Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Inspiring Story, Longform / 27 Oct 2021

Abraham’s Conflicted Love

We live in an era of punditry. Everyone has an interpretation of events, yet few of us stop to understand what actually might have happened. Interpretation occludes understanding, as tenuously grand conclusions occlude more modest insights that are built upon a firmer footing. Similar critique might be applied to how many of us approach the founder of the Jewish people, Abraham. To venerate the origins of Judaism itself, we conclude at the outset that he was a moral superhero – all the while deemphasizing a personal life riddled with painful complexity. We would do well to reexamine his personal life, as it may shed new light on his public leadership role. In his family, Abraham seems unnecessarily cruel, even at times vindictive. He abusively offers his wife Sarah to Pharaoh as a consort for financial gain. He fervently argues against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah but does not so much as express surprise when God asks him to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. He and Sarah suffer from infertility challenges, while he willingly accepts Sarah’s offer of her handmaid Hagar to be his lover and their surrogate. Then, when Hagar is pregnant, he allows Sarah to make life untenable such that Hagar runs away to the wilderness. Abraham’s conduct seems entirely at odds with the tradition that he cofounded and the values that we profess as rabbinic Jews today. It might have even greater complexity than initially meets the eye. In this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1 – 25: 18), we learn that after Sarah dies, Abraham devotes himself to finding Isaac a suitable spouse. He dispatches a servant to bring back a worthy partner from Haran, where Abraham once lived. The servant returns with Rebecca – and enables Isaac to refocus on the life of his…

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