{"id":71019,"date":"2020-03-01T09:53:35","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T07:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=71019"},"modified":"2022-02-22T17:02:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:02:05","slug":"abrahams-spiritual-pilgrimage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/abrahams-spiritual-pilgrimage\/","title":{"rendered":"Abraham’s Spiritual Pilgrimage"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":51083,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[418,442],"acf":{"old_id":"71019","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":69185,"related_cahpter":"15","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A Lifelong Journey","content":"

The narrative of Abraham is not a journey story culminating in his arrival at a specific location. Abraham has already arrived. His story is about what happens <\/span>after<\/span><\/i> he gets there, the struggles and conflicts he needs to confront in the very place he is. Whereas Aeneas must continually escape to fulfill his mission, Abraham must ultimately stay put. Yes, he often needs to leave his home, but only for short periods, and always with the goal of returning as soon as possible. His spiritual journey revolves around his familial tent.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are other ways to view the spiritual side of Abraham\u2019s story. For one, Abraham may be a pilgrim even after he has completed his pilgrimage. Such a pilgrimage is not just a one-shot or a multiple-site venture; it is a life-changing experience that lives with the pilgrim the rest of his or her life. After a pilgrimage, a pilgrim always remains a pilgrim. Abraham\u2019s life is marked by having traveled away from his home at God\u2019s command. Because of the formative experience of departing from his homeland, and also because he never returns to his original home, Abraham is forever a pilgrim. Even as he settles down, somewhat, with his wife and family, he knows that this settling is only provisional, since his \u201coffspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs\u201d (15:13).<\/span><\/p>\n

The second spiritual perspective is embodied in the view of the ancient rabbis, who considered the episodes in his story as tests from God (Avot 5:4). God gives Abraham challenges to see to what degree he can rise to meet them. The prolonged attainment of God\u2019s promises constitutes yet another form of test. These delays<\/span> also provide a sense of journey to the episodes: Abraham is moving toward a time and place when he will have a son, his offspring will produce a nation, and the nation will settle on the land. Even if Abraham himself will not witness all of these promises fulfilled, his story is propelled forward like a pilgrimage in the sense that he is traveling his whole life toward receiving God\u2019s beneficence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps, then, Abraham is best viewed as a pilgrim in time even more than a pilgrim in space. He undergoes more than episodic adventures, his saga leads toward goals promised by God, and that larger vision imbues his story with spiritual depth. Abraham needs to keep the unseen promises in his mind so that God\u2019s tests and the familial imbroglios that beset him do not lead him to despair. To the rabbis, Abraham the righteous test-taker is a spiritual archetype, a model for emulation. Our challenge as his heirs is to recognize the tests we face, confront them as best we can, and accept that they come from God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Excerpted from<\/em> <\/span>The Biblical Hero: Portraits in Nobility and Fallibility <\/span>by Elliott Rabin by permission of the Jewish Publication Society. \u00a92020 by Elliott Rabin.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69430,"id":69430,"title":"BiblicalHero","filename":"BiblicalHero.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-gap-between-god-and-humankind\/biblicalhero\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"biblicalhero","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69219,"date":"2020-02-02 17:04:11","modified":"2020-11-23 12:14:53","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":3200,"height":2372,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-300x222.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":222,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-768x569.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":569,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-1024x759.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":759,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1139,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1518,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-1200x890.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":890,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-567x420.jpg","home_baner-width":567,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Abraham's Spiritual Pilgrimage","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"A Lifelong Journey","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":69430,"id":69430,"title":"BiblicalHero","filename":"BiblicalHero.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-gap-between-god-and-humankind\/biblicalhero\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"biblicalhero","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69219,"date":"2020-02-02 17:04:11","modified":"2020-11-23 12:14:53","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":3200,"height":2372,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-300x222.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":222,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-768x569.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":569,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-1024x759.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":759,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1139,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1518,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-1200x890.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":890,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-567x420.jpg","home_baner-width":567,"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\/71019"}],"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\/51083"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71019"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102340,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71019\/revisions\/102340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}