The Gods Are Broken!: The Hidden Legacy of Abraham
The story’s not in the Bible, but Hebrew-school veterans, Salkin says, virtually all know it. When he was about bar mitzvah age, Abram destroyed his idol-making father’s wares because, among other things, grown men shouldn’t worship clay figurines. In so doing, he became the first Jew and established the tradition that Jews are idol-smashers. Mining the vast troves of Jewish legendry and midrashim, Salkin expands and deepens knowledge and understanding of the biblical Abram, both before and after God changed his name and promised that his descendants would be the chosen people. He also discusses Moses, when he shattered the first tablets he received from God in a most consequential and very surprising later act of idol smashing. Iconoclasm is essential to being Jewish, Salkin argues, and continues—or should continue—today against the consumerism and materialism worshipped at the altar of free-market economics. Of course, there are consequences for idol smashing, which is why the Jews have so long been exiles and outsiders, dissidents and protesters. Lively, engaging biblical exegesis for Christians, perhaps, even more than Jews. --Ray Olson