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אַבְרָהָם (בראשית יא-כה, דברי הימים א א:כז )
Founding father of Judaism, the first of Israel's three patriarchs:
אברהם ,
יצחק ,
יעקב .
Born
אַבְרָם
in
אוּר כַּשְׂדִים ,
he represents the tenth generation after
נח .
The
תורה
reveals nothing about
אברם 's
childhood, but the
מדרש
tells us stories about the patriarch intuiting the existence of God and smashing idols in his father's idol shop (see for example
במדבר רבה יד :ב
and
בראשית רבה לח :ח ).
אברם 's
wife
שָׂרַי
is barren. Led by
תרח ,
the family sets out from
אור כשדים
for
ארץ כענן .
They get as far as
חָרָן
where
תרח
dies (פרשת נח ). God appears to
אברם
and tells him to leave his homeland and travel to a land that He will show him. This first communication of God to
אברם
is considered the first of many tests posed by the Lord to
אברהם .
According to
פרקי אבות ,
אברהם
faces ten challenges in his long relationship with God (פרקי אבות ה :ג .
Commentaries on this
משנה
provide different compilations of episodes to reach ten tests - see below). At this early point in
אברם 's
story, God promises to make
אברם
a great nation.
אברם
accedes to God's command and travels to
כנען
with his wife and his nephew
לוט ,
following God's lead. Once there, God makes His second promise: to give the land to
אברם 's
descendants. These two promises:
אברם
will have many descendants, and they will inherit the land of Israel, are repeated often to
אברהם
as well as to
יצחק
and
יעקב .
The promises are referred to frequently in the rest of the
תורה
(see for example
שמות ו :ד
and
שמות לב :יג ) and
נ "ך ,
and remain strong beliefs in Judaism. A famine in
כנען
sends
אברם
and
שרי
to Egypt where
אברם
pretends that his wife is his sister. Upon returning to
כנען ,
אברם
and
לוט
part ways since each is very wealthy and their flocks require separate grazing land.
לוט
who chooses to live in
סְדֹם
gets caught up in a war between city states and
אברם
rushes to his rescue. In gratitude for his assistance,
ברע ,
the king of
סדם ,
offers the plunder to
אברם
who turns him down saying that he'd rather his wealth was attributed to God's beneficence and not the king's gifts. God again promises
אברם
that he will found a great nation and compares his descendants to the numerous stars (בראשית טו :ה ). God and
אברם
strike a covenant known as "
בְּרִית בֵּין הַבְּתָרִים "
in which the promise of the land is again enunciated. During this episode God informs
אברם
that his descendants will be oppressed in a foreign land. Following his wife's suggestion,
אברם
marries
הגר ,
שרי 's
maid, so that she may bear
אברם
a child, since
שרי
remains barren.
אברם
is 86 years old when
הגר
gives birth to a son,
ישמעאל .
God appears to
אברם
again, promising to give him the land and to make him the founder of a great nation. To emphasize this second point God changes His beneficiary's name from
אברם
to
אברהם ,
arguing that
אברהם
signifies "father of a multitude of nations" (בראשית יז :ה ). It is at this time that God introduces the practice of circumcision to
אברהם .
He is commanded to circumcise himself and all future male descendants. This will be the physical sign of the covenant between God and
אברהם 's
family. God also renames
שרי
in preparation for her becoming a mother, changing her name to
שרה .
Upon hearing that he and his wife will have a son together,
אברהם
laughs. He is, after all, 99 years old at this point and
שרה
is 90. Nevertheless, God assures him that he will have a son and instructs that the boy be named
יצחק .
The covenant that God has forged with
אברהם
will find expression in
יצחק .
אברהם
proceeds to circumcise himself,
ישמעאל
and all of his household (פרשת לך לך ). Three men come to visit
אברהם
and during the course of the encounter
שרה
overhears the news that she will give birth to a son in a year (according to the popular interpretation of this story the three men were angels. See
רש "י
on
בראשית יח :א
which is based on the
מדרש
from
בבא מציעא פב :).
God informs
אברהם
that He plans on destroying the towns of
סְדֹם
and
עֲמֹרָה
due to the wickedness of their inhabitants. This leads to a lengthy dialogue between God and
אברהם
wherein the latter begs God to spare the towns.
אברהם
travels to
גְּרָר
where he again presents his wife as his sister.
אבימליך ,
the king, takes
שרה .
He is warned by God in a dream that he will die for having taken a married woman.
אבימלך
confronts
אברהם
who defends himself by arguing that indeed
שרה
is related to him on his father's side (see
רש "י
to
בראשית כ :יב ), and by claiming that he had to protect himself from the immorality of the place.
אבימלך
sends the couple away with many gifts and later on forges a pact with
אברהם .
יצחק
is born and is circumcised.
אברהם 's
other son
ישמעאל
makes sport of
יצחק ,
and
שרה
demands that
אברהם
banish
ישמעאל
and
הגר ,
saying that she will not have
ישמעאל
inherit along with
יצחק .
אברהם
is upset by
שרה 's
request but God tells him to grant
שרה 's
wish.
אברהם
sends
ישמעאל
and
הגר
away, and God promises him that
ישמעאל
too will found a great nation. God gives
אברהם
his greatest test when He asks him to sacrifice
יצחק
on an altar - the episode known as
עֲקֵדַת יִצְחָק .
Without hesitation,
אברהם
takes his son and travels to a place indicated by God and prepares to kill his son. At the last moment
אברהם
is stopped by an angel who declares that
אברהם
has proven his complete faith by this act of utter submission to the will of God (פרשת וירא ).
שרה
dies at age 127, and after mourning her
אברהם
proceeds to buy a burial plot and cave from
עפרון החתי ,
at a location in
חֶבְרוֹן
known as
מְעָרַת הַמַּכְפֵּלָה .
אברהם
next sends his servant to his homeland to find a wife for
יצחק .
אברהם
refuses to let his son marry a local girl and also warns the servant against taking
יצחק
out of
כנען
to settle in
אברהם 's
native land.
אברהם
lives to 175 and upon his death is buried in the family burial plot by his sons
יצחק
and
ישמעאל
(פרשת חיי שרה ).
אברהם
remains the father figure for the Jewish people and is generally called
אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ -
אברהם
our father. The Bible, the prayer book and Jewish culture often recall the unique relationship
אברהם
had with God, sometimes referring to God as
אֱלֹ -הֵי אַבְרָהָם -
the God of
אברהם .
The Talmud credits
אברהם
with contributing to the composition of
תהלים
(בבא בתרא יד :.
רש "י
suggests that this means that
אברהם
and
איתן האזרחי
are one and the same;
איתן
is mentioned in
תהלים פט :א .).
פרקי אבות ה :ג states that אברהם passes 10 tests put to him by God. Here is one list of these trials as assembled by the רמב "ם . 1. Emigration to a foreign country which God commands (בראשית יב :א -ו ). 2. The famine that אברהם encounters upon reaching his destination, though told he would prosper (יב :י ). 3. The treachery of the Egyptians when שרה is taken to the palace (יב :יד -כ ). 4. The war of the five kings versus the four that אברהם participates in (פרק יד ). 5. אברהם 's marriage to הגר after despairing of שרה having a child (פרק טז ). 6. God's command to אברהם to circumcise himself (יז :ט -יד ). 7. The treachery of the king of גרר when שרה is taken by him (פרק כ ). 8. The banishment of הגר after she bore him a son (כא :ט -כא ). 9. The banishment of ישמעאל from the household (כא :ט -כא )
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