Genesis Rabba 38

on why Abraham was chosen by God, based on Joshua 24:2-3.

And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.

writers of midrash had so much fun...

Terah, the father of Abraham and Haran, was a dealer in images as well as a worshipper of them. Once when he was away he gave Abraham his stock of graven images to sell in his absence. In the course of the day an elderly man came to make a purchase. Abraham asked him his age, and the man gave it as between fifty and sixty years. Abraham taunted him with want of sound sense in calling the work of another man's hand, produced perhaps in a few hours, his god; the man laid the words of Abraham to heart and gave up idol worship. Again a woman came with a handful of fine flour to offer to Terah's idols, which were now in charge of Abraham. He took a stick and broke all the images except the largest one, in the hand of which he placed the stick which had worked this wholesale destruction. When his father returned and saw the havoc committed on his 'gods' and property he demanded an explanation from his son whom he had left in charge. Abraham mockingly explained that when an offering of fine flour was brought to these divinities they quarrelled with each other as to who should be the recipient, when at last the biggest of them, being angry at the altercation, took up a stick to chastise the offenders, and in so doing broke them all up. Terah, so far from being satisfied with this explanation, understood it as a piece of mockery, and when he learnt also of the customers whom Abraham had lost him during his management he became very incensed, and drove Abraham out of his house and handed him over to Nimrod.

Nimrod suggested to Abraham that since he had refused to worship his father's idols because of their want of power, he should worship fire, which is very powerful: Abraham pointed out that water has power over fire. 'Well,' said Nimrod, 'let us declare water god.' 'But,' replied Abraham,' the clouds absorb the water and even they are dispersed by the wind.' 'Then let us declare the wind our god.' 'Bear in mind,' continued Abraham, 'that man is stronger than wind, and can resist it and stand against it.' Nimrod, becoming weary of arguing with Abraham, decided to cast him before his god -- fire -- and challenged Abraham's deliverance by the God of Abraham, but God saved him out of the fiery furnace. Haran too was challenged to declare his god, but halted between two opinions, and delayed his answer until he saw the result of Abraham's fate. When he saw the latter saved he declared himself on the side of Abraham's God, thinking that he too, having now become an adherent of that God, would be saved by the same miracle. But since his faith was not real, but depended on a miracle, he perished in the fire, into which like Abraham he was cast by Nimrod. This is hinted in the words (Gen. 11:28): 'And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.'

but i still haven't found what i'm looking for...

this picture, it hilariouses me.

why grandma, what big eyes you have!

wait

giggle

i was watching gilmore girls yesterday on the w network while i reformatted my computer and they made fun of alexis bledel's huge forehead. and rory and 30yroldplaying20yrold asian waitress at luke's diner had a sex talk. just thought i'd let you all know.

astrophysics is...

did anyone see (even accidentally) that episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch? mitosis is...
she was trying to study biology with her boyfriend Harvey (bad idea as Harvey had early 90s white-boy hair). every try would begin with "mitosis is..." before it would be cut off by a timely interruption that rendered them both ill equiped for the test the next day after a series of supernatural antics.

so far it is an accurate description of astrophysics for me - alas/thankfully sans boyfriend Harvey with 90s white-boy hair (or even MJH for that matter). there is a new professor teaching this year. though he does not go into super complicated mathematics as the last one did (while we were ill equipped to even deal with multivariable derivatives) this one simply glosses over them and refers you to the compact green textbook. and compact physics books always means one thing: only smart people can read this.

and what physics does best is tell you that contrary to whatever you thought before, you are NOT smart. not smart like Newton, not smart like Lenz, or Weinz, or Hertz, or Chandrasekhar, or Runge, or Eddington, or Brahe, or Keppler, or Hook. it's a small recompense that Hook's Law has been redubbed as "Hooker's Law" by Sucre in the latest episode of Prison Break as he tried to reiterate to Aruzzi what Michael explained earlier about tensile strength and wall elasticity. memories of Home Improvement are recalled.

it has become clearly apparent that my left-hemisphere has reached its limit. right-side is now getting the workout of its life making up new ways to slide physics principles and suppositions into essays about the metaphorical use of red riding hoods. my recently developed skill for reading 3 different novels at the 'same time' is also being put to good use as multiple english classes require multiple novel readings. speaking of which, "stone angel" is more boring than watching a boulder acquire a coat of moss.

now if that boulder were in space, created by the accretion of a protostellar disk, then it would not collect moss ever. even then, i would rather watch that boulder than re-read stone angel. i liken it to reading the first page of Pride and Prejudice. no offense, but female narrative is rather long-winded.

october

copious english readings + astrophysics assignments + essays + tests + hockey's return + tv + msn = 1 bad month if my priorities remain in the latter half.

click the old school

he always told people he got that scar on his head after being bitten by a shark.

genesis

don't you just hate it when you're sitting in a Bible in Literature lecture on Genesis 1-4 and some putz zeroes in on the "Adam was first" thing?
"oh, it says here that Adam was created first and that Eve was made from his rib." (Gen 2:21-22)
this got the feminists in the crowd astir (because men didn't let them vote and made them wear underwear).
as annoying as it is, we've been through this before. Augustine pondered about the transmission of original sin through progenesis, as jotted down in his "Confessions", and they were later misinterpreted by withered, old monks who thought he was talking about sex in general, thus blaming all womankind for being so nubile and tempting - just as Adam first blamed Eve in Gen 3:12.
so generations of patriarchy and misogyny built up tremendous pressure in vertebrate females. that bra-burning backlash now ripples through our societal consciousness as sensual media (the main culprit being beer commercials and anyone influenced by esther nee madonna). women seeking empowerment in these climes seem to believe that their power comes either from a) their careers; b) their bodies; or c) their careers exploiting their bodies.

anyways, here's some causal reading for you: Genesis 2: 18-20

18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

so my professor thinks that God wanted to make Adam a helper from the animals. and by helper he meant partner. and by partner he meant mate. bwahahaha.