Biblical Hebrew Forum

["JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.apu.ac.uk>]

Shoshanna wrote:
Abraham merited being one of our avos (forefathers).  His 2 most 
famous character traits were that of a man of FAITH and 
charity/chesed.  Hashem subjected him to 10 tests of faith, he passed 
all of them.  This abduction of Sarah by Avimelech was one of these 
tests.  He therefore was not a coward.

JCR: If Abraham was one of your fathers wouldn't that 
make you one of his daughters?


Also, I think I agree with you that the word 'coward' 
was a poor choice of word as Abraham had already shown 
great courage in leaving the security of his family 
to go and reside amongst foreigners who might decide 
to kill him at any moment.

However, one observation I would like to make is that 
I don't need any oral torah to reach this conclusion 
as the information given in the actual torah is more 
than sufficient.
Personally, I find it quite enlightening to listen to 
your testimonies of what the oral torah has to say 
because I don't have a copy and have never had the 
chance to read it. However, I do have to agree with the
sentiments expressed by Peter that it would be a little
unreasonably if someone were to expect the list members
to accept the oral torah as Yah's word especially where
there are apparent contradictions with the testimony of
the real torah.