What if only ten can be found there?" He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it." Because of the signs in the heavens that were associated with his birth Nimrod tried to kill him at that time. The Midrash has also been discussed in the contexts of complete, unquestioned faith. Although the book focuses on a period of time later than that discussed herethe period of David and Solomonnevertheless, the rhetorical force of the essays that express reservations similar to that expressed aboveessays that come from very different scholarsdemonstrates the tangible reality of the emotional power that stands behind the truth problem. I must admit that I could not personally identify with any of the (admittedly thoughtful) analyses in that collection, and this is probably due to my own alternative way of thinking about this problem, as described in this essay. [29]Continuing on with the example from Rambam with which we began: stating that God lacks any body means that God is not constrained by any physical limitation. These events occurred at some point in the past, and the Holy Author (God) describes them from the unique perspective of the divine. See also Ravads commentad loc. He did his Ph.D.in Jewish thought atBen Gurion University, focusing on the writings of Rav Kook. Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. 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. If not, I will know., 22The men(N) turned away and went toward Sodom,(O) but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. So Nimrod declares they worship water. [13] The sacred written Torah is the teaching of God and it is forbidden to learn it indifferently. 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]. Shalom Carmy; Orthodox Forum; Northvale: Aaronson, 1996), 159-180. A man walked in and wished to buy an idol. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com. Abraham asked him how old he was and the man responded 50 years old. Abraham then said, You are 50 years old and would worship a day old statue! At this point the man left, ashamed. These could now be understood as virtually physical expressions of the divine message. New American Standard Bible Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddlebag, and she sat on them. [27]See Rambam,Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentence, 3:7. [22], Getting accustomed to this kind of thinking about the Torah is required, in my opinion, if a person wishes to acquire the ability to raise his or her faith in Torah from a peripheral attachment to an essential attachment to its contents. Can those idols in which thou trustest deliver thee? Lord. One reason why they did so was, that he had gone into those places which his father considered sacred, and among the wooden gods which were there, and, being filled with anger that his father should bow down and worship gods of wood and stone, he broke them. A divinely originated narrative has no need for real historical events in order to grow sinews and flesh and become something substantial. 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). Heis a member of the rabbinic organizations Tzohar and Beit Hillel, has written a number of onlineresponsa,and is the author ofExistential or Non-Essential: History and Literature, Religious Language and the Nature of the Deity. Completely erase the names of their gods! The image of Abraham smashing idols in his fathers store and blaming it on the god is likely to bring a smile to the lips of any person who is familiar with the story from his or her childhood. The later life of Abraham is told in the book of Genesis Chapters 1125. So Nimrod declares they worship wind. 32 And he called out and said, Wo unto my father and this wicked generation, whose hearts are all inclined to vanity, who serve these idols of wood and stone which can neither eat, smell, hear nor speak, who have mouths without speech, eyes without sight, ears without hearing, hands without feeling, and legs which cannot move; like them are those that made them and that trust in them. When Abrahams father learned what had happened, he of course was greatly exercised; he inquired of Abraham who had done it. 7In the third month they began to [e]make the heaps, and they finished them by the seventh month. A young Abraham destroys his father Terah's idols, by Jacob Ernst Marcus, 1819. 50 And Terah, seeing all that Abram had done, hastened to go from his house, and he went to the king and he came before Nimrod and stood before him, and he bowed down to the king; and the king said, What dost thou want? If the religious value of events comes from their being included in the word of God, let us allow God to speak to us in Gods own language, and to tell us the divine story with its entire force. [18]It must be admitted that the long genealogical lists, which specify the origins of the entire human species (see, for instance, Gen. 4:18-5:32), stand in some tension with the above-offered claim. All rights reserved. 53 And the king said to Abram, What is this that thou hast done to thy father and to his gods? Abraham responds that clouds hold water. 27 And Abram mocked them, and said, Surely the savory meat that I prepared has not pleased them, or perhaps it was too little for them, and for that reason they would not eat; therefore tomorrow I will prepare fresh savory meat, better and more plentiful than this, in order that I may see the result. 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. 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.) As such, writing is secondary to the event itself. As I was leading a discussion in the beit midrash on this subject, one of the participants pushed back against this approach. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. 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. 20 Bible Verses about Abandoning Idols Deuteronomy 7:25 Verse Concepts The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 22 And Terah bowed down to his gods, and he then went away from them, and Abram, his son, went away with him. It is a post-biblical story imagining the early life of Abraham. Numbers 33:52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: Judges 2:2 And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? [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 loved learning about the gospel. "[5] There is no description of a biblical interaction between Nimrod and Abraham. 13Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers [g]under the authority of Conaniah and his brother Shimei by the appointment of King Hezekiah, and (O)Azariah was the chief officer of the house of God. Conversely, if the Torah is only telling stories, it would appear, at first glance, more difficult to account for the similarities between its stories and those of the surrounding cultures. (Joshua 24:2), there is no Biblical record of him actually making And Abram hastened and went from the chamber to his fathers outer court, and he found his father sitting in the court, and all his servants with him, and Abram came and sat before him. Abram Rescues Lot. 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.. 31 Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it." 32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. Even for such a person, something still lingers from the dissonance required in reframing the story as ahistorical. 24 Now, therefore, hasten and fetch a kid from the flock, and make of it savory meat, that I may bring it to my fathers gods as an offering for them to eat; perhaps I may thereby become acceptable to them. 16 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. Then all the sons of Israel returned to their cities, each to his possession. Masoretic Text; an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition. Genesis 11:26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the 4Also he told the people who lived in Jerusalem to give (F)the portion due to the priests and the Levites, so that they might devote themselves to (G)the Law of the Lord. De Du). 2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. Psalms 135:15 - 127:17 - The idols of the . 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. Abraham mocked them, and said, Surely, the savory meat that I prepared doth not please you, or perhaps it is too little for you! Would you like updates when content is posted? What does the Bible say about idolatry? Shouldnt we expect from God a more coherent story, one that is free of the subtle and even blatant contradictions that can be found within it? Another participant argued that he still couldnt see, despite my explanation, why the Torah chose to speak to us in historical language. Nimrod becomes angry with Abraham and declares that Abraham shall be cast into the fire, and if Abraham is correct, i.e. Deepen your knowledge of Scripture for less than $5/mo. 5. See, for example, the Gerrer Rebbe, R. Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (Sefat Emeton Leviticus, Pesach 5631): In every generation there is an exodus from Egypt, but one relevant to that generation. There is much more to say about this, but here is not the place. 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. 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 in fact agrees with Abraham regarding idol worship unlike the Qur'anic version! 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? I simply believe it. 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. 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? 17Then the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham(B) what I am about to do? 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. The second approach, however, is rather surprising. I know what they are! [Abraham] retorted: Do your ears not hear what your mouth is saying? This understanding is reminiscent of the approach of Peter Winch, which requires a historian to enter into the past and to view it from within. Many in Maimonides generation believed that the existence of God was coterminous with Gods physical existence. See: Tamar Ross,Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism(Waltham: Brandeis, 2004). Thus, such a God can be greater than any image of a god based upon said Gods great size and dimensions as envisioned by those who assume that God is physical. 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? 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. 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. Nevertheless, juxtaposed to this more moderate phrasing, we placed a more radical one. Presenting the Torah as Gods narrative does not take away from its religious significance. 30 And Abram viewed them, and behold they had neither voice nor hearing, nor did one of them stretch forth his hand to the meat to eat. The consequence was, his father and the idolatrous priests of that day sought to take his life. window.location.replace(""); Bible verses about False Idols. One time a woman came carrying a dish of fine flour. Deuteronomy 9:21 And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount. Hence the verse in Genesis 11:28, And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.[6], The Midrash is not the only mention of this storythe Quran discusses the story in great detail as well. Although the Bible says Terah "worshiped other gods" 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. what are the 3 odd numbers just before 200 003? 10 These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Studying the real life of the giant among men, our founding father, Abraham the man of faith and kindness, would, in theory, give us an opportunity to uncover the God in which he places his trust. If this is a story, he said, it is a very human story. (U) Far be it from you! Is it somehow illegitimate that the scriptural Author would retell a version of a popular story and include it within the broader narrative, and, with tremendous creativity, recast the story anew according to Gods own principles. Instead, the full power of the divine message comes once the message finds its place within a persons heart. Abraham is known to have done something similar. And yet, even as a boy, I knew I was missing something. However, see Rambams comments inThe Guide of the Perplexed(3:50) as well as chapter 5 of my book. 1, p. 164: Tamar Ross makes great use of this principle, primarily in dealing with the feminist critique of Torah. It is about humanitys religion and its faith, its moral struggles, its successes and failures, its hopes and aspirations for greatness, its dream of breaking into the world of the infinite and clinging to God. Child sacrifice. Ezekiel 6:6 Verse Concepts The believer who adopts this narrative wishes to engage it directly. Donate. Such narrative strategies, as I mentioned above, would be subject to factual investigation as well as comparative evidence, taking into account alternative versions. Intuitive attachment to our inherited traditions is common to all people, regardless of education. Abraham told him that a woman came in to make an offering to the idols. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places. Commentary on Parashat Lech-Lecha, . Later, a woman walked into the store and wanted to make an offering to the idols. Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular, A Phoenician goddess, also an image of the same, Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person masculine singular, Conjunctive waw, Article | Noun - masculine plural, Preposition-l | Verb - Hifil - Infinitive construct, Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct, Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct, Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc, Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular, Preposition-l | Noun - proper - feminine singular, Jerusalem -- probably 'foundation of peace', capital city of all Israel, He takes order for the repair of the temple, Josiah sends to Huldah to enquire of the Lord, Huldah prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem, but respite thereof in Josiah's time, Josiah, causing it to be read in a solemn assembly, renews the covenant with God, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, OT History: 2 Chronicles 34:7 He broke down the altars and beat (2 Chron. 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? Terah responded by saying that they are only statues and have no knowledge. How can virtual classrooms help students become more independent and self-motivated learners? Abraham grabs a stick and smashes all the idols, except the biggest one, in whose hand he places the stick. Why is Abraham is cutting up all these animals in Genesis 15? 2 Kings 23:14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. It is precisely the struggle of thinkers like Rambam and Rav Kook that can be most helpful in answering such questions. My thanks to Hillel ben-Sasson for sharpening this point. Abraham is the first patriarch and is seen as the father of the four Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Bah Faith. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children[ a] by her." Kush was the son of Ham, the lowest and least important of Noah 's three sons. At this point, Terah took Abraham to Nimrod. But Abraham, inspired by the Lord, went on a certain occasion into the temple of these gods and smote them right and left, upsetting and breaking them in pieces. 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. Seeing the Torah as the story of God establishes a persons faith in Torah from Heaven at its highest and purist level. But Abram said that the largest of the idols had killed all the others in a fight over an offering brought to them. In an ahistorical reading, we exchange Abraham the man, his biographic detailsonly some of which have any connection to Godwith Gods Abraham. 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. 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.". Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.
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