By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin
PIKESVILLE, Maryland — Numerous questions arise when we delve into the biblical portion concerning Abraham in Lekh Lekha, Genesis 12:1-17:27. One such question is the apparent mistake in narrating Abraham’s story, which begins when he is 75. His early life is briefly noted in only six sentences in 11:27-32. Shouldn’t the entire story of Abraham, including these early years, be presented together, with 11:27-32 forming part of chapter 12?
Why does the Torah only dedicate six sentences to Abraham’s first 75 years? The Midrashim, a collection of Jewish texts first begun to be written in the fifth century CE, delves into Abraham’s early life, suggesting its significance. Why doesn’t the Torah share this perspective?
According to 25:7, Abraham died at age 175. Is it a coincidence that 75 appears in his early life and death?
Should we accept the longevity of life before the flood, which was hundreds of years, and after the flood until shortly after Moses’ death, around 120 years, as accurate calculations? Or did our early ancestors consider each month a year so that Adam did not die at age 930, but 77, and the following group counted each of the two solstices as a year, and Abraham did not die at age 175 but 87, and Moses did not die at age 120, but 60?
As we ponder these and other questions, it’s important to remember that questioning the Bible is not necessarily a critique. There are two approaches to questioning: mock, criticize, and insist that the other is wrong. Some scholars analyze the Torah in this fashion, believing they are clever. However, there is a second, more rational way of questioning: to search for answers, improve our thinking, and better understand ourselves and all God has created. We should always question everything in this second way.
The division of chapters in the Torah was a decision made by Christians, which Jews generally accepted. This division allows us to refer to the same places in the Torah text. Despite the frequent absurdity in how the text was divided, it was accepted by Jews and knowledgeable non-Jewish scholars.
For example, Genesis chapter one tells the tale of the creation. Logically, it should include all seven days, but the dividers placed the three sentences concerning the seventh day in chapter two. Chapter two should have started with 2:4.
Every human, even the best of us, makes mistakes. According to the rabbis, even Moses made mistakes, and one misbehavior caused God to disallow him to lead the Israelites into Canaan and give the leadership to Joshua. According to many interpretations, God was dissatisfied with how the prophet Elijah blasted the people of Israel. When the Bible states Elijah was transported to heaven in a fiery chariot, it is a metaphor for saying God killed him. The sage Ramban, called Nachmanides (1194-1270), criticized Abraham for saying that his wife Sarah was his sister when he entered Egypt because Abraham should have had faith that God would protect him and his wife.
I like the first two interpretations, which disparage Moses and Elijah. They were great but also human. But I dislike Nachmanides’ critique of Abraham. People should not sit back passively and rely on God to help them. At the very beginning of the Torah, in Genesis 1:27, God informs people that He “created humans in His image.” Maimonides (1138-1204) explains in chapter one of his Guide for the Perplexed that the “image of God” is not physical but the intellect. God gave humans the intellect to improve themselves by learning and helping all God created. Later in Guide 3:17, he says “divine providence” is not divine aid but the use of the intellect, and the more individuals improve their understanding, the more help it gives.
I like Rabbi Samuel David Luzzatto’s (1800-1865) interpretation in his book Shadal on Genesis, translated and edited by Daniel A. Klein in 2019. Shadal is the Hebrew acronym of his name. He quotes Rabbenu Nissim, Abravanel, and Ovadiah Sforno that when Abraham’s wife would say she was his sister, every man would hope that he would agree to give her to him in marriage and they would not kill him.
However, even according to this interpretation, Abraham made a mistake. True, he was not killed, but his wife was kidnapped and given to Pharaoh. Learned Christian and Jewish scholars made mistaken calculations, leading many people to have the wrong idea. Everybody “knows” that the date 2024 means that Jesus was born 2,024 years ago. But everybody is wrong. This dating was invented by a Christian cleric around the year 600 CE. He felt confident he was calculating the date of Jesus’ birth correctly. He was not correct. He forgot that a New Testament Gospel states that King Herod tried to kill the babies born the year Jesus was born, and Jesus’ family had to flee to Egypt. King Herod died in 4 BCE. Recognizing this, Jesus was not born in the year 1 but in 4 or 5 BCE, several years before his alleged birth.
Jewish scholars made a similar mistake in calculating the years since creation.They relied on the literal dating of the lives of the first humans until after the flood when supposing that people lived as long as 930 years seems unreasonable. They calculated that Abraham was born in 1948 after creation. If we assume, as mentioned above, that each month was considered a year, Abraham would have been born only about 160 years after creation. This was not the only mistake. They relied on Midrashim. For example, while the Torah states that Noah’s sons were born when he was 500 years old, and Shem was the oldest, the Midrash states he was not the oldest and was born when his dad was 502. There is no support for the midrashic view. Even worse, When the reign of kings is mentioned, scholars recognize that the year of death may be the same as the year his successor became king. However, the originators of the Anno Mundi, the calculation based on the creation of the world, used guesswork to deal with this and many other problems. Although living some 600 years after the creation of the Anno Mundi, Maimonides did not use it.
We should not agonize when we make mistakes because, as we saw, even the best humans do so. We should think, recognize our errors, decide to correct them, and develop habits to prevent us from repeating them. Both Moses and Elijah did not do so.
Perhaps the Torah, in contrast to the Midrashim, recognized that Abraham was not as brilliant in his first 75 years as he was later in life. The Torah tells us that we, like Abraham, can improve if we use the “image of God,” our intelligence.
Perhaps we should also not interpret the Midrashim as stories about Abraham’s genius but rather his struggles to understand the world and his responsibility since he was part of it.
This would explain Genesis chapter 22, the story of the near sacrifice by Abraham of his son Isaac. God was not testing Abraham. God does not need to do so. The story is about Abraham’s inner struggle. His attempt to understand the truth. Are the people of his generation correct when they insist fathers must show their love to the gods by sacrificing to the gods what they love the most? In Abraham’s life, his son Isaac is the most precious thing. At first, Abraham felt persuaded by the belief of the masses, but then he realized they were wrong.
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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps and the author of more than 50 books.