Abraham and the gang

Yesterday evening was the Torah group's third meeting. We discussed two parashahs, both telling the story of Abraham/Abram and Sarah/Sarai/Ishai (Sarah's 3 names)--Lech L'cha and Vayahi. We only made it through the first because there was so much to discuss. In this section, Abram leaves home with his retenue and passes his wife off as his sister (twice). In the process, the old trickster gains a lot of booty and renown. So does his nephew, Lot, his adopted son under the Levirite marriage system that dictated brothers become responsible for their brothers' family after his death, and must marry the widow. In fact, that's why Abram marries Sarai, who is his niece. We also learned that this was not considered incest; nor are father-daughter relations-- under the biblical definition at least!
We discussed the interesting fact that Hagar is thought to be the daughter of the Pharaoh. You'll remember her as Sarai's slave, who bears Abraham's first son, Ishmael, who becomes the father of the Arab tribes--12 of them, just like the 12 Hebrew tribes. Supposedly, according to the Rabbis, the Pharoah was so in awe of Abraham that he thought it was better for his daughter to be a slave in his household than a princess in Egypt! Ha! Fat chance.
She gets a lot of attention in the book though. In fact, she is about the only woman God talks to. He didn't address Eve or Sarah. She, on the other hand, got to look at God's back and to give him two names--both having to do with "seeing." In fact, that is one of the themes of this section of the book.
We also talked about Abraham's bizarre sacrifice, where he cuts up several animals into two pieces and also includes a bird that is not cut into pieces. I noted that the bird has already been associated with God's covanant in Noah, so it is perhaps not so surprising that it makes its appearance here.
We'll meet again in two weeks and discuss the demise of Sodom and Gomorrah and the wonderful pillar of salt. I already asked about the salt, and read an interesting interpretation that said that Lot's wife was punished for the foreign habit of seasoning her meat, but primarily because she went to the neighbor's house to borrow some salt and told the neighbor about the visitors (the three angels) at their place. That's when the neighbors formed a rape mob and came over to rape the angels. Appropriately enough in a book with so much to-do about seeing and not seeing, the angels blind them, and all hell breaks loose.