I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah). Some critics of the Bible point to the story of Abraham, who laid his son Isaac on an altar and prepared to sacrifice him as directed by God (Genesis 22:1-14). In response to the first question, I admitted that I am not trying at all to prove that the biblical author was God. [27]See Rambam,Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentence, 3:7. What if only ten can be found there?" He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it." All rights reserved. It is, furthermore, impossible to deny another benefit of the ahistorical model of understanding the Torahs narratives. 13 And in the fiftieth year of the life of Abram son of Terah, Abram came forth from the house of Noah, and went to his fathers house. Psalms 135:15 - 127:17 - The idols of the . F. Gibbs. Commentary on Parashat Lech-Lecha, . [13]Even if its conclusions will, in the end, be rejectednot always and not necessarilyby practical halacha. 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. A similar point was made by R. Abraham Kook inEder ha-Yakkar, (Jerusalem, 5726), p. 42. 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. 71C11132 Haran, Abraham's brother, having witnessed the miracle, decides to undergo the test of fire as well, but is immediately consumed. Discourse by President John Taylor, Duties of the SaintsThe Atonement, etc. By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. 11Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare (M)rooms in the house of the Lord, and they prepared them. Lets imagine that Gods message is cloaked with descriptions of events that modern day historians believe cannot be accepted as factso what? 31 And in the evening of that day in that house Abram was clothed with the spirit of God. Terah was the father of Abram (his name was later changed to window.location.replace(""); New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Although the Bible says Terah "worshiped other gods" Presenting the Torah as Gods narrative does not take away from its religious significance. Launched Shavuot 5773 / 2013 | Copyright Project TABS, All Rights Reserved, script type="text/javascript"> Commentating on this verse, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, the late Grand Mufti of Pakistan, writes, "According to Imam Qurtubi, this verse shows that to destroy the idols and other icons of paganism is Waajib (mandatory). All rights reserved worldwide. ORLOV 'The Gods of My Father Terah' 35 Testament of Abraham, also deny the possibility that God has a human- like form. Rav Kook, in his analysis of this approach, found that Rambam made use of it as he wrestled with Aristotles notion of an eternal universe. Instead, the full power of the divine message comes once the message finds its place within a persons heart. [9] Kugel's interpretation continues in the tradition of looking at this midrash as part of the analysis of monotheism. English Revised Version ),Shitat ha-Beinot shel ha-Rav Mordechai Breuer: Qovetz Maamarim u-Teguvot(Alon Shevut: Tevunot, 2005). I loved learning about the gospel. 47 And how can you continue to do this and serve gods of wood and stone, who cannot hear, or speak, or deliver you from oppression, thereby bringing down the anger of the God of the universe upon you? Abraham told him that a woman came in to make an offering to the idols. Rabbi Yehudah said: It applies even to unclean animals. Rabbi Yehudah said to them: But wasnt the sciatic nerve forbidden to the sons of Jacob, and they were permitted to eat unclean animals! They said to him: The law was stated at Sinai but was included in its proper place. For a summary of the issues surrounding pre-Sinaitic rules, see the entry in theEncylopedia Talmudit, One may not learn [rules] from the time before the giving of the Torah, (vol. 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? Continue Learning about Religious Studies. Hebrews 13:5 - Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Abraham's father, Terah, joined the adamant opposition to his son in Harran, which indicates that he had continued to cling to his profession of making and selling idols. 61 And when Abram had ceased speaking before the king and princes, Abram lifted up his eyes to the heavens, and he said, The Lord seeth all the wicked, and he will judge them. 5 From . But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem . The Midrash has also been discussed in the contexts of complete, unquestioned faith. 3, There is something humorous in a history that we have in relation to this personage. [15]With regard to the sciatic nerve, the Mishna states (m.Chullin7:6): The rule applies to clean animals but not to unclean ones. 18 And Abram went from them, and his anger burned within him. Although Hajar is Abraham's second wife she is the first to bear him a son, Ishmael. Haran is the son of Terah, brother of Abraham, and the father of Lot. They meant the world to me and taught me crucial lessons. Such a perspective does not diminish the connection between humanity and God; it strengthens it.[23]. When Abrahams father learned what had happened, he of course was greatly exercised; he inquired of Abraham who had done it. 17 And Abram said, As the Lord liveth these images shall not remain in my fathers house; so shall the Lord who created me do unto me if in three days time I do not break them all. 14Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the eastern gate, was in charge of the [h]voluntary offerings for God, to distribute the contributions for the Lord and the most holy things. 48 Now therefore my father refrain from this, and bring not evil upon thy soul and the souls of thy household. Writing, not just in these examples, is a reality substitute of great value. Its meaning is not dependent on external evidence; its narrative descriptions should not be characterized as reconstructions or preservation of past events. Access 50+ premium resources. [2] Terah also made and sold idols, as the Midrash Genesis Rabbah 38 explains. Join today!. ! [Terah] took him and brought him before Nimrod (. The missing years of Abraham's early childhood are explained through a series of Midrashim. Take the flood story, for example. 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. [12]In this case, it isnt about writing per se, as it makes little difference whether it is reported by radio, TV, or newspaper. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com. In order to answer this question let us investigate the basis for this phenomenon: what is the point of writing? 23 And when Abram had gone from them he went to his mother and sat before her, and he said to his mother, Behold, my father has shown me those who made heaven and earth, and all the sons of men. what is the supplement of an angle measuring 54 degrees? On its own, the sentence can be understood as conveying the opposite meaning, as a call for those involved in studying the exodus from Egypt to remove themselves from the present, to transport themselves through time and view the event the way it would have been viewed by Moses and Aaron, Datan and Abiram. Can one really neutralize the true meaning of a verse and read shivim (seventy) instead of shevuayim (two weeks)? Dr. [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. [17] Is it surprising that Gods narrative is the story of humanity writ large? This comes from the idea that Abraham did not need proof of God before being cast into the fire, which is why God saved him. Save 15% for life on BibleGateway+ with code SPRINGSTUDY15. 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. [16]Whether one must take the account of the Sinai revelation as historical or not is dealt with in chapter 4 of my book. 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.. 2. 54 And the king said to Abram, Had they power to speak and eat and do as thou hast said? 21Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in the Law and in the commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and (X)prospered. But Abram said that the largest of the idols had killed all the others in a fight over an offering brought to them. Although these events have halachic weight in Jewish tradition, this is not because they happened in the past (before the revelation at Sinai) but because they were included in the Torahs narrative at Sinai.[15]. In verse 7 God said the covenant He established with Abraham was to be everlasting and that He alone was to be God to Abraham and his offspring. SeeIggrot Raayahvol. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. Muhammad describes Abraham's anguished attempts to reason with His father and persuade him to accept a new divine Message this way: "O my Father! Exodus 20:3 - Thou shalt have no other gods before me. President Nelson shared the following story last April: I adored my parents. 3He also appointed (D)the kings portion of his property for the burnt offerings, namely, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths and for the new moons and for the appointed festivals, (E)as it is written in the Law of the Lord. See,Iggrot Raayahvol. Regarding this, seePinkasei Ha-Raayahvol. This is a false dichotomy. [25]This imagery comes from Rav Kook. 39 And Abram answered Terah his father and he said, Not so my lord, for I brought savory meat before them, and when I came nigh to them with the meat that they might eat, they all at once stretched forth their hands to eat before the great one had put forth his hand to eat. Therefore, we should be careful not to miss even a single hint or implication that may be imbedded in the direct speech of God to us. Note: This essay was translated and adapted by Rabbi Dr. Zev Farber, with the approval of Rabbi Dr. Kula, from the introduction to his book, Existential or Non-Essential. Abram Rescues Lot. So Nimrod declares they worship clouds. And Nimrod and all his princes and servants were that day sitting before him, and Terah sat also before them. 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. A different approach (cutting edge and more realistic) assumes that reconstruction of the past, with a point-by-point accurate portrayal, is impossible. [10]In my opinion, which is based on multiple encounters with a number of different groups, this critique can be found at the heart of many peoples objections to ahistorical reading of the Torah, and feeds their intuitive rejection of this paradigm. See: Tamar Ross,Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism(Waltham: Brandeis, 2004). Therefore, it is the job of the historian to tell his or her story about history. then he. A young Abraham destroys his father Terah's idols, by Jacob Ernst Marcus, 1819. Masoretic Text; an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition. 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. A woman came carrying a plate of fine flour and she told me to offer it before them. Nimrod came from a line which was cursed by Noah: "Cursed be Canaan, a slave of slaves shall he be unto his brothers." By birth, Nimrod had no right to be a king or ruler. The interpretive strategy of the received text is paramount takes an entirely different approach, which attempts to encounter the word of God without any mediation. idols of any kind. 1, p. 164: Tamar Ross makes great use of this principle, primarily in dealing with the feminist critique of Torah. 1, pp. [13] The sacred written Torah is the teaching of God and it is forbidden to learn it indifferently. that there is a real God, then that God will save him. [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]. 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. [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. Abraham is cast into the fire and is saved by God. 14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I know what they are! [Abraham] retorted: Do your ears not hear what your mouth is saying? In essence, we exchange a conversation about God for an encounter with God. can they hear thy prayers when thou callest upon them? Over the years, the interpretive tradition has taken this statement far out of its original meaning, which refers to the way a person is to behave on the night of the 15thof Nissan, and turned it into a key phrase describing Jewish consciousness in general. You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateways emails at any time. He tried to bring him to reason, but his father did not believe they had life enough to kill one another. [19] The various literary layers identified by biblical scholars in the text do not contradict its status as divine. I cannot thank them enough for the happy homelife they created for me and my siblings. It is one that any person who wishes to renew his or her faithperhaps even to limit its horizons for a timeshould take to heart. 9Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. I am not surprised, therefore, at the literary prowessvery much like human literary prowessdemonstrated in Torah by its author. Why is Abraham is cutting up all these animals in Genesis 15? 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? Psalm 16:4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. Nations Descended from Noah. In my book, I explore a middle position that distinguishes between cases where it is necessary to free ourselves from a historicity that strangles the spirit of the text and cases where the historicity of the story would actually make the spirit of the story that much brighter. Nevertheless, the Sages statement can be seen in conjunction with other statements of theirs, which are close in spirit to the interpretation offered in this essay (for example, the statement in the Haggada of Pesach that in every generation people stand against us to destroy us.) These statements were expanded upon and intensified in Hasidic thought. script>. This can be seen clearly in the rich collection of essays, edited by Lee Levin and Amichai Mazer,The Polemic about the Historical Truth of Scripture(Jerusalem, 5761) [Hebrew]. Enter your email to subscribe and receive notifications of new content. [25] Freeing the Torah from its historical crutches not only frees the narrator from having to keep the narrative in line with past events, but it also neutralizes the basis for the attack against the validity of a person maintaining his or her faith. 35 And Terah, having heard the noise of the hatchet in the room of images, ran to the room to the images, and he met Abram going out. 11, p. 68. 8When Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and (J)His people Israel. Understanding the Torah this way can strengthen the deep vitality buried in its every story, every verse, every word even every letter. [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. Once he went on a trip and he placed Abraham in charge of the store in his place. Bible verses about False Idols. Instead, the text of the Torah should be understood on its own terms; the Torah itself is the matter being studied. A comparison between the various tellings allows us to clarify the core values the come through in each text, and, consequently, to characterize with more clarity the meaning with which the scriptural Author meant to imbue the story (a claim made above as well.) Even for such a person, something still lingers from the dissonance required in reframing the story as ahistorical. 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. How Modern Prophets Contextualized This Account, [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. Seeing the Torah as the story of God establishes a persons faith in Torah from Heaven at its highest and purist level. However, see the words of Maimonides about Adam, Eve and the serpent inGuide of the Perplexed(2:30). 58 Dost thou not know, or hast thou not heard, that this evil which thou doest, our ancestors sinned therein in days of old, and the eternal God brought the waters of the flood upon them and destroyed them all, and also destroyed the whole earth on their account? Powered by WordPress. How is one to deal with such a tremendous challenge? The commentary explains what happened to Abraham when he was a young boy working in his father's idol shop. When the Torah describes various events that appear to be rooted in a concrete time and place, its account is more a retelling than a reconstruction. [3] Haran died in Ur of the Chaldees, in the presence of his father, Terah.[4]. The first statement, the simpler one, would probably be acceptable to anyone. (AA) What if only ten can be found there?, He answered, For the sake of ten,(AB) I will not destroy it., 33When the Lord had finished speaking(AC) with Abraham, he left,(AD) and Abraham returned home.(AE). Hasnt the meaning of the word, with its halachic implications, been determined by the way it has been read over the generations? 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. Whereupon Abraham responded by saying that you deny their knowledge, yet you worship them! If this is a story, he said, it is a very human story. 71C11131 Terah turns Abraham over to King Nimrod, who condemns him to be cast into the fire (or fiery furnace) of the Chaldeans; he is miraculously rescued by God. So Abraham took a stick, smashed the idols and placed the stick in the hand of the largest idol. 42 Is there in these gods spirit, soul or power to do all thou hast told me? How can virtual classrooms help students become more independent and self-motivated learners? [22]This distinction is similar to that of Achad Ha-Am between historical truth (the way a group relates to events from its past, what we now call cultural memory or mnemohistory) and archaeological truth (what actually happened in the past.) Deepen your knowledge of Scripture for less than $5/mo. 40 And the large one saw their works that they did before him, and his anger was violently kindled against them, and he went and took the hatchet that was in the house and came to them and broke them all, and behold the hatchet is yet in his hand as thou seest. Nevertheless, this possibility brings to mind the old joke about the elephant and the ant. Of course, great challenges to Abram's faith lay ahead on his life's journey. For it is hardly surprising that events that occurred in history would be recorded in the writings of various cultures that witnessed these events. 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). When President Nelson shared the story of his breaking the bottles of alcohol his father owned, I kept thinking about another prophet who also broke things. The Bible tells us the Lord said to him: Get thee up from thy fathers house, from the land wherein thou wast born, and go up to a land I will show unto thee, and which I will afterwards give unto thee for an inheritance. And we are told that he went up, not knowing whither he went. 4, It is said Abrahams father was an idolater, and that he had a number of gods in his house. [2]For a discussion of the phenomenon of filling the gaps see Yonah Frankel,Midrash ve-Aggada, (5753), 41 [Hebrew]. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.". Nimrod proclaims to Abraham that we should worship fire. 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. Cautiously, I would like to suggest that doing so is not important. To me, the key question is whether ones approach to exploring the ahistoricity of the narrative is in order to reduce the vital importance of the Torah and its message or whether it is the opposite, to increase it, as I suggest above. 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. [21]An ant and an elephant are running through the desert. There is also no Biblical record of Abraham Therefore, by necessity we would need to distill from his historical persona what parts of his life were his own choice, (i.e. Christian Standard Bible Abraham married them according to the Book of Genesis). Following the analysis offered here, the halachic tradition makes the religious value of any historical event that occurred before the revelation at Sinai contingent upon the power given to it by its inclusion in the narrative that came down to the world at Sinai. He is the father of three children including the Patriarch Abraham. 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. Bible. This story is taken from The Book of Jasher 11:21-49, Terah, in response to Abrahams question to him about who the God was that had created heaven and earth and the children of men, took him to the hall wherein stood twelve great idols and a large number of little idols, and pointing to them he said, Here are they who have made all thou seest on earth, they who have created also me and thee and all men on the earth, and he bowed down before his gods, and left the hall with his son. A divinely originated narrative has no need for real historical events in order to grow sinews and flesh and become something substantial. The Torah describes various events from its own unique perspective. So, one day when I was very young, I went to our basement and smashed on the concrete floor every bottle of liquor! The Doctrine and Covenants & Church History, 2021 Spring: Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel, The Book of Abraham | LDS Scripture Teachings, Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives. 37 And when Terah saw this his anger was greatly kindled, and he hastened and went from the room to Abram.

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