The Jewish outlook., 1905-08-04
Asadoth Of Israel
(Translated for the Jewish Outlook by Rabbi
Elias Margolis)
xxxvIII. Abram Before Nimrod.'

Terah his father and dwelt in his house. One
day Terah said: Behold l am leaving the
house and thou remain here IN my stead ana
sell the idols which l have made" And
Abram said: GO in peace" And Terah
went on his way. And man came unto
Abram and said: Sell me this new idol"
And Abram said: Pray tell me how many
are the years of thy life?" And the man
answered and said: 81 this day sixty
years old" And Abram said: Woe is unto
thee; a man of sixty years intending to bow
down to an idol one day old" The man be-
came ashamed and he went and departed to
his house. An old woman came unto Abram
and said: please pick out for me good
and large idol that I may serve and love
him." And Abram said: Listen to me, old
woman, and thou wilt know that neither the
large nor the small idols are OF any avail
The old woman continued speaking to Abram
as follows: yesterday while l was at the
bath house thieves entered my house and
when they saw that there was no one there,
they stole my gods. And Abram sald:
Behold, thy idols could not save themselves
when the thieves come to take them and dost
thou intend to buy idols and worship them?"
Abrams question made deep impression
upon her and she said: Truly, thy words
are very we'll spoken, but tell me, pray,
whom shall I Worship" And Abram re-
piled: worship the God of heaven and
earth in whose hand are the souls OF all lv'
ing beings" And Abram continued to ad-
dress her and he taught her the ways OF
Jahveh and he told her of His righteousness
and might and the old woman hearkened and
said: BLESSED art thou of Jahveh for thou
hast opened my eyes. And now rest assured
that l shall worship the creator OF heaven
and earth alone" Abram blessed the old
woman before she took her departure When
the thieves who stole her idols saw her they
returned them to her. She took them,
dragged them through the streets of the city,
shattered and destroyed them, and she
called out with all her might to the men VINO
were coming towards her: 1T is vain to
worship idols, the products of human han
dwork. Worship Jahveh who created
heaven and earth" Many men and women
heard the sound of her proclamation ana
they approached and questioned her: What
is this and what the cause"' Ihereupon
she informed them of all that which Abram
had spoken unto her. They were deeply I'M
pressed and they also ceased worshlppng
the idols of wood and stone A certain
woman came and told Abram the followlng:
Behold 1 have brought peace offering to
thy fathers idols pray bring it to them"
And Abram said: "Go to thy house. l shall
set thy Offering before the idols" When
the woman left Abram took hammer ana
he shattered his fathers idols He destroyed
them utterly and he smote their eyes unth
none was left save the largest idol In the
hands of this idol Abram placed the hammer
and then left the house. When Terah re-
turned and behed the broken idols he was
greatly. ncensed and he said unto Abram:
There was no one else in the house besides
thee. Thou hast broken the idols and thou
hast shattered them" And Abram said:
"a woman brought a peace offering to thy
idols and I set it before them. When the
small idols came to eat that which was