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Friday, October 16, 2026

Noach 6

This class finishes Parshas Noach, from Bereshis 11:10 to the end of the chapter: the ten generations from Shem down to Terach, the birth of Avram, the death of Haran, the marriages of Avram and Nachor, Sarai's barrenness, the family's move to Charan, and Terach's death. The genealogy shows that the story of creation reached us through an unbroken chain of people who knew one another. Most of the class follows the Me'am Loez through Avram's early life: Nimrod's attempt to kill him as a baby, his search for Hashem, the idol shop, and the fiery furnace of Ur Kasdim. The idea that keeps coming back is Avram's fearlessness: one man standing up to the whole world, and to its king, for the truth.

The pesukim

Bereshis 11:10–11

אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת שֵׁ֔ם שֵׁ֚ם בֶּן־מְאַ֣ת שָׁנָ֔ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־אַרְפַּכְשָׁ֑ד שְׁנָתַ֖יִם אַחַ֥ר הַמַּבּֽוּל׃

These are the chronicles of Shem: Shem was 100 years old when he had a son Arpachshad, two years after the flood.

וַֽיְחִי־שֵׁ֗ם אַֽחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־אַרְפַּכְשָׁ֔ד חֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃

Shem lived 500 years after he had Arpachshad, and he had sons and daughters.

These are the chronicles of Shem: Shem was a hundred years old when he fathered Arpachshad, two years after the flood, and he lived five hundred more years and had sons and daughters. With this the Torah starts a second list of ten generations, from Noach down to Avram, to match the ten from Adam to Noach. The list answers anyone who claims the world always existed and had no Creator, because it shows that the account of creation came down through a direct chain of people who knew each other. Our tradition is not a story that drifted over time. It is testimony handed from person to person from the very beginning.
Bereshis 11:12–25

וְאַרְפַּכְשַׁ֣ד חַ֔י חָמֵ֥שׁ וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֖ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־שָֽׁלַח׃

Arpachshad was 35 years old when he had a son Shelach.

וַיְחִ֣י אַרְפַּכְשַׁ֗ד אַֽחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־שֶׁ֔לַח שָׁלֹ֣שׁ שָׁנִ֔ים וְאַרְבַּ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃

Arpachshad lived 403 years after he had Shelach, and he had sons and daughters.

וְשֶׁ֥לַח חַ֖י שְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־עֵֽבֶר׃

Shelach was 30 years old when he had a son Eber.

וַֽיְחִי־שֶׁ֗לַח אַחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־עֵ֔בֶר שָׁלֹ֣שׁ שָׁנִ֔ים וְאַרְבַּ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃

Shelach lived 403 years after he had Eber, and he had sons and daughters.

וַֽיְחִי־עֵ֕בֶר אַרְבַּ֥ע וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֖ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־פָּֽלֶג׃

Eber was 34 years old when he had a son Peleg.

וַֽיְחִי־עֵ֗בֶר אַחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־פֶּ֔לֶג שְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים שָׁנָ֔ה וְאַרְבַּ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃

Eber lived 430 years after he had Peleg, and he had sons and daughters.

וַֽיְחִי־פֶ֖לֶג שְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־רְעֽוּ׃

Peleg was 30 years old when he had a son Reu.

וַֽיְחִי־פֶ֗לֶג אַחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־רְע֔וּ תֵּ֥שַׁע שָׁנִ֖ים וּמָאתַ֣יִם שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃

Peleg lived 209 years after he had Reu, and he had sons and daughters.

וַיְחִ֣י רְע֔וּ שְׁתַּ֥יִם וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֖ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־שְׂרֽוּג׃

Reu was 32 years old when he had a son Serug.

וַיְחִ֣י רְע֗וּ אַחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־שְׂר֔וּג שֶׁ֥בַע שָׁנִ֖ים וּמָאתַ֣יִם שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃

Reu lived 207 years after he had Serug, and he had sons and daughters.

וַיְחִ֥י שְׂר֖וּג שְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־נָחֽוֹר׃

Serug was 30 years old when he had a son Nachor.

וַיְחִ֣י שְׂר֗וּג אַחֲרֵ֛י הוֹלִיד֥וֹ אֶת־נָח֖וֹר מָאתַ֣יִם שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃

Serug lived 200 years after he had Nachor, and he had sons and daughters.

וַיְחִ֣י נָח֔וֹר תֵּ֥שַׁע וְעֶשְׂרִ֖ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־תָּֽרַח׃

Nachor was 29 years old when he had a son Terach.

וַיְחִ֣י נָח֗וֹר אַחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־תֶּ֔רַח תְּשַֽׁע־עֶשְׂרֵ֥ה שָׁנָ֖ה וּמְאַ֣ת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃

Nachor lived 119 years after he had Terach, and he had sons and daughters.

These verses run through the generations of Arpachshad, Shelach, Ever, Peleg, Re'u, Serug, Nachor and Terach, giving each man's age when he fathered the next one and how long he lived afterwards, having sons and daughters. The list from Adam to Noach ended every entry with 'and he died'. This list never does. The earlier list said it so that no one would think those men died in the flood as punishment: they were righteous and died in their beds. After the flood there was no second flood, so no one would think these men were punished, and the Torah did not need to say that they died.
Bereshis 11:26–27

וַֽיְחִי־תֶ֖רַח שִׁבְעִ֣ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֙וֹלֶד֙ אֶת־אַבְרָ֔ם אֶת־נָח֖וֹר וְאֶת־הָרָֽן׃

Terach was 70 years old when he fathered Abram, Nachor and Haran.

וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת תֶּ֔רַח תֶּ֚רַח הוֹלִ֣יד אֶת־אַבְרָ֔ם אֶת־נָח֖וֹר וְאֶת־הָרָ֑ן וְהָרָ֖ן הוֹלִ֥יד אֶת־לֽוֹט׃

These are the chronicles of Terach: Terach fathered Abram, Nachor and Haran. Haran had a son Lot.

Terach was seventy years old when he fathered Avram, Nachor and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. Here the name is spelled aleph, beis, reish, mem: Avram, without the hei. He was born Avram and is only renamed Avraham later, in a future parsha. So the family that the rest of the parsha follows is in place: Terach, his three sons, and one grandson.
Bereshis 11:28

וַיָּ֣מׇת הָרָ֔ן עַל־פְּנֵ֖י תֶּ֣רַח אָבִ֑יו בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מוֹלַדְתּ֖וֹ בְּא֥וּר כַּשְׂדִּֽים׃

Haran died during the lifetime of his father Terach, in the land of his birth, Ur Casdim.

Haran died in the lifetime of his father Terach, in the land of his birth, Ur Kasdim. He died in Nimrod's furnace, in front of his father, after being thrown in together with Avram. Haran's faith was not complete and the fire burned him, while Avram came out unharmed. The same fire that killed the man of half-faith had no power over the man whose faith was whole.
Bereshis 11:29

וַיִּקַּ֨ח אַבְרָ֧ם וְנָח֛וֹר לָהֶ֖ם נָשִׁ֑ים שֵׁ֤ם אֵֽשֶׁת־אַבְרָם֙ שָׂרָ֔י וְשֵׁ֤ם אֵֽשֶׁת־נָחוֹר֙ מִלְכָּ֔ה בַּת־הָרָ֥ן אֲבִֽי־מִלְכָּ֖ה וַֽאֲבִ֥י יִסְכָּֽה׃

Abram and Nachor married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai. The name of Nachor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran (who was the father of Milcah and Yiscah).

Avram and Nachor took wives: Avram's wife was Sarai, and Nachor's was Milkah, daughter of Haran, who was the father of Milkah and Yiskah. Haran, the brother who died in the fire, left a son, Lot, and two daughters, and the two surviving brothers married their nieces. Yiskah is Sarai, and the name comes from sachah, 'to gaze'. People gazed at her beauty: beside her, even the most beautiful people of the time looked like apes. She also gazed into the future, because she was a prophetess.
Bereshis 11:30

וַתְּהִ֥י שָׂרַ֖י עֲקָרָ֑ה אֵ֥ין לָ֖הּ וָלָֽד׃

Sarai was sterile; she had no children.

Sarai was barren; she had no child. If she was barren, it is obvious she had no child, so why say both? The Talmud in Yevamos 64b explains that she was born without a womb and had no place to carry a child at all. That is why the birth of Yitzchak, still to come, will be a miracle beyond anything nature allows.
Bereshis 11:31

וַיִּקַּ֨ח תֶּ֜רַח אֶת־אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֗וֹ וְאֶת־ל֤וֹט בֶּן־הָרָן֙ בֶּן־בְּנ֔וֹ וְאֵת֙ שָׂרַ֣י כַּלָּת֔וֹ אֵ֖שֶׁת אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֑וֹ וַיֵּצְא֨וּ אִתָּ֜ם מֵא֣וּר כַּשְׂדִּ֗ים לָלֶ֙כֶת֙ אַ֣רְצָה כְּנַ֔עַן וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ עַד־חָרָ֖ן וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ שָֽׁם׃

Terach took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran's son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Abram's wife). With them, he left Ur Casdim, heading toward the land of Canaan. They came as far as Charan and settled there.

Terach took his son Avram, his grandson Lot (Haran's son) and his daughter-in-law Sarai, and they left Ur Kasdim for the land of Canaan, but they stopped in Charan and settled there. Nachor and his wife Milkah stayed behind. The move came about two years after the furnace, when Nimrod was again plotting to kill Avram. Avram urged his father to leave a land of idol worship and serve Hashem in peace in Canaan, and Noach and Shem also persuaded Terach to go.
Bereshis 11:32

וַיִּהְי֣וּ יְמֵי־תֶ֔רַח חָמֵ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים וּמָאתַ֣יִם שָׁנָ֑ה וַיָּ֥מׇת תֶּ֖רַח בְּחָרָֽן׃

All of Terach's days were 205 years, and Terach died in Charan.

Terach lived 205 years, and he died in Charan. Rashi points out that Terach did not actually die at this point in the story. He died sixty years after Avram left Charan. The Torah tells of his death first so that no one would think Avram walked out on an old father who was about to die. Avram respected his father, and the Torah protects that.

English from The Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, used with the permission of the Kaplan family. Hebrew: Miqra according to the Masorah (CC BY-SA).

Takeaways

  • Our tradition of creation was handed down person to person in an unbroken chain from Adam; it was never a story that drifted over time.
  • When a person makes a real effort to find Hashem, Hashem helps him find the way, the way He gave Avram the wisdom to see past his whole society.
  • Faith has to be whole: the same fire that killed Haran, whose faith was incomplete, could not touch Avram.
  • Honor your parents even when you disagree with them; the Torah tells of Terach's death early so that no one would think Avram abandoned him.
  • When you stand for the truth, don't be afraid, even in front of kings.
Going deeper— the stories, Kabbalah and the reasons behind the reasons

How the story of creation reached us in an unbroken chain

  • Avram knew Noach, so he heard from someone who was there what the world was like before the flood, during it, and after it.
  • Noach knew people who had seen Adam and heard his story from Adam himself. That put Avram only two links away from the first man.
  • Shem, Noach's son, overlapped with Yitzchak and Yaakov, so they also heard about the flood firsthand.
  • The Ramban traces the chain: Avram heard the story of the flood from Noach, and Noach told him about Adam as he had heard it from his grandparents. Yitzchak and Yaakov heard it from Shem, and Yaakov told it all to his children. From there it runs to the twelve tribes, to Moshe, and from Moshe to everything we have in writing today. Nothing was lost in translation along the way.
  • Shem was born in the year 1558 after creation (2203 BCE) and lived 600 years, until 2158.

The yeshiva of Shem and Ever

  • Ever came four generations into the list (Shem, Arpachshad, Shelach, Ever). He was a great genius and founded an academy where Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov all studied.
  • It is known as the yeshiva of Shem and Ever, and Yaakov learned there for fourteen years.
  • Before that it was the yeshiva of Noach and Shem, opened by the righteous Noach together with his son, and Avram learned there too.

Peleg: a name that foretold the scattering

  • Peleg died in the Jewish year 1996 (we are now in 5787). That was the same year Hashem scattered the people who were building the Tower of Bavel.
  • His father Ever named him Peleg, which means 'to divide' or 'to separate', because he knew the scattering would happen in the year Peleg died.

Terach: chief idol priest and inventor of stamped coins

  • Terach was born in 1878 (1883 BCE), the ninth generation after Noach.
  • The Shalsheles HaKabbalah says Terach invented a way to stamp coins with pictures and inscriptions.
  • He was the greatest of the idol priests, and he was Nimrod's viceroy, second in command of the kingdom.

Nimrod and the star at Avram's birth

  • Nimrod, whose name comes from 'rebel', ruled the whole civilized world. He denied Hashem and presented himself as a god, and in Bavel people bowed to statues of him. He was so evil that his name became a byword for evil.
  • Avram was born in 1948 (1813 BCE). That night Nimrod's astrologers saw a great star rise in the east, shoot across the sky and swallow four other stars. They read it to mean that a child born that night would become great, inherit Canaan and kill its kings.
  • They told Nimrod that the son just born to Terach, whose birth Terach had celebrated with a feast, would rule this world and the next and turn people away from Nimrod. They advised him to buy the child and kill it.
  • Nimrod offered Terach a house filled with gold to the ceiling, and Terach agreed. Then he told Nimrod that someone had offered him a silo of barley for his best horse. Nimrod said no one would trade a fine horse for barley, and Terach answered: then how could I trade my dear son for money?
  • Nimrod was furious. Terach took it back and asked for three days, and on the third day he was warned he would be burned if he did not hand the boy over. He handed over the baby of a slave woman, born the same night, and kept the gold. Nimrod killed that baby, thought Avram was dead, and forgot the prophecy.

How Avram found Hashem

  • There are different opinions about how old Avram was when he began searching for his Creator: three years old, forty (the Rambam), or forty-eight (the Midrash). The Yalkut Chadash puts them together: at three he began to understand the nature of Hashem, and by forty-eight he understood it well.
  • First he prayed to the sun. When it set and the moon and stars came out, he prayed to the moon. When the moon set and the sun rose again, he concluded that things which come and go did not create heaven and earth, so there must be a God in heaven who directs the whole world.
  • He asked Terach who created the world, and Terach brought out a big, impressive idol. Avram had his mother cook a fine meal, put it before the idol, and found it untouched. He decided he had to find the truth himself, because what he had been taught was nonsense.
  • Because Avram made the effort to find Hashem, Hashem helped him and gave him the wisdom to see that the idols were only man-made. That sounds obvious to us, but it meant breaking free of everything his whole society had taught from childhood. After that the angel Gavriel taught him many hidden things.
  • Some say that when Avram could not turn his parents away from idolatry, he went to the yeshiva of Noach and Shem and learned there for 39 years. No one knew who he was, but he became very great.

Gavriel carries Avram to Bavel, and the shaking of Nimrod's throne

  • Another tradition, different from the story of the swapped baby, says Terach himself told Nimrod that the child the astrologers warned about was his son. He blamed his wife, saying she had pretended to be sick and given birth in secret.
  • Nimrod trembled. The Satan, disguised as a man, urged him to send a thousand warriors against Avram, and tens of thousands volunteered. Surrounded, Avram prayed: whatever I did was for Your glory, please save me. Hashem sent the angel Gavriel, who told him not to be afraid. A great cloud covered the land in darkness, and Nimrod's men fled back to Bavel.
  • Gavriel told Avram to follow them. Avram said he had no money, no food and no weapons. Gavriel answered that he needed nothing, because he would carry Avram on his shoulders as a sign that Hashem was with him. Moments later Avram was in Bavel, a journey of forty days.
  • He walked the streets of Bavel calling out that Hashem is one and His name is one, the God of heaven and earth, like the words we say every day at the end of Aleinu. He asked his parents how they could worship a statue whose mouth cannot speak and whose eyes cannot see.
  • At the closing feast of a seven-day celebration, Avram walked up to Nimrod's throne, shook it, and rebuked him in public for following idols of silver and gold instead of the living God, who never sleeps. Every idol in the royal chamber fell and shattered, and the court stood stunned for over an hour.
  • Nimrod asked whether that was Avram's voice or his God's. Avram answered that it was his own voice, the least of the creatures his God had made. Nimrod declared that Avram's God was greater than all kings and sent him home with his father.

The idol shop

  • A few days later Terach fell sick and asked Avram and Haran to run his idol shop. When Avram asked who created heaven and earth, Terach said: after all your years in my store, you still don't know? These idols are the lords of the universe.
  • Avram locked a fine meal in the room with the idols. After a day nothing had been eaten, so he smashed every idol except the biggest one and put the hammer in its hand.
  • Terach heard the noise and came ready to kill him. Avram told him the small one had started eating before the big ones, so the biggest idol took the hammer and smashed the smaller ones for the disrespect: go ask him, he is still holding the hammer.
  • Terach shouted that they are wood and stone and cannot speak or move. Avram answered: then how can you believe they created heaven and earth?
  • Avram begged his father to stop. He reminded him of the generation of Enosh, when a flood covered a third of the world, and of the great flood that destroyed all of it.

Useless idols for sale

  • Avram tied two idols to a rope and walked through the streets calling: useless idols for sale! Their mouths can't speak, their eyes can't see, their ears can't hear, they can't even walk.
  • To a fifty-year-old customer he said: how can you worship an idol that was made yesterday?
  • An old man came to buy a big idol because the one he had bought the week before was stolen. Avram asked him: if it couldn't protect itself, how will it protect you? He told the man to worship the God of heaven, not Nimrod, who had made himself a god, and promised that what was stolen would come back and that he would escape the judgment of Gehinnom (purgatory).
  • Avram taught him a short prayer: God is Lord of the heavens above and the earth below; there is none else; He is one and there is no other; He brings death and restores life; Avram His servant is trusted in His house.
  • The next day the thieves returned everything. The old man told everyone, and many people stopped worshipping Nimrod, until Nimrod had the old man killed.

The challenge of the sun, and prison

  • Another account: by now many people were following Avram. At one of Nimrod's feasts Avram broke his idols and challenged him: if you are a god, make the sun rise in the west and set in the east, and I will worship you.
  • He warned Nimrod that Hashem, who had given him the power to destroy the idols, could also give him the power to kill Nimrod.
  • Nimrod threw him into prison with bread but no water. The angel Gavriel made a spring flow in his cell, brought him food, and never left his side.
  • Nimrod's wise men ruled that Avram should be burned alive. Anyone loyal to the king was told to bring wood, and for forty days firewood came in from all over the kingdom.

The furnace: Terach gives up Haran

  • Nimrod had a huge furnace in a village called Ur Kasdim (not the ancient city of Ur). It burned for three days and three nights, until the village could not bear the heat. Thousands of his men watched from the rooftops.
  • The advisors said Terach should burn too for swapping the baby. Nimrod promised him safety if he told the truth. Terach admitted the swap, said he did it out of pity for his son, and claimed it was his son Haran's idea. It was his own idea, but he blamed Haran to save himself, and Haran was sentenced to death.
  • The jailer was sure Avram had died after a year in prison without water, but found him well. Avram told him that the God of heaven, who feeds all creatures, had fed him. The jailer came to believe and called Nimrod a fraud. Nimrod ordered him executed, and every sword that struck his neck broke.
  • Officers who came near the furnace to throw Avram in were burned to death by flames bursting out of it, while Avram was unharmed. The Satan, disguised as a man, showed Nimrod how to build a catapult, and Avram and Haran were tied onto it.
  • The Satan told Avram to bow to Nimrod and escape the flames, and Avram cursed him. His mother came crying and begging him to bow. He told her: Nimrod's fire will go out, but the fire of Gehinnom is never put out.

Avram in the fire

  • Haran's faith was not complete, and he was burned at once. Even the twelve men working the catapult were burned to death when fire burst out of the furnace. Avram was rescued by Hashem Himself, though some say the angel Michael was sent to save him.
  • There is another reason Haran was thrown in. He was a great sorcerer, and they thought his sorcery was what kept Avram alive in the fire.
  • Avram walked in the flames for three days and three nights. Nimrod thought the reports were a joke and came to see for himself, and eight men were burned trying to pull Avram out.
  • Nimrod called out that Avram was a true servant of the great God of heaven and told him to come out. The crowd now thought Avram was a god, and Nimrod bowed to him. Avram said: I am nothing, believe in Hashem who is in heaven.
  • Nimrod gave him many gifts, including his two best slaves. One was Eliezer; some say Eliezer was Nimrod's own son, and some say he was Og. The nobles also brought gifts and escorted Avram home.
  • Now everyone knew that Hashem had saved Avram, and the Zohar says people brought their children to his tent so he would teach them the right way. The village, once called Kasdim, was renamed Ur Kasdim, because ur means flame.

How Haran died in front of his father

  • Some say only Avram was thrown into the furnace at first. When he was not harmed, people said it was because of his brother Haran, a great sorcerer. Haran said to himself: if Avram comes out alive, I'll take his side; if not, I'll stay loyal to Nimrod. A flame shot out of the furnace and consumed him, and his body was laid before his father Terach. That is the meaning of "Haran died in the presence of Terach his father" (Targum Yonasan).
  • Others say Nimrod's men threw Haran in to find out whose merit was saving Avram, his own or his brother's. The heat burned out his lungs before they reached the furnace, so they brought him to his father, and he died there. Then everyone believed in Avram's greatness (Bereishis Rabbah 38:13).
  • Rashi on 11:28 gives the Midrash's version: when Avram was saved, they asked Haran whose side he was on. He said Avram's, and they threw him in.

Sarai's age: the arithmetic

  • Haran was eight years old when his daughter Sarai was born, in 1958 (1803 BCE). She was later renamed Sarah, and she was Avram's niece.
  • How we know: Avram was a year older than Nachor, and Nachor was a year older than Haran, so Avram was two years older than Haran. Sarah was ten years younger than Avram (when Avraham was 100, she was 90). So when Sarai was born, Haran was eight. The Gemara in Sanhedrin 69b works it out this way.
  • Haran's other daughter, Milkah, who married her uncle Nachor, was born when Haran was seven.

Avram and Sarai: no natural way to have children

  • Avram too was born without functioning reproductive organs, as we saw yesterday.
  • The builders of the Tower of Bavel mocked him for it: if God really runs the world and cares about it, why does this righteous man have no children?
  • So the birth of Yitzchak will be a miracle twice over: Sarah was ninety, and neither of them had the physical ability to have children at all.

Nimrod's dream and Avram's escape

  • The Sefer HaYashar says that about two years after the furnace, Nimrod dreamed he stood by the furnace and a man who looked like Avram ran at him with a sword. The man threw an egg at Nimrod's head, and it became a river that drowned all his men except Nimrod and three others who looked just like him. The river shrank back into the egg, a bird hatched from it, and the bird pecked out Nimrod's eyes.
  • His advisors said it meant Avram would wage a great war against him and kill his men. They reminded him of the dream he had fifty years earlier, about the boy who would destroy all belief in him as a god, and told him to get rid of Avram, so Nimrod sent a secret agent to kill him.
  • Eliezer, who came from Nimrod's palace, heard about the plot and warned Avram. Avram fled and hid in the yeshiva of Noach and Shem. His house was searched, he could not be found, and Nimrod slowly forgot about it.
  • Avram sent word to Terach: leave this place. I can't hide forever, and even as Nimrod's second in command he could behead you. Why live among idol worshippers? Wealth is fleeting, so let us go to Canaan together and serve Hashem in peace.

Avram in Charan and the book he wrote

  • Some say Avram was born in Charan, and others say in Ur Kasdim, Terach's hometown.
  • In Charan, sun-worshippers argued with Avram, and the king imprisoned him for many days. Afraid Avram would win the people over to Hashem, the king gave him all his property and drove him out toward Canaan.
  • Wherever Avram went he proclaimed Hashem's greatness. He knew how to speak to each person in a way that reached them, and he gathered thousands of followers and taught them the basic principles of serving Hashem.
  • He wrote many books, among them one we still have, the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation. He passed it to Yitzchak, Yitzchak passed it to Yaakov, and Yaakov passed it to his sons.
  • Yaakov made Levi head of the yeshiva where the commandments would be learned, and put him in charge of punishing idol worshippers. Even when the Jewish people served idols in Egypt, the tribe of Levi never did.

Why Shem and Ever didn't smash idols

  • Shem and Ever lived in the land of Canaan, where public idol worship was not common or accepted, so there was no need for them to smash idols.
  • Avram lived in Bavel, where idolatry was everywhere, so he had to fight it openly.
  • Even after Avram came to Shem and Ever's land, he went around urging people to repent. In that respect he was greater than they were.

The upside-down nun in Charan

  • In some Torah scrolls the nun in the word Charan in this verse is written upside down.
  • Charon means anger. For the first twenty generations, ten from Adam to Noach and ten from Noach to Avram, Hashem was angry with the world and with the way people were living.
  • When Avram came, the world got better. The reversed letter shows Hashem's anger turning around into satisfaction with where the world was going.

Fearless for the truth

  • These stories are the roots of the Jewish people, and what stands out is Avram's strength: he walked up to Nimrod, shook his throne, and stood up for the truth in front of the whole world.
  • King David says it in Tehillim 119:46: 'I will speak of Your testimonies before kings, and I will not be ashamed.'
  • When you stand for truth, don't be afraid to say it; just push through. Avram did, everything worked out for him, and he earned the merit of becoming the father of the nation.
Review questions
  1. Why does the Torah list the ten generations from Noach to Avram, and what does it show about our tradition?
  2. The list from Adam to Noach says 'and he died' for each man. Why doesn't the list from Shem to Terach?
  3. How did Avram use the idol shop to show his father that idols are powerless?
  4. Why did Haran die in the furnace while Avram came out unharmed?
  5. What are the two reasons Sarai is called Yiskah?
  6. According to Rashi, why does the Torah record Terach's death before Avram leaves Charan?
  7. How do we know Haran was only eight when Sarai was born?
Sources
  • Me'am Loez — the main text of the class, including the stories of Avram's early life
  • Ramban — the genealogies show an unbroken chain of tradition back to Adam
  • Shalsheles HaKabbalah — Terach invented stamped coins with inscriptions
  • Rambam, Avodah Zarah 1:3 — Avram recognized his Creator at forty
  • Bereishis Rabbah 64:4 — Avram recognized his Creator at forty-eight
  • Yalkut Chadash — at three Avram began to understand, and by forty-eight he understood well
  • Zohar — parents brought their children to Avram's tent to be taught
  • Talmud, Sanhedrin 69b — Haran was eight when Sarai was born
  • Rashi on Bereshis 11:29, from Megillah 14a — the two reasons Sarai is called Yiskah
  • Talmud, Yevamos 64b — Sarai was born without a womb
  • Sefer HaYashar — Nimrod's dream of the man, the egg and the bird
  • Sefer Yetzirah — the book Avram wrote and passed down to Yitzchak and Yaakov
  • Rashi on Bereshis 11:32 — the upside-down nun, and Terach died sixty years after Avram left Charan
  • Tehillim 119:46 — 'I will speak of Your testimonies before kings, and I will not be ashamed'