The Rabbinic Mind: The Avot Struggling With Idols

Welcome to all new and returning students! I am excited to resume with another series of “The Rabbinic Mind”, this time a continuation of the series we did last year on “struggling with idolatry”.  In that series, we studied midrashim that contained information and insights into the people in Sefer Bereisheet that preceded the Avot, and at the very end we learned the well-known midrash about Avraham breaking the idols in his father’s shop.

In this new series, we will delve more into the stories of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov. We will try to understand what was the nature of their ongoing encounters with idolatrous culture. Did they argue with them and try to change them? Did they actually have idolatry within their own families, and how did they deal with that? These and other questions will engage us as we look into how our Sages understood things.