speak and eat and do as thou hast said? NASB, Zondervan NASB Study Bible, Red Letter Edition, NASB, Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible, 2nd Edition, Comfort Print: Holy Bible, New American Standard Bible, NASB, Super Giant Print Reference Bible, Red Letter Edition, 1995 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Large Print, Red Letter Edition, 2020 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Red Letter Edition, 1995 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Red Letter Edition, 2020 Text, Comfort Print. Rabbi Amit Kulaisthe rabbi of Kibbutz Alumim as well as of Beit Midrash Daroma at Ben Gurion University. not in the hands of heaven,) in order to say something about the God he discovered and followed. So Laban searched through all the tent, but did not find them. [2] Terah also made and sold idols, as the Midrash Genesis Rabbah 38 explains. The interpretive strategy of the accepted rendition is paramount emphasizes the importance of our mediated encounter with the text, the reading that I was taught by my teacher, and he his teacher, going all the way back to the law given to Moses at Sinai. In short, the tradition is of utmost value. [29] How should this believer relate to the fact that the very type of faith that he or she sees as inferior is exactly the one which sits best with the majority of the faithful? I know what they are! [Abraham] retorted: Do your ears not hear what your mouth is saying? 2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. Hosea 2:17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. Abraham is the first patriarch and is seen as the father of the four Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Bah Faith. Child sacrifice. Said he, Father, I did not do anything to them, they quarreled among themselves and went to work fighting and knocked one another down, broke one anothers heads and knocked off one anothers arms and legs. Oh, said his father, my sons do not tell me anything of that kind, for they are made of wood and they could not move or stir from their place nor knock one another down; it has been some other agency that has done it. Why, father, said he, would you worship a being that could not stir or move, that had hands and could not handle, that had legs and could not walk, a mouth that could not speak, and a head and it was of no use? On the other hand, Haran needed to see that Abraham would be saved by God before believing, and because of this, Haran was not saved from the fire by God. Access 50+ premium resources. The Torah tells the story in a certain way, and other traditions tell it in different ways. Copyright 2019 by Zondervan. Shalom Carmy; Orthodox Forum; Northvale: Aaronson, 1996), 159-180. Then all the sons of Israel returned to their cities, each to his possession. [25]This imagery comes from Rav Kook. [a] 19For I have chosen him(E), so that he will direct his children(F) and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord(G) by doing what is right and just,(H) so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.(I), 20Then the Lord said, The outcry against Sodom(J) and Gomorrah is so great(K) and their sin so grievous(L) 21that I will go down(M) and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. Writing, not just in these examples, is a reality substitute of great value. Amplified Bible Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went out together to go from Ur of the Chaldeans into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran [about five hundred and fifty miles northwest of Ur], they settled there. The business deal or the event is the main matter of significance, describing the event in writing is simply a means of conveying knowledge of that deal or event to others. 59 Now therefore put away this evil deed which thou doest, and serve the God of the universe, as thy soul is in his hands, and then it will be well with thee. When his father returned, he asked him: Why did you do this to them? [Abraham] replied: Would I hide it from you? 19Also for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in (U)the pasture lands of their cities, or in each and every city, (V)there were men who were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone genealogically enrolled among the Levites. Writing, especially in the above examples, allows people who were not witnesses to the events to meet the reality of the event in a mediated encounter. According to Genesis Rabbah 38.13, iyya b. Abba, a third-generation Amora, told following story: Terah was an idol manufacturer who once went away and left Abraham in charge of the store. Terah responded by saying that they are only statues and have no knowledge. (R) 25Far be it from you to do such a thing(S)to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous(T) and the wicked alike. Therefore I will prepare fresh savory meat to-morrow, better and more plentiful than this, that I may see what cometh therefrom. But the gods remained mute and without motion before the second offering of excellent savory meat as before the first offering, and the spirit of God came over Abraham, and he cried out, and said: Woe unto my father and his wicked generation, whose hearts are all inclined to vanity, who serve these idols of wood and stone, which cannot eat, nor smell, nor hear, nor speak, which have mouths without speech, eyes without sight, ears without hearing, hands without feeling, and legs without motion!, Abraham then took a hatchet in his hand, and broke all his fathers gods, and when he had done breaking them he placed the hatchet in the hand of the biggest god among them all, and he went out. The believer who adopts this narrative wishes to engage it directly. I cannot deny that the intuition of religious people, whether they be simple believers or great scholars, prefers to see the Torahs narratives as based in factual history. Such a perspective does not diminish the connection between humanity and God; it strengthens it.[23]. Terah exclaimed that such a thing was impossible, since idols could not quarrel or fight. and have I not myself made them? [14]M.Pesachim10:5. Idolatry, in this sense, means abandoning the way of God for another aim. 15[i]Under his authority were (P)Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in (Q)the cities of the priests, to distribute their portions faithfully to their brothers by divisions, whether great or small, 16without regard to their genealogical enrollment, to the males from [j](R)thirty years old and upwardeveryone who entered the house of the Lord (S)for his daily obligationsfor their work in their duties according to their divisions; 17as well as the priests who were enrolled genealogically according to their fathers households, and the Levites (T)from twenty years old and upward, by their duties and their divisions. [1] Many commentaries throughout the generations have taken up this question; see, for example, Ramban on Genesis 11:28 and Maharal of Prague inNetzah Yisrael, ch. Child sacrifice was one reason for the Babylonian captivity (verse 36). A woman enters to offer food to the idols. She said to [Abraham]: Here, offer this before them. [Abraham] picked up a staff and broke [the idols] and placed the staff in the hands of the largest of them. This is true even for a person who can digest the nuances of the ahistorical approach to the Torah. It is precisely the struggle of thinkers like Rambam and Rav Kook that can be most helpful in answering such questions. 6The sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and (I)the tithe of [d]sacred gifts which were consecrated to the Lord their God, and placed them in heaps. Whether our actions motivate us to work for labor and the downtrodden or peace in Israel, we activate a certain "Abraham" within to destroy the idols of prior perspectives and belief systems, and . 55 Dost thou imagine that they can deliver thee or do anything small or great, that thou shouldst serve them? A man walked in and wished to buy an idol. 10Azariah, the chief priest (K)of the house of Zadok, said to [f]him, (L)Since the contributions started coming into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat with plenty left over, for the Lord has blessed His people, and this great quantity is left over.. An ahistorical Torah is not subject to being disproven by archaeology or academic historical reconstructions. Of course, great challenges to Abram's faith lay ahead on his life's journey. Powered by WordPress. 2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. (C) 18Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation,(D) and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 13 "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants to whom Thou didst swear by Thyself, and didst say to them, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall Nevertheless, see his comment further on in the piece, The words ofaggada, which can have such good and blessed effects are literally the words of the living God. This statement seems to be very much in accord with what I called the highest level of faith, the belief in the ahistoricity of the narrative. why dost thou worship . 31 And in the evening of that day in that house Abram was clothed with the spirit of God. Cautiously, I would like to suggest that doing so is not important. From whence sprang the suggestion to interpret the Torah against the way it has been read? [2]For a discussion of the phenomenon of filling the gaps see Yonah Frankel,Midrash ve-Aggada, (5753), 41 [Hebrew]. The fervent attempt to capture some meaning in each and every word of the Torah, without making recourse to any external factors as a control, is a clear expression of this perspective. This is something best accomplished by narrative, not by list of laws or principles. Abraham went thence to his mother, and he spoke to her, saying: Behold, my father has shown those unto me who made heaven and earth and all the sons of men. 2Ch iiCh ii ch 2 chr 2chr). As such, writing is secondary to the event itself. (U) Far be it from you! New American Standard Bible Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddlebag, and she sat on them. There is also no Biblical record of Abraham King James Bible But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: New King James Version But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images I expected my father to punish me, but he never said a word. 1. [8]In fact, seeResponsa Rashba1:116, where Rashba makes this point. In order for such values to find a permanent place in the spiritual life of individuals, they must be narrated. Abraham had three wives: Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah (by date when When Terah returned, he asked Abraham what happened to all the idols. [11]It is virtually impossible to exaggerate the political, sociological and emotional implications of this assertion. Haran is the son of Terah, brother of Abraham, and the father of Lot. His father came in and asked what he had been doing, what great sin this was that he had committed, why he was so sacrilegious in his feelings and so wicked as to seek to destroy these gods? These events are seennot without causeas being singular and special. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of So Nimrod declares they worship water. 19 And Abram asked his father, saying, Father, tell me where is God who created heaven and earth, and all the sons of men upon earth, and who created thee and me. Will Gods story be diminished if we do not connect it with the actions of specific people, as great as they may have been? The opposite is the case. The text designates Terah, Abraham's father, as a "manufacturer of idols." One day, while Terah is away from his workshop, he entrusts it to young Abraham. I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah). You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateways emails at any time. Nevertheless, such an opportunity would be limited. Ibn Munzir said that pictures and statues made of wood or metal, etc. But Abram said that the largest of the idols had killed all the others in a fight over an offering brought to them. My thanks to Hillel ben-Sasson for sharpening this point. This, however, is when this person accepts the [mitzvot] and fulfills them because the Holy One commanded this in the Torah and informed us through our teacher Moses, that the descendants of Noah had been so commanded (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, 8:11).
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