Abraham and Sarah: Making Converts for Thanksgiving

Why does God call Abraham “my friend”? (Isaiah 41:8) Because Abraham introduced his friends to the imageless, formless One. His friends joined Sarah and Abraham in prayer each and every new moon. When Abraham and Sarah left Haran to go to the Land of Canaan, most of their friends joined them on their journey.

When Jacob’s twelve sons married, most of them married the descendants of Abraham and Sarah’s early converts.

How do we know this? Because only God can make a soul. Yet the Torah states that when Avram and Sarai left Haran to go to the land of Canaan, they took with them some members of their family, and the “souls that they made in Haran”. (Genesis 12:5)

How can any human make a soul? Rashi, the famous 11th century French Biblical commentator, explains by quoting a Midrash by Rabbi Eleazar ben Zimra that says “the souls that they made” refers to the many converts they made.

The first convert Avram made was a neighbor named Eved Shemesh from the city of Damascus, He was a sun worshiper. Once, when Eved Shemesh got a bad sunburn, Avram asked him if the sun god was angry at him for doing something wrong.

Eved Shemesh replied that the sun god didn’t care what people did; he shined on good people the same way he shined on bad people. Avram said, “Don’t you think a god should be concerned about how people act to each other? A human judge is supposed to punish the guilty; and help and protect the innocent. Shouldn’t a god be as good a judge as a human?”

Eved Shemesh did not know what to say, so he said he would think about it. A few days later he asked Avram to explain what Avram believed about God. They talked for a few hours and Eved Shemesh said he would think about what Avram had said.

Two months later Eved Shemesh told Avram he no longer was a sun worshiper. He wanted to change his name which means sun-worshiper to something better. Avram suggested he call himself Eliezer, which means ‘my god helps’, because Avram believed that God can help all people to become better people. Eliezer later went to work for Avram, and eventually became the head of all of Avram’s workers.

Some time later, Eliezer’s wife came to Sarai to tell her about something wonderful. In the months after Eliezer had changed his name, he had started treating his wife with much more respect. She told Sarai that the example of the way Avram treated Sarai had helped Eliezer become a better husband.

“Avram believes I am a seer or a prophet.” said Sarai. “My original name Yiscah, was given to me by my father Nachor. Yiscah means visionary or seer”. (Genesis 11:29)

Eliezer’s wife was surprised. Pagan religions had both priests and priestesses, but she had never met a female prophet before. (The Talmud in Megillah 14a lists seven female prophets: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Hulda and Esther.

According to Midrash Tanchuma on Exodus, Sarah had greater prophetic powers than Abraham. One of her greater powers was the ability to foresee future developments. Malbin, a 19th century Russian commentator, states that when Yiscah married Avram he started calling her Sarati or Sarai both of which mean my chief or my princess.

In later years the name Yiscah was no longer used but no one forgot its meaning or Sarai’s prophetic abilities. This is why when Abraham was reluctant to send away Hagar and Ishmael as Sarah demanded, God directly instructed him “In all that Sarah says to you, harken to her voice.” (Genesis 21:12) So Yiscah, or Sarai as she was called after her marriage to Avram, was accepted in Avram’s family as a visionary or seer.

Another woman that Sarai converted was Nimrod’s daughter Tali. Nimrod was a powerful king who was arrogent, cruel and nasty. His youngest daughter Tali was kind hearted, open minded and very intelligent. One day Sarai met Tali in the garden of the Temple of Sin, the moon God. They began talking about religion.

Tali said that she worshipped Sin, the moon God, because, unlike the sun god, the moon was always changing. “My father Nimrod worships Shemesh, the sun god, for three reasons. First, the sun is the most powerful of all the gods. If you stare at the sun you will go blind. Second, unlike the moon, the sun never changes.

Third, most people worship the sun and my father likes it when everybody does the same thing. But I think being different, flexibility and change are better religious values to honor than power, rigidity or conformity.”

“You think like I and my husband do.” said Sarai. “Why don’t you join us. We are going to leave Haran and go to a new land. There we will start a new people, who will always be different from the majority. We will strive to become a blessing for our future descendants and for all others as well.”

This vision appealed to Tali. She decided to leave behind her motherland, and the wealth and power of her family; and go with Sarai and Avram to a new land that their God had promised to show them.

Avram knew a young man who loved going to parties, drinking and playing tricks on people. Once, when they were walking, they saw a pair of very worn shoes by the path and a man working in a field not far away.

Avram said, “Let us play a trick on the man: we can hide his shoes, and then hide behind those bushes, and watch his panic when he cannot find them.”

“That is a great idea” said the young man “I love it”. “Wait” said Avram, “I have a better idea. Put a coin in each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch how this affects him.”

The young man did so, and they hid behind some bushes close by. When the poor man finished his work, he crossed the field to the path where he had left his shoes, slipped his foot into one of his shoes, and feeling something hard, stooped down to see what it was.

He looked at the coin in wonder. He looked all around, but no one was visible. He then put the coin in his pocket, and proceeded to put on the other shoe; but his surprise was doubled on finding the another coin.

His feelings overcame him; he fell upon his knees, looked up to the heavens and uttered aloud a fervent thanksgiving in which he spoke of his sick wife and hungry children, whom this timely bounty, from some unknown hand, would save from suffering.

The young man stood there deeply affected; his eyes filled with tears. “Now,” said Avram, “do you not feel much better than if we had played the mean trick?

We should never amuse ourselves at the expense of other people, especially poor or needy people. Helping people always gives you much greater pleasure that hurting people.”

“How do you know that?” said the young man. Avram replied, “I believe God created us to help one another. God gives us freedom to choose to help or hurt; but God wants us to choose to help. Over time helping will result in blessings; and hurting will result in curses.

If you would like to live your life by this principle, please come to my house and join us. The young man did join Avram and Sarai, and later went with them to Canaan.

One summer day Sarai met a man named Aner, who was a captain of the guards in Nimrod’s palace. They began talking about religion. Aner said that he felt that all the silver and gold people spent on making statues to worship, would be better spent helping the poor and redeeming war captives.

Sarai agreed and said that she and her husband were the leaders of a small group of people who were starting a new religious community, They were all determined to follow a path different from the majority of other people. When you are in the majority, and everyone agrees with you, it is hard to be critical of the way society does things.

“We are a small minority and we intend to stay that way” Sarai said, “although we hope to be a blessing for many other peoples.”

Aner liked what Sarai told him. Sarai invited him to join their new community; and to come with them to a new land that her husband said would be a special place for them all to start building a holy community. Captain Aner did join Sarai and Avram, and went to Canaan with them.

He settled with Abram’s nephew Lot in Sodom. When the town was conquered by King Chedorlaomer of Elam, who carried away Lot and his family as a war captives, It was Aner who brought the news to Avram. (Genesis 14:13) He and his men, joined Avram in the battle to free Lot. Aner was with Avram when he met with Melchizedek, the King of Salem. (Genesis 14:24)

Once, when Avram was visiting his grandmothers’s grave in a vast cemetery in Haran, he met a young man who was sitting next to a grave and crying. Avram tried to console him. The man explained that he was not crying because he had lost someone he loved.

He was crying because death made life pointless. “We are born to die.” he said, “Life is meaningless”. Avram told him that life is a blessing given by God. “If you fill your life with love, charity, worship and good deeds; you will die a contented man. Is there anything that makes you feel wonder and joy?”

The young man thought for a while and then said, “Sometimes I am awed by the beauty of a sunset when the clouds seem to be on fire.” Avram replied, “Do you thank God for that?” The young man was silent and shook his head-no.

“That is your problem, said Avram, “come to my house at sunset and join me in prayer for a few weeks. You may find blessing and purpose in your life.” The young man came, he prayed, and he stayed. He learned that even the sunset of life can be beautiful, and filled with blessings and purpose, if one learns to see the wonders of life and be grateful for them. The young man became much more positive about life.

Avram encouraged him to reach out to other people he met and share with them what he had learned. Avram also encouraged him, as he and Sarai did all of the people in their group, to invite people they met to join them in their study and prayer sessions. The young man did this so often that he attracted almost a dozen other people into their group.

Avram started calling the young man Eshkol, which means cluster–like a cluster of grapes, because he drew others to join Avram and Sarai. And that is the name that he is known by in the Torah. (Genesis 14:24)

Eshkol, once traveled to the city of Ur in Mesopotamia. While he was there he heard about a holy man who was famous for his ability to walk barefoot over burning coals. Eshkol went to visit the priest and asked him if he could indeed walk over burning coals.

The holy man replied that he had been walking on burning coals for many years; but now as a result of many more years of celibacy, study, prayer and fasting he could also walk on water.

Eshkol thought about that for several moments. Then told the saint that he could have done the same things many years ago with a pair of shoes and a rowboat.

That is true replied the saint, but how else could I have accomplished my spiritual self growth without all my years of celibacy, prayer, fasting and study.

Eshkol answered, “I have learned from a man named Avram, that helping people in need is what God wants us to spend most of our time doing. So, if you prayed, fasted and studied less, you would have had more time to help widows, orphans and strangers. That is what God demands from us; and that is the best way to grow spiritually.”

The priest started thinking about what Eshkol said. After a while Eshkol told him that he was leaving Ur in a few days to return to Haran. Eshkol invited the holy man to come with him to Haran, and meet Avram and his wife Sarai. “Avram is married?” asked the priest.

“Sarai is very beautiful, highly intelligent, and a loving holy soul.” said Eshkol. The holy man did come to meet Avram. He stayed with Avram and Sarai for many years, and when they left Haran to go to the land of Canaan, he went with them.

Rabbi Eliezer taught that because Avram and Sarai had increased their family so much with the addition of all these converts, they were able to travel through the land of Canaan without fear.

Rabbi Abba stated that the personal merit of Avram and Sarai was augmented by the merit of all the additional souls that accompanied them, because when one person influences another person to join a holy community, the merit of joiner is added to the merit of the inviter.

Even the Christian Bible reports that Abraham was God’s friend. (James 2:23 )”Abraham believed God, it was reckoned to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God.