Terah, Father of the Famous Father – Abraham
“Why are you making fun of me?”
The way I came to study this story about Terah was interesting to me. I remember reading it years ago when I read the entire Bible for the first time. Yesterday when I went to the book of Genesis to look for it, I couldn’t find it. Everything he said regarding Terah involved genealogy. I thought he was imagining me reading it or mixing it up with another story. When I looked him up online, I found out that he was in the Midrash. I guess it’s an old Jewish form of homily embedded in the text. The Midrash considers Terah as evil. (For example, Numbers Rabbah 19:1; 19:33). There is also a reference in the book of Joshua to Abraham’s father being an idol worshipper. I don’t remember if this story was included in the text of the bible I read, but I think it was. I want to solve this little mystery, so any input would be appreciated. Still, I hope it’s a valid story and, even if it isn’t, it serves the purpose of this study on parenting.
Terah once left and left Abraham in charge of the store. A woman came with a plate full of flour and asked Abraham to offer it to idols. Abraham took a stick, broke the idols, and put the stick in the hand of the largest idol. When Terah returned, she demanded that Abraham explain what he had done. Abraham told Terah that the idols fought each other and the biggest one smashed the rest with the stick. “Why are you making fun of me?” Terah yelled, “Do you have any knowledge?” Abraham replied, “Listen to what you are saying!” Then Terah turned Abraham over to King Nimrod for punishment. (Genesis Rabbah 38:13.) The Zohar says that when God saved Abraham from the furnace, Terah repented. (Zohar, Beresheet 1:77b.) Rabbi Abba b. Kahana said that God assured Abraham that his father Terah had a portion in the World to Come. (Genesis Rabbah 30:4; 30:12.) And thus he learned the futility of idol worship.
As parents we are in charge of instructing, training and teaching our children. But that doesn’t mean we can never learn from them. I like this story because of the way Abraham made fun of his father and, with his practical joke, taught him a very important lesson. I’m not sure if I buy the part of the story where Terah hands his son over to the King, and the King sentences Abraham to death for the offense. So for the sake of this study, let’s skip that part. I have always loved my own father very much, and I have no complaints about the way he raised me. Although, I did have a kind of fearful respect for him that made it so that even though we both have good senses of humor, I could never have done something like that to him. Now the relationship I have with my children is a little different, especially with my youngest son, Levi.
Levi is an extraordinary ball breaker. A real prankster since he was a kindergarten kid. He’s put things in my shoes, he’s put baby wipes on my pillow before I go to bed, and he’s one of my favorites; he sticks the trigger of the sprayer to the sink and leaves it pointed at me so that when I go to make my coffee in the morning it sprays me with cold water. I really enjoy being the butt of his jokes and I let him know it. I’m glad that even though he respects me, probably more than my other kids, he’s not afraid to “make fun of me.” He has a bit of a “spread it out but he can’t take it” problem, but I’m working on it. A really strong point of Levi is that he can go from being a little prankster to a pretty deep thinking serious guy and he knows when to turn it on and off.
I think a sense of humor is very important. When used correctly, it can really grab a child’s or anyone’s interest and attention so that important instruction can be conveyed. I have a couple of serious lectures based entirely on two different jokes. I start these lectures with the joke using it as a kind of parable, and then I explain some pretty serious issues to my kids and, recently, a couple of their friends. I hope it airs like I mean it. I just hope my approach works, because it would be a bit embarrassing if it failed. I guess when you try to be funny even for the right reasons, sometimes you risk coming off as a fool!