Abraham's willingness to fulfil the command to sacrifice, immediately and obediently, mirrors the sacrifice of the suicide terrorists. Of course the sacrifice of one son, even a promised son, cannot be compared to the sacrifice of thousands of innocent people. However, in the mind of the suicide bomber it was the act of sacrifice which counted, not the cost of innocent lives. For Abraham also, it was the command to sacrifice that was of concern, not the pleading of the son whether it be Ishmael or Isaac.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam have traditionally extolled Abraham's actions. It is now overdue to state that Abraham failed the test.
Some rabbis have suggested that God wanted Abraham to challenge and question the command as he did at Sodom and Gommorah. In fact, God waited until the last possible moment before preventing the sacrifice in order to give Abraham as much time as possible to consider mounting a challenge. It was Abraham's failure on Mount Moriah that had such an impact on Isaac.
There is even a Jewish tradition that Isaac died during the test and that the angel was too late to save him. According to this tradition Isaac was restored in bodily form, that is, he was resurrected. Nevertheless, his ashes remained upon the altar. In rabbinic tradition, the image of Isaac's ashes should perhaps be interpreted to mean that, as a result of what Abraham did to his son, part of Isaac died.
Christian interpreters have also challenged the story. The 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, for instance, asked how it was possible to know that God had spoken. He suggested Abraham should have thought as follows: "that I must not kill my good son is quite certain, but that you who appear to me as God are indeed God, of this I can never be certain".
In other words, the question as to whether the command is divine or human, lies in its moral influence. This leads me to conclude we not only live in an increasingly dangerous world but that its interconnectedness is illustrated by the outrages of the fanatic. In order to start coming to terms with terror, we must feel the pain of those who are suffering and work together to heal. We must try to feel the pain of Isaac as Christians and Jews or Ishmael for Muslims ; most of all we must question the response of Abraham and no longer extol the virtues of killing a beloved son.
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Don't have an account? They would most surely become the fundamentalists of ancient Israel. Yet I believe that this dispersing also plays another role. Although religious zeal is a bad thing when taken to the extreme and without balance, religion itself become meaningless if we lack passion altogether.
Jacob knew this too, and by dispersing the descendents of Simon and Levi, he allocated a dash of spice and fervor for each of the twelve tribes. And that is what we should take away from this portion on Martin Luther King weekend. That we, like Martin Luther King, should have passion for our faith and come to God with intensity. However we should not let that intensity become overshadowed by those who would use religion as a tool to preach hatred.
We should bring the liberal religious world out of the closet and preach the values we believe in. We should make our voice heard!
And let us take the passion and zeal of Simon and Levi, which was once used for hatred and destruction, and use it to preach tolerance and justice for everyone. How do we strengthen our resolve, hearts and visions in the face of daunting challenges? As the book of Bereyshit draws to a close, so does Joseph's life. While Joseph faced many familial traumas during his lifetime, Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben reflects on how the patriarch showed true greatness by rising above them.
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Recent News News Item. Jewish Organizational Letter on U. Selengut said, "The inquisitions were attempts at self-protection and targeted primarily "internal enemies" of the church".
Selengut continues, saying:. The inquisitors generally saw themselves as educators helping people maintain correct beliefs by pointing out errors in knowledge and judgment. Punishment and death came only to those who refused to admit their errors.
The investigators had to invent all sorts of techniques, including torture, to ascertain whether. Jews who had converted to Christianity. She explained how Christianity made a violent introduction in Sri Lanka almost years ago. Native priests were killed, temples looted and destroyed, all in the name of Jesus. Those who refused to convert religion were harassed or even killed.
In Sri Lanka today, Christian militants are going house to house in an attempt to convert everyone to Christianity and are using whatever means necessary. Christian extremists in Sri Lanka are destroying religious harmony in order to claim Christianity as the sole religion in Sri Lanka.
During the 19th century, most Christian nations have adopted the principle of separation between church and state. Religious fanaticism is since an internal problem of the Christian churches or merely a personal psychological problem. However, this is not so in most modern Muslim countries except, for example, Turkey under Ataturk. Charles Selengut explains in his book "Sacred Fury" that Christianly calls on the fact that they offer their body to god, just like many other religions do.
Christians make many sacrifices also, as Charles Selegnut states, "[Christianity] places great value upon avoiding bodily temptations and accepting pain and sufferings as sacred activity and promises religious rewards to those who do so. In the eyes of some, some of the violent actions of the Israelites in the times of the Old Testament were fanatical in nature. He describes this "divinely sanctioned use of force and violence", or herem , saying:.
In the herem, Yahweh seeks general destruction, as in the conquest of Canaan Josh. As Steffen says, this war bordered on omnicide. Paul N. Anderson says that "nearby cities were to be destroyed completely.
If they are not, they will corrupt the Israelites with their religion and detestable practices and will cause Israel to fall away from God. The only king that defied Yahweh during the Holy War was Saul, who preserved the flocks of the people the Israelites attacked because he didn't see a point in wasting them.
Perhaps Islam has come to be the most publicized religion with members who display fanatic tendencies. Ever since Osama bin Laden 's fatwa in , the world has known about radical jihad. Bin Laden's concept, though, is very different from the actual meaning of the term. In the religious context, jihad most nearly means "working urgently for a certain godly objective, generally a positive one". As Steffen says, though, "Jihad in these uses is always defensive.
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