as instructed, brought offerings to God. Abel brought the firstling of his flock and Cain brought the fruit of the soil. God accepted Abel’s offering and ignored Cain’s. In a fit of jealous rage Cain killed Abel.
This second great tragedy was still just the beginning of God’s disappointment with human beings. For ten generations the wickedness of man spread on the earth. Finally God had enough and was determined to end his creation, for he regretted having made it. But fortunately, or some might say unfortunately, Noah proved himself to be worth saving and God spared him and his family and a sample of the creatures of the earth. All else God killed with the flood.
Ten more generations passed after Noah, and God waited for man to acknowledge Him as sole God over heaven and earth (Neusner I, 9). Then God found Abraham and in him an individual worthy of being the founder of the holy people:
Abram threw himself on his face and God spoke to him further, “As for me this is My covenant with you: You shall be the father of a multitude of nations. And you shall no longer be known as Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fertile, and make nations of you; and kings shall come forth from you. I will maintain My covenant between Me and you, and your offspring to come, as an everlasting covenant throughout the ages, to be God to you and your offspring to come. I assign the land you sojourn in to you and to your offspring to come, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting holding, I will be their God.”
God further said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring to come throughout the ages shall keep my covenant. Such shall be the covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days. As for the homeborn slave and the one bought from an outsider who is not of your offspring, they must be circumcised, homeborn and purchased alike. Thus shall my covenant be marked in your flesh as an everlasting pact. And if any male who is uncircumcised fails to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his kin; he has broken My covenant.” (Genesis 17:3-16)
Thus the covenant was formed that created the chosen people, the Jews. God further told Abraham that his wife Sarah would bear him a child, to which Abraham and Sarah both had a good laugh as Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah was 90. Sarah bore Isaac, who was circumcised as God had commanded. God tested Abraham by ordering him to kill Isaac as a sacrifice to him and then stopped the test when Abraham proved his obedience. After Sarah’s death at the age of 127, Abraham took another wife and had many more sons. At the time of his death Abraham blessed Isaac as his heir and sent to the east the most famous of his other sons, Ishmael, who was born to Sarah’s Egyptian slave, Hagar.
Isaac married Rebekah, who was barren until God blessed her with twins, Esau, the firstborn, and Jacob. Isaac favored Esau and Rebekah favored Jacob. Jacob tricked Esau into giving up his birthright several times, and when Isaac was on his deathbed, Rebekah tricked the blind old man into blessing Jacob rather than Esau. Rebekah sent Jacob away while his brother cooled off, and while he was gone Jacob married Leah and Rachel. He had many children by them and their maids. After growing wealthy Jacob decided to return to his homeland. On his return, he met a stranger who turned out to be an angel with whom he wrestled. The angel gave him the new name of Israel. A name that was to prove symbolic of the long term relationship of the Jews and God, as it means “wrestling with God.” The Jews did not submit to God or have pure faith in God, through the millennium they have wrestled with God (Telushkin 40).
Of all Israel’s (Jacob’s) sons he best loved Joseph. This created a very strong sibling rivalry and the other sons plotted to kill him. Instead they sold him into slavery and he was eventually sold in Egypt. Joseph did well in slavery and was soon in charge of his master’s household, but he refused to sleep with his master’s wife, who then accused him of molestation, for which he was thrown in jail. In jail Joseph gained a reputation for interpreting dreams. When the Pharaoh was having troubling dreams that his priests and magicians couldn’t interpret, Joseph was called upon. He interpreted the dreams to mean that there were going to be seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, and he recommended rations be gathered to prepare for the famine. The Pharaoh was so pleased he put Jacob in charge of the land. The famine spread to Canaan and Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to seek food. They arrived and did not recognize their brother Joseph, who granted them food but told them to not return without their brother Joseph. Jacob made them return anyway, and Joseph finally revealed himself to them and invited all the family to Egypt, as there were five years of famine yet to come. Thus did Israel move to Egypt and the twelve sons of Jacob become the fathers of the Twelve tribes of Israel.
The second book of the Torah, Exodus, describes the Israelites’ problems in Egypt, their eventual departure, and the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. The Israelites did not return to their homeland but stayed in Egypt under bondage to the Pharaoh. Their numbers increased greatly over the generations and the Egyptians began to suppress them. At one point the Pharaoh ordered the murder of all male Israelite children at birth. An Israelite child hidden in a basket by the Nile was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter, who named him Moses, and raised him in the privilege of the palace. In manhood Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite and was forced to flee into the countryside. There God appeared to Moses and informed him that he had been chosen to lead the Israelites out of bondage from Egypt. Moses was very hesitant as he had a speech impediment and was not a good communicator. God then also chose Moses’ brother, Aaron, to help in the task. God gave Moses the power of many miracles to try to persuade the Egyptians to let the Israelites go, but God also hardened the Pharaoh’s heart against the Israelites each time. Lice, vermin, hailstorms, plagues, boils, locusts - all failed to win the Israelites’ freedom. Finally Moses declared that unless they were released the firstborn of all men and animals would die. God instructed the Israelites to paint lamb’s blood on their doorposts and lintels so death would pass over them. He also gave detailed instructions on a meal to eat marking the event - the first Passover feast. The death of all the first born in the land, including his own son, finally convinced the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go but he later had a change of heart and sent an army after them. The army caught the Israelites at the Red Sea, where God parted the sea, allowing the Israelites to pass and letting it crash back on the Egyptian army.
After several months of traveling the Israelites began grumbling about hardships. In response, God supplied them a food from heaven called manna. “It was like a coriander seed, white, and it tasted like wafer in honey … And the Israelites ate manna forty years until they came to the border of Canaan.” When they reached Mount Sinai an event took place that shaped the future of the Western world; God appeared to Moses on the mountain and gave him the commandments:
“God spoke all these words, saying,
I the LORD am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage; You shall have no other gods besides Me.
You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the LORD your God am an impassioned God, visiting guilt of the parents upon their children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
You shall not swear falsely by the name of the LORD your God; for the LORD will not clear one who swears falsely by His name.
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God: you shall not do any work - you, your son, or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle,
