{"id":68043,"date":"2020-01-01T16:21:52","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T14:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=68043"},"modified":"2023-07-27T08:56:35","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T05:56:35","slug":"he-was-only-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/he-was-only-one\/","title":{"rendered":"He Was Only One"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[418,366,427],"acf":{"old_id":"68043","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"385","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"What\u2019s so special about Abraham and Sarah?\r\n\r\n","content":"

Look back to Abraham your father and to Sarah who brought you forth. For he was only one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many (verse 2).<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201conly-ness\u201d of Abraham is usually defined in terms of his persistent pursuit of monotheism\u2014his search for the \u201cmaster of the castle\u201d (<\/span>ba`al ha-birah<\/span><\/em>) as the Sages put it (Bereishit Rabba 39). His designation here as an \u201conly one\u201d produced a plethora of commentary.<\/span><\/p>\n

The French exegetes all referred to it as our ancestors\u2019 family status. Rashi wrote: \u201cJust as he was but one and I raised him up, so will I raise you up because you are special to me.\u201d Yosef Kara wrote similarly that \u201cinitially it was decreed of [Abraham and Sarah] that they would be alone and childless.\u201d And Eliezer of Beaugency added, \u201cHe was but one when I summoned him and brought him nigh from his ancestral home, and eventually I blessed him and increased him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Radak, citing his father, Yosef Kimhi, drew a poignant parallel from that singular status to the situation that confronted Isaiah.<\/span><\/p>\n

I instructed him to \u201cgo from your homeland and birthplace.\u201d He was [then] but one, and I subsequently blessed and increased him. The connection between this and the consolation to Zion, according to my father, is that when the two of them [Abraham and Sarah] had given up on having a child in their old age, it was then that I took note of them and gave them a son. So it shall be with Israel: after their exile draws long until they give up on redemption, it will be then that God will take note of them and take them out of exile.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Malbim* added yet another similarity:<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as [Abraham] stood alone against many unbelievers, so shall you\u2026 Just as Sarah might have remained in her natural state of barrenness and yet she bore children, so will you succeed in returning idolaters to the [true] faith even though that would be unnatural.<\/span><\/p>\n

*For the significance of Malbim\u2019s commentary to the Book of Isaiah,<\/span> see our introduction to chapter 1.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Image: Moshe Lilien, Abraham contemplates the Stars, 1908<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":68044,"id":68044,"title":"is51-Abraham_Lilien","filename":"is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/he-was-only-one\/is51-abraham_lilien\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is51-abraham_lilien","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":68043,"date":"2020-01-01 14:21:36","modified":"2022-03-06 12:38:53","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":495,"height":599,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien-248x300.jpg","medium-width":248,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","medium_large-width":495,"medium_large-height":599,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","large-width":495,"large-height":599,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","1536x1536-width":495,"1536x1536-height":599,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","2048x2048-width":495,"2048x2048-height":599,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","post_full_size-width":495,"post_full_size-height":599,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien-347x420.jpg","home_baner-width":347,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"He Was Only One","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"What\u2019s so special about Abraham and Sarah?","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":68044,"id":68044,"title":"is51-Abraham_Lilien","filename":"is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/he-was-only-one\/is51-abraham_lilien\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is51-abraham_lilien","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":68043,"date":"2020-01-01 14:21:36","modified":"2022-03-06 12:38:53","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":495,"height":599,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien-248x300.jpg","medium-width":248,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","medium_large-width":495,"medium_large-height":599,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","large-width":495,"large-height":599,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","1536x1536-width":495,"1536x1536-height":599,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","2048x2048-width":495,"2048x2048-height":599,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien.jpg","post_full_size-width":495,"post_full_size-height":599,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is51-Abraham_Lilien-347x420.jpg","home_baner-width":347,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68043"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116847,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68043\/revisions\/116847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}