Dear Friends:
A number of friends and colleagues who have had the occasion to teach either “Introduction to Judaism” or “Introduction to the Bible” on the college level have shared with me over the years the following experience. At the beginning of the semester, they have the students read the entire Bible from cover to cover in English. Inevitably, at least one of the Jewish students in the class will come back and complain that something was “missing” from their copy of the Bible. What was it that was missing? The story of Abraham smashing his father’s idols that virtually every Jewish boy or girl learned in Hebrew school.
If you never went to Hebrew school or if you did go to Hebrew school but somehow missed this story, very briefly: Abraham’s father Terach was by profession a maker of idols. One day, he went out for the day and left his store and workshop in his son’s charge. Abraham took a hammer and smashed all the idols except the largest one, and placed the hammer in the hands of that idol. When Terach came back he was furious and asked Abraham how this happened. Abraham said that a fight had broken out between all the idols and the largest one took the hammer and smashed all the others.
Terach replied that he wasn’t a fool, that the idols were just statues of clay that he himself had made. And Abraham replied “your ears should pay attention to what your mouth has just said.”
It may surprise you to learn that this story is not, in fact, in the Bible (although interestingly enough it is in the Quran, Surah Al-Anbya.) It appears in Genesis Rabbah, a rabbinic midrash collection from roughly 300 to 500 CE that contains homiletical interpretations of the stories in Genesis.
Rabbinic midrash comes to fill in gaps in the biblical text, which often tells us what happened but not always why. And in our parasha this week, God calls Abraham (still known as Abram at this point) to go to “the land which I will show you” but there is nothing that tells us why it was Abraham who was chosen to bring God’s message to the world. It seems simply arbitrary, which the Author or author of the biblical text was comfortable with but our Sages many centuries later were not -- so they sought to give a reason as to why it was Abraham.
I want to thank those of you who participated last night in our Adult Education opportunity to process some of the things which are going on in this world. Next week I want to start looking at Pirkei Avot which is the foundation for the ethical underpinnings of what Judaism offers us. As I said on Wednesday, I’d like to alternate between text study and more topical presentations, so if you have any ideas for topics we should look at, please let me know.
As a reminder, I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the shul. For my drop-in hours, you do not need to make an appointment -- that would negate the whole point of drop-in hours -- but I’d urge you to check and make sure I am there regardless as sometimes there are unavoidable pastoral or other emergencies which might take me away from the building.
As always, if I can do anything for you or you need to talk, please contact me at rabbi@kehilatshalom.org or 301-977-0768 rather than through the synagogue office. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment; if you want to speak with me it’s best to make an appointment rather than assuming I will be there when you stop by.
Additionally, if you know of a Kehilat Shalom congregant or another member of our Jewish community who could use a phone call, please let me know.
L’shalom,
Rabbi Charles L. Arian
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