Our Rabbi's Message
October 30th 2009
By Rabbi Aaron KriegelAbraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised himself and became a Jew. The journey to his new faith literally took a lifetime. In the process of finding His God and ultimately himself was difficult. He had to leave family and friends; leave the city of his birth, and become a Bedouin. He had to give up all the conveniences of the city. He had to establish himself in the desert.
On the way he found and married a woman who would become his lifetime partner. He created community in the wilderness. He solved the problem of a barren wife by having a son with her maidservant. He learned to live among wicked people, and he found that he had to make allies with other tribes just to survive.
He must have tested his faith for years. He was not sure that the idea of one God was the simple answer to all of his problems. He was not sure that that God could be served without human sacrifice. To serve that God he had to accept certain new moral and ethical ways of living. He had to accept and analyze new terms such as justice and kindness and mercy.
When Abraham was an old man his faith finally came together. He signaled his new faith by changing his name from Abram to Abraham, and his wife's name from Sarai to Sarah. And as a final act to show his commitment to the new God he circumcised himself and his family. At the time Ishmael was thirteen years old and Isaac was eight days old. Abraham was an old man when he accepted his new faith. He recognized that sometimes change is long and difficult, but change cannot be rushed. Abraham was ninety-nine when he became the first Jew.
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