two hundred and ten years, because he had pressed the Rabbis under his tuition into military service in the expedition he had undertaken to recover Lot from those who had carried him off captive; for it is written (Gen. xiv. 14), "He armed his instructed." Samuel says Abraham was punished because he perversely distrusted the assurance of God; as it is written (Gen. xv. 8), "Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?"
Nedarim, fol. 31, col. 2.
Abraham was thrown into a fiery furnace by Nimrod, and God would not permit Gabriel to rescue him, but did so Himself; because God is One and Abraham was one, therefore it behooved the One to rescue the one.
P'sachim, fol. 118, col. 1.
The fire from which Abraham is here said to be delivered may simply refer to his deliverance by the hand of God from Ur of the Chaldees; Ur meaning "fire," and being the name of a place celebrated for fire worship. The Midrash (p. 20) says, "When the wicked Nimrod cast Abraham into the furnace, Gabriel said, 'Lord of the universe! permit me to deliver this holy one from the fire!' But the Lord made answer, 'I am the One Supreme in my world, and he is supreme in his; it is fitting therefore that the Supreme should rescue the supreme.'"
Abraham was a giant of giants; his height was as that of seventy-four men put together. His food, his drink, and his strength were in the proportion of seventy-four men's to one man's. He built an iron city for the abode of his seventeen children by Keturah, the walls of which were so lofty that the sun never penetrated them: he gave them a bowl full of precious stones, the brilliancy of which supplied them with light in the absence of the sun.
Sophrim, chap. 21.
Abraham our father had a precious stone suspended from his neck, and every sick person that gazed upon it was immediately healed of his disease. But when Abraham died, God hung up the stone on the sphere of the sun.
Bava Bathra, fol. 16, col. 2.
Till Abraham's time there was no such thing as a beard; but as many mistook Abraham for Isaac, and Isaac for Abraham, they looked so exactly alike, Abraham prayed to God for a beard to enable people to distinguish him from his son, Isaac, and it was granted him; as it is written (Gen. xxiv. 1), "And to Abraham a beard came when he was well stricken in age."
Sanhedrin, fol. 107, col. 2.
Here the word which the translators of the English version render "was old," is taken in another of its cognate meanings as a beard. The Midrash is a trifle more modest in this legendary assertion. There we read, "Before Abraham there was no special mark of old age," and that for distinction's sake "the beard was made to turn gray."
When he died, all the chiefs of the nations of the world stood in a line and exclaimed, "Alas for the world that has lost its leader! Alas for the ship that has lost its helmsman!"
Bava Bathra, fol. 91, col. 2.
As Rabbi Banna went about to measure and to mark off the outward and inward dimensions of the different caves, when he came to the cave of Machpelah he found Eliezar, Abraham's servant, at the entrance, and asked him, "What is Abraham doing?" The answer he received was, "He is asleep in the arms of Sarah."
Ibid., fol. 58, col. 1.
Abraham being greater than Moses, for while the latter is only called by God "My Servant" (Mal. iv. 4), the former is called "My Friend" (Isa. xli. 8), we devote a little more space for a few more extracts from other Jewish sources than the Talmud, in order to make the picture they supply of Abraham's character a little more complete.
Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri says:—"The Holy One—blessed be He!—took Shem and separated him to be a priest to Himself, that he might serve before Him. He also caused His Shechinah to rest with him, and called his name Melchizedek, priest of the Most High and king of Salem. His brother Japheth even studied the law in his school, until Abraham came and also learned the law in the school of Shem, where God Himself instructed Abraham, so that all else he had learned from the lips of man was forgotten. Then came Abraham and prayed to God that His Shechinah might ever rest in the house of Shem, which also was promised to him; as it is said (Ps. ex. 4), 'Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'"
Avodath Hakkodesh, part 3, chap. 20.
Wherever Jacob resided he studied the law as his fathers did. How is this, seeing the law had not yet been given, it is nevertheless written of Abraham (Gen. xxvi. 5), "And he kept my charge"? Whence then did Abraham learn the law? Rabbi Shimon says his reins (literally kidneys) were made like two water-jars, from which the law flowed forth. Where do we learn that it was so? From what is said in Ps. xvi. 7, "My reins also instruct me in the night season."
Bereshith Rabba, chap. 95.
The masters of the Kabbalah, of blessed memory, say that Abraham's Rabbi, i.e., teacher, was the angel Zadkiel.
Rabbi Menachem's comment on the Pent., Exod. iii. 5.
Adam's book, which contained celestial mysteries and holy wisdom, came down as an heirloom into the hands of Abraham, and he by means of it was able to see the glory of his Lord.
Zohar Parashah Bereshith.
Abraham was the author of a treatise on the subject of different kinds of witchcraft and its unholy workings and fruits, as also of the Book of Creation, through holy names (by means of which, namely, anything could be created).
Nishmath Chayim, chap. 29.
The whole world once believed that the souls of men were perishable, and that man had no pre-eminence above a beast, till Abraham came and preached the doctrine of immortality and transmigration.
Ibid., fol. 171, col. 1.
A good son delivers his father from the punishment of hell, for thus we find that Abraham our father delivered Terah, as it is said in Gen. xv. 15, "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace." This implies that God had communicated to him the tidings that his father had a portion in the world to come and was now "in peace" there.
Pesikta Zotarta, fol. 3, col. 2.
Before Abraham was circumcised God spake to him in the Chaldee language, that the angels should not understand it. (This is proved from Gen. xv. 1.)
Yalkut Chadash, fol. 117.
Rabbi Levi said Abraham sits at the gate of hell and does not permit any circumcised Israelite to enter. But if any appear who happen to have sinned unduly, these he (by an indescribable contrivance) causes to become uncircumcised and lets pass without scruple into the region of torment; and this is what is said in Ps. lv. 20, "He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant."
Yalkut Shimoni, fol. 33, col. 2, sec. 18.
Abraham was circumcised on the Day of Atonement, and God looks that day annually on the blood of the covenant of our father Abraham's circumcision as atoning for all our iniquities, as it is said in Lev. xvi. 30, "For on that day shall he make an atonement for you, to cleanse you from all your sins."
Yalkut Chadash, fol. 121, col. 1, sec. 3.
"And it came to pass that when Abram was come into Egypt" (Gen. xii. 14). And where was Sarah? He confined her in a chest, into which he locked her, lest any one should gaze on her beauty. When he came to the receipt of custom, he was summoned
