In an act of cowardly favoritism, Abraham surrenders Hagar to the venomous anger of Sarah: “Behold, your maidservant is in your hands. Do to her anything that is pleasing in your eyes.”(16:6).

Every year about this time, the story of God testing Abraham comes up. You remember the story: Abraham takes Isaac up the mountain to sacrifice him, and at the last minute a ram enters the picture ...

It is the hardest passage of all, one that seems to defy understanding. Abraham and Sarah have waited years for a child. G-d has promised them repeatedly that they would have many descendants, as ...

There are versions in which Isaac’s mother, Sarah, stops the sacrifice, and versions in which Isaac runs away. Bob Dylan’s Abraham thinks God is putting him on.

Their names are changed. The two of them are new people. The promise is repeated. They laugh at God’s promise. When Abraham cannot choose which of his two sons will inherit the spiritual estate (not ...

Abraham’s 99; Sarah’s 90. Ignoring the designated patriarch’s incredulity, God pledges an eternal covenant with their descendants. When Sarah hears about the blessed event, she also laughs.

The marriage of Rebecca to Isaac assures the transmission of the Covenant, and supplants one patriarch for another. At the very end of Parshat Chayei Sarah — after the death of Sarah and her ...

And the proof of the pudding is that after these stories, God doesn’t speak to Abraham again, nor does Isaac, Ishmael, Hagar and Sarah. He is on his own completely.

Having buried Sarah, Abraham turns to the business of marrying off Isaac who is by now rather ripe in years – a man in his mid 30’s, certainly overdue for a bride.

But there’s another aspect of Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice Isaac that deserves mention for moderns. I acknowledge the basic thought came from the late Cardinal Ján Korec, Archbishop of ...

In Genesis 21, God's promise to Abraham is finally fulfilled, as Sarah gives birth to Isaac. But she frets over whether Ishmael will also be Abraham's heir.

Abraham and Sarah are Quivering By DAVID WILDER MARCH 4, 2012 17:37 ... (The largest room, memorializing Isaac and Rebecca is open only to Moslems.) The courtyard is open, ...