Parshat Toldot: Love as the Guide

This week's portion starts telling us about “the generations (toldot) of Isaac, the son of Abraham” (25:19) and in this context “generations” refer to the life and times of our second Patriarch, the least mentioned in the Torah though essential and important as Abraham and Jacob.

Isaac is distinguished as the Jewish Patriarch whose name was not changed by the Creator, and whose life is considered the perfect offering for Him. Isaac remained being that all his life. Indeed this is a special distinction we must honor and emulate as individuals and as a Nation who want to become the perfect offering of God's ways and attributes.

“And the children struggled within her, and she said, 'If so, why am I this?' And she went to inquire of the Lord.” (25:22). Like her husband, our matriarch Rebecca was fully aware that God's Love creates and sustains all, and everything depends on His will including the struggle that was taking place in her womb. “And the Lord said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb, and two kingdoms will separate from your innards, and one kingdom will become mightier than the other kingdom, and the elder will serve the younger'.” (25:23). We must understand this statement not as an answer for her but as a prophecy and Commandment, not only for Rebecca but for the people of the Torah.

Mystic Sages teach that these “two nations” are two forces that comprise the Universe, which are really one we can translate as Light revealed and Light not revealed, for all that exists was created as a unity emanated from God who is also One. In this context His Commandment in His words for Rebecca is clear: darkness's destiny is to reveal the Light that it conceals (“the elder will serve the younger”). In a deeper meaning, the lower and negative aspects must serve the higher and positive levels of human consciousness, not the opposite.

It is interesting to note that the lower aspects of consciousness indeed act according to their own nature and to their own level, as the feet that walk and the hands that write. There is no judgment regarding their nature and function because all serve a purpose, hence it is the purpose what we must establish, direct and pursue.

Emotions, passions and instincts may disregard the purpose and mission delineated by the intellect and mind: “Esau replied, 'Behold, I am going to die; so why do I need this birthright'?” “(…) and Esau despised the birthright.” (25:32, 34).

Esau's purpose was focused on destructive materialistic desires and not altruistic or spiritual concerns, and selling his birthright was his way to confirm his choice. Our oral tradition say that he committed five transgressions on that day: he raped a betrothed maiden, murdered Nimrod the king of Babel, rejected the existence of God, denied the resurrection of the dead, and repudiated the birthright (which in those times also represented the priesthood). It also tells that God took Abraham's life that day to spare him the shame of seeing that one of his descendants was a criminal.

Isaac's journey continues: “And the Lord appeared to him and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt, dwell in the land that I will tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and I will bless you, because to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, and all the nations of the Earth will bless themselves by your seed' (…)” (26:2-4), “And Isaac sowed in that land, and he found in that year a hundred fold, and the Lord blessed him. And the man became great, and he grew constantly greater until he had grown very great.” (26:12-13).

What is so special about this Land that our Creator wants us to live in it? It is the Land where He is with us, and we are blessed with His Love that enables us to bless all the nations of the Earth. When we live in this Land and follow Love's ways and attributes as the material manifestation of God's Love, we sow the same Love that multiplies around us, making us grow more and more while we live in His Land, in His ways and attributes.

God's Love enables us to build a place for Him to dwell in this world: “And Isaac again dug the wells of water which they had dug in the days of his father, Abraham (…)" (26:18), "he named it Rehovot, and he said, 'Because now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land'.” (26:22) This is the endless expansion that God's Love gives us in His Creation when we become aware of His works and we live in His ways. As long as we keep this awareness we will live in the abundance that Love is.

Once again the Torah reaffirms that God's Love does not cohabit with anything different than His ways and attributes in our consciousness, referred in this verse as the Canaanite women who Esau married: “And they were a vexation of the spirit to Isaac and to Rebecca.” (26:35).

“And he came closer, and he kissed him, and he smelled the fragrance of his garments, and he blessed him, and he said, 'Behold, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a field, which the Lord has blessed'.” (27:27). Here Isaac recognized the son who was truly entitled to the birthright (that he previously bought from Esau for a plate of lentils).

Sages explain that Isaac smelled the scent of the Garden of Eden when he approached Jacob, the scent of Love manifested in the material world through him. “Nations shall serve you and kingdoms shall bow down to you; you shall be a master over your brothers, and your mother's sons shall bow down to you. Those who curse you shall be cursed, and those who bless you shall be blessed.” (27:29).

These are the blessings of Love because Love conquers and subdues the potential negative aspects and lower traits of consciousness that live in the suffering of pain, and waiting to be redeemed by Love: “And you shall live by your sword, and you shall serve your brother; and it will be, when you grieve, that you will break his yoke off your neck.” (27:40). We have to pay close attention to this verse because when we don't love and not follow Love's ways and attributes, negativity “grieves” and fights against us.

Isaac's words for Esau are the warning for Jacob and his descendants: When we do not direct every aspect of our consciousness with Love as the yoke of our lower nature (Esau), that yoke will be broken and the reverse process takes place: when we do not allow Love as the guide of our consciousness, we allow negativity to take over by letting ego's illusions and fantasies rule our life.

The portion ends with a final blessing that commands us to be together as a united Nation, because God's Love will always keep us united in His ways and attributes: “And may the Almighty God bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and you shall become an assembly of peoples.” (28:3).

We can achieve unity if we maintain the awareness of our permanent connection with God as the Levites do, as it is reminded by the Prophet in the haftarah for this portion: “True teaching was in his (Levi's) mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. In peace and fairness he went with Me, and he brought back many from iniquity. Because a priest's lips shall guard knowledge and teaching should be from his mouth, because he is a messenger of the Lord of Hosts.” (Malachi 2:6-7).

Parshat Chayei Sarah: Life as Divine Service

“And the life of (chayei) Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years, the years of the life of Sarah.” (Genesis 23:1)

We understand through the wording of this verse something that seems obvious, that our years are our life. Indeed they are and from this we can learn that everything we do with our time, our life, is meaningful either to ourselves or to others.

It has to do with who we are and what we do including what we speak. Sarah and Abraham teach us an essential lesson when we learn that everything they did in their lives was truly meaningful. Let's keep in mind that loving ourselves, our fellow man and all Creation, bear fruits in this world because our Love awakens Love wherever and whenever is concealed in the darkness of ego's illusions. When we awaken Love in others is like harvesting the fruits because, as we have said many times, Love is the cause and the effect.

The Torah contains revealed and non-revealed aspects of God, and it is the book that teaches us God's Love in order to emulate Him by loving each other and His Creation. The Torah teaches us the source of life that God's Love is because He sustains everything, including life. This awareness made the lives of Sarah and Abraham a meaningful legacy for us.

The portion continues with Abraham's purchase of the burial site for Sarah as a future inheritance for the Jewish people. Abraham said: “I am a stranger and an inhabitant with you (…).” (23:4) because he knew quite well that he and his descendants will be strangers and also inhabitants with this world, transients who live to sanctify the Name of the Creator in the material world, as part of our mission to be the Light for the nations. Our true home is with the Creator and while we live in this world our home is the Land that He promised to our forefathers.

“(…) and the Lord blessed Abraham with everything.” (24:1)

The Love of God blesses us with everything when we walk in His ways. Interestingly, this verse is followed by the future engagement of the only son of Abraham and Sarah.

“(…) you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose midst I dwell. But you shall go to my land and to my birthplace, and you shall take a wife for my son, for Isaac.” (24:3-4)

Mystic sages teach that the entire journey of the messenger to bring a bride for Isaac is full of symbolic meanings. The messenger is not mentioned by name and for his endeavor “all the best of his master was in his hand” (24:10).

They compare this messenger to the Jewish Messiah who comes only with the best of what he has from his Master to redeem his People (Rebecca) from the darkness of the illusions of the world (represented by the wickedness of her parents and brother).

According to Rashi, in the verse “(…) the man took a golden nose ring, weighing half [a shekel], and two bracelets for her hands, weighing ten gold [shekels].” (24:22), the nose ring represents every Jew who is “half a shekel” (the other half is God with him) and the bracelets represent the two Tablets with the Ten Commandments.

“And Isaac brought her to the tent of Sarah his mother, and he took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he loved her.” (24:67)

Our sages explain that after the Akeidah (Isaac's binding) the Creator didn't allow Abraham and Isaac to leave the Land that He promised for them and their descendants. Isaac was the perfect sacrificial offering and such as he had to remain in the holiness of the Promised Land.

In this context Isaac and Rebecca are the ideal combined qualities that encompass Israel's identity. One is the offering of all aspects, levels, and dimensions of life to the service of the Creator; and the other represents Love as the material manifestation of that service. Rebecca is the unconditional Love that is eager to leave behind ego's fantasies and illusions in order to embrace Divine service.

This willingness and unconditional devotion are not found in the peoples of the Canaanite nations which represent negative emotions such as pride, envy, anger, lust, indolence, greed, and cruelty.

Rebecca and Isaac were exactly the opposite as also Sarah and Abraham were. In this sense the years of our Patriarchs were as significant as their lives because they chose to walk in God's ways and attributes. They follow the One who creates everything and sustains everything with His infinite loving kindness.

Our Kings, Prophets and Sages reaffirm that, “The world stands on three things: on the Torah, on the service of God, and upon acts of loving kindness.” (Pirkei Avot 2:1), because “The world is built on loving kindness” (Psalms 89:2), hence “He has told you, O man, what is good! What does your God ask of you, that you do justice, love loving kindness, and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Parshat Vayeira: Life as an Offering to the Creator

Vayeira literally means "saw", and let's recall that our sages say that the verb "to see" has several meanings in Hebrew.

Besides its plain meaning regarding to what the eyes do, it also means to know because it is commonly assumed that we grasp something when we see as it is. In this regard it is better to see something than to hear about it because to see is to know.

"And [the Lord] appeared (vayeira) to him [Abraham]" (Genesis 18:1)

In the biblical context we "see" the Master of the universe when we come to Jerusalem (the Temple) to bring our offerings. This is probably the deepest meaning this verb: we have eyes as knowledge in order to know our Creator.

Hence we learn that the Lord came to see Abraham in his tent.

"Because I know him [Abraham], that he will command his children and his household after him, that they shall keep the way of God, to do righteousness and justice (…)." (18:19)

These are two of God's ways and attributes, and two of the reasons He gives us to live in this world, because it is all about His will.

This verse is abruptly juxtaposed to the next to call our attention into what is the opposite of love's ways.

"And the Lord said, 'Since the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has become great, and since their sin is very grave, I will descend now and see whether according to her cry which has come to Me, they have done; destruction, and if not, I will know'." (18:20-21)

As in the generation of the Flood, the people of the valley of Sodom were already "dead" because of their corruption, and their destruction was already upon them. Divine fire destroyed their wickedness but not completely for Abraham's nephew. Lot and his daughters, from whom two of the "nations" by Canaan would be later born after incestuous relationships, were spared.

"And Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said: 'God has made laughter for me, so that all who hear will laugh (itzchak: Isaac) with [because of] me'." (21:5-6)

Mystic sages teach that this verse foretells the Messianic era when "the Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Habakkuk 2:14) and "the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:9).

We all will rejoice with God's love completely revealed in the world, and we can also reveal His presence by being and manifesting love's ways and attributes. This is how our Creator is with us as He was with Abraham.

"Abimelech and Pichol, his general, said to Abraham saying: 'God is with you in all that you do." (Genesis 21:22)

The portion continues with one of the most significant events that determined the relationship between Israel and the Creator.

"And he [Isaac] said: 'Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?' And Abraham said: 'God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son.' And they went both of them together." (22:7-8)

Isaac knew that his father would have to make an (animal) burnt offering after Isaac's own offering of his entire life to God, and he asked his father for the lamb. It was clear for them that their lives, as well as all that exists in creation, belong to God. It is a fundamental conception to accept His will.

By truly knowing that His Love sustains all His creation we are compelled to trust in His love and will. This awareness was unbreakable in Abraham and Isaac, and that is why the passage says "and they went both of them together".

Should it be called a test, "that God tested Abraham" (22:1) or even a trial?

As we mentioned many times, love does not cohabit with anything different from its ways and attributes because the vessel of love is love. Both Abraham and Isaac indeed succeeded in becoming this truth.

Are we able to also become the truth?

Our patriarchs did it for us, so we may emulate them as the chosen people that we are. Hence we must fulfill this destiny as the mission that our Father wants from us. Love is the light of the world, the redemption we must reveal from the darkness of ego's fantasies and illusions.

Once we all realize that love is the material manifestation of the love of God that redeems us from our deepest grief, sadness and pain, we will be truly free.

It's been said many times in the Torah and the Hebrew Scriptures that the choice is only ours, and that we must choose life over death, love over darkness. If we are capable to create so much pain and suffering to each other in this world, we are also capable to create happiness and joy for each other.

The result of choosing ego's illusions of lack makes us inflict suffering on us and others. In contrast, choosing love to share among us is the best joy we can experience. When love is the cause, love is also the effect.

The sacrifice of Isaac was not about his life or his body but his total devotion and commitment to the Creator. This means to be all He wants us to be in the world He created for us.

"And Abraham called the name of that place Ado-nai Yireh [God shall see, and/or God shall appear] as it is said to this day: 'On the mount God shall appear [see]'." (22:14)

This is where the Temple of Jerusalem (Yireh Shalem), the highest awareness of the Creator, stands. It is the same place where we bring the choicest fruits of our own love's ways and attributes as offerings, so God may see our image and likeness of Him. It is there where we become one with God.

God already manifests His love for all His creation by sustaining it every moment. Now we in return have to elevate our love to Him, so both loves meet and become one.

This is indeed the place where we elevate all aspects and dimensions of consciousness to do His will, and these are represented by the tithes brought to the priests (Kohanim) and Levites, and the animals to be sacrificed in the Temple.

Every level and aspect of consciousness must be bound to do that which is sacred (this is the original meaning of "sacrifice": to do the sacred). God knew that Abraham and Isaac were bound to serve Him by loving Him with all their heart, all their soul and all their might.

In Vayeira we learn again that God's love sees us and recognizes us for the love that we are and manifest when we walk in His ways. Thus love shall be with us in all we do, as it happened with Abraham.

When we live this truth individually and collectively, redemption is already manifest. Hence we all rejoice and laugh as our matriarch Sarah did when she heard that she was going to have a child from whom we all now rejoice.

Parshat Lech Lecha: Walking before the Creator

"And God said to Abram: 'Go to yourself (lech lecha) from your land, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the Land that I will show you' (…)" (Genesis 12:1) Who is this man chosen to hear the Master of the Universe among his generation? Jewish oral tradition tells us that Abraham was one of the few individuals of his time who believed in the uniqueness of God, and rejected idolatry. Noah and his children were still alive while Abraham heard this Divine call. This is the call that everyone who acknowledges the Creator as the One and only God, and who also rejects idolatry, should hear every moment. It is his/her most treasured awareness that he/she has, because it is the lot that makes anyone happy in this world. 

This Divine call is an invitation to keep this awareness permanently in our consciousness: go to yourself, to the portion as your lot that makes you truly happy, truly fulfilled. And we achieve that permanency in a special Land that the Creator wants to give us, the children of The Covenant, the ones who recognize His Oneness. The Promised Land is both the physical and spiritual place where we can achieve permanent awareness of our connection with the Creator, a Land that we have to conquer in order to live peacefully and harmonically in it: "And I will make you a great Nation; I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing." (12:2)

When we walk in Love's ways and attributes we indeed become a blessing, because Love is a blessing. Abram, later named Abraham by God, is considered the epitome of loving kindness (chesed in Hebrew) which is one of God's attributes (Exodus 34:6-7) As we said in the previous commentary on parshat Noach, in this context Abraham's Love met God's Love. Abraham's loving kindness was a blessing for those around him, and we also must manifest this attribute because it is what makes us God's image and likeness. We often say that God's Love created us, and it is through the awareness of Love that we are able to know the Creator. For Abraham this fundamental principle was so clear that he was able to overcome all the trials throughout his lifetime: "Fear not, Abram, I am a shield for you; your reward is very great" (Genesis 15:1) hence if God is our shield, who could be against?

Love is the Light with which we clear the darkness in the material world, and while we are and manifest His ways and attributes there is no better reward: "I am El Shaddai, walk before Me and be wholehearted. I will set My Covenant between Me and you, and I will increase you most exceedingly." (17:1-2) The Torah and the Hebrew scriptures are in their entirety a God's manifesto that proclaims the Oneness of the Creator, and constantly warns us about the consequences of idolatry. Since the transgression in the Garden of Eden down to our current exile, idolatry has been the cause of humankind's ills. The saga of our Forefathers and Prophets has been a permanent battle against what separate us from our Creator, the "enemies" of God which also are the enemies of Israel.

Our Sages single out Abraham as the true father of humankind, and not Adam or Noah because he and Sarah were the first persons who truly walked before God, and were truly wholehearted in His eyes. From these two exceptional human beings we have to learn how to conceive our Creator and how to relate to Him. The person most mentioned in our oral tradition is Abraham, more than any other biblical character because one of his qualities was his inflexible stance against idolatry. His loyalty to the Creator was faultless, and his commitment to His ways unconditional. Interestingly, this is the same unconditional Love that God has for all His Creation like the air we breathe, like the sun that shines every day, and like the rain that never asks when, where or to whom.

God loves all His Creation and He also expects Love from us, His creatures, and this does not mean that He needs our Love. He gave us free will so we can choose His Love and not ego's illusions and fantasies in the material world. His Love -- which is also our Love -- is the One that increases us and multiply us as the stars in the sky and the dust in the earth. This is the expansion that the Creator wants us to be through His ways and attributes. Abraham knew that God's blessings for him and his descendants were not about numbers, but about the traits and qualities that make us grow as Light bearers to the world.

We can understand the Land of Canaan as life itself, but in order to be true life we have to conquer and subjugate the "nations" that occupy it. These are the lower character traits that we have to elevate in order to make them subservient to the higher purpose that Love is. We have to be like Abraham, and never compromise to anything that is not God's loving kindness. We do this by being loving kindness constantly in every aspect of our consciousness. The way to succeed with this is by trusting God's Love and also in our own awareness of Love, as Abraham did. 

Abraham was afraid of the fate that his descendants would face during their period of servitude in Egypt as well as in their other exiles, because we are not as strong as he was against ego's materialistic fantasies. He prayed for us so we may not perish in the darkness of the material world; but it is our responsibility and our choice to cleave to our Creator as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did. This is the true legacy from our Patriarchs, a legacy that we must honor and fulfill. 

Let's go to our self, our true identity, into the Land that God's Love shows us. This is the same Love that cries out to Him so that we once again may dwell in the goodness of the Land He gives us.

Parshat Noach: Idolatry as Corruption, Love as Life

"The Earth was corrupt before God, and the Earth was filled with violence. And God saw the Earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the Earth." (Genesis 6:11-12)

What could be so damaged before God that its corruption is denounced three times in these two verses? It was life and its purpose before the eyes of the Creator. As we have said many times, life is the manifestation of God's love, and its mission is also to be love manifest in all its dimensions.

This is what the Creator wants from us, to be and manifest His light, His will, His love. This is sealed in His first two commandments of the Decalogue.

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall not have other gods before Me." (Exodus 20:2-5, Deuteronomy 5:6-9)

When one denies this truth also denies his/her own existence and freedom, because in this denial other gods are acknowledged as real. These gods are ego's fantasies and illusions that trigger negative trends and trends in consciousness as the idols that corrupt life.

Corruption means decay and decomposition associated with death. We can say that before the eyes of love, as the material manifestation of God's love, corruption is indeed death. The first two blessings of the central Jewish daily prayers somehow reflect the first two commandments mentioned above. They refer to the Creator as "our God and God our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" (…) who is our "King, Helper, Redeemer and Shield. Blessed are you Lord, the shield of Abraham." 

These are some of love's ways and attributes: to help, to redeem and to protect. Our patriarch Abraham is exalted in this blessing as the epitome of the loving kindness with which the whole creation is sustained.

The second blessing praises His might to "revive the dead, You have the power to save (…) You sustain the living with loving kindness, You revive the dead with great compassion (…) Blessed are You Lord, who revives the dead." It is clear that the opposite of life is death, and God's love removes death caused by corruption derived from idolatry.

In the times of Noach, his generation was dead before God because living in the illusions of idolatry does not make sense in the eyes of love as our true essence and identity. We have mentioned that our mystic sages say that water and fire represent cleansing, purifying and transformation, and not necessarily death or destruction as many of us believe.

We said in our commentary on Bereshit that the purpose of creation is to discover the Creator, and to know Him through His love as His light that created everything that exists. Then, why destruction should come from Him? We must understand that we have to go through transformation in the process of knowing the Creator, because revealing His concealed presence in the darkness also requires revealing Him in our consciousness.

If we don't find Him within us, how can we find Him in His creation? In this context we must understand the Flood, the waters that cleanse our consciousness in order to know what is the truth.

The generation of the Flood was corrupted and already dead before God, and this kind of death had to be removed from the Earth. Even knowing that He is the "King who puts to death and restores to life, and causes redemption to flourish", God wants us to choose life when we exercise our free will.

Even when He cleanses us by restoring life to us, He still endows us with freedom of choice; and free will makes possible to choose the idolatry of the lower levels of consciousness, after the Flood. Love as the material manifestation of God's love is the permanent connection with Him, symbolized by the rainbow.

"And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the Earth." (Genesis 9:16)

Our humankind that flourished on Earth are the descendants of Noach.

"And the sons of Noah that went forth from the ark were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan." (9:18)

A new human being emerged with three main levels of consciousness. Shem represents the highest awareness of our connection with the Creator, symbolized by Jerusalem and its temple, and the Levite priesthood. Japheth represents the mind and thoughts related to the material world. Ham, "the father of Canaan", represents the lower aspects of consciousness that we have to conquer and subjugate in order to be and manifest love's ways and attributes.

"(…) a servant of servants shall he [Ham] be unto his brethren. And he [Noach] said: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan [Ham] be their servant. God enlarges Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant." (9:25-27)

Let's note that Japheth shall learn from Shem because all levels and dimensions of consciousness must follow our highest awareness of  the Creator and His love.

As we have said in this blog, every aspect and expression of our consciousness was created to discover, to know and to proclaim the glory of God which fills all the earth. Our mission is to be aware of this principle.

Free will once more was exercised by this new emerging humankind, and ego's agenda was again their choice.

"And they said: 'Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name (…)" (11:4)

A city and a tower that represent a consciousness of their own, with a mentality of their own separated from the Creator. Some of our contemporary sages define this period of history as the birth of the totalitarian mind that conceives ideologies such as Nazism, Fascism, Fundamentalism, and fanaticism related to political, religious or cultural beliefs that pursue the elimination of diversity in the human spirit.

"And the Lord said: 'Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withhold from them, which they purpose to do." (11:6)

This is exactly what the Nazi ideology and other totalitarian regimes want, to impose a lifestyle that does not recognize God, but only gods of flesh and bones that they would call "the perfect superior race".

The portion ends with the birth of two extraordinary human beings that redirected the course of humankind: Abraham and Sarah. Our oral tradition tells us that Abraham recognized the oneness of the Creator at the age of three, and ever since he rejected idolatry amid a family of idolaters, and under the rule of idolaters.

Abraham's keen intelligence led him to conclude that everything comes from one Creator and sustained by Him. Hence we owe our existence to Him and none else, and Abraham was willing to die for this truth. 

The midrash says that his own father accused him in a court of law for denying and rejecting idolatry, and Abraham was sentenced to death in a crematory chamber. Then man's love meets God's love, and God saved Abraham from the flames in front of his executioners.

God chose Abraham for His covenant, the covenant with Israel, his descendants. With Abraham and Sarah our history, Israel's history, began.