The Eternal Jew

A rabbi and a shamis , the rabbi's assistant in the synagogue, tell the Biblical story of Abraham to a group of children. The rabbi says that with Abraham, the history of the Jewish people commences, and that Abraham's story relates man's progress from idolatry to the conviction that there is only one God. The rabbi narrates the following scenes: After a big star appears over Babylonia and devours four smaller stars, the soothsayers of King Nimrod predict that a man will be born who will overthrow the throne of all kings. Nimrod declares that all newly-born male children shall be killed, and after 70,000 are slaughtered, the wife of Tereh hides in a cave to give birth to a baby, who is named Abram. The child is nourished by angels with milk and honey after his mother flees, fearful of the spirit of God that appears on the baby's face. As a man, Abram, whose father is an idol maker, rejects idolatry and, after marrying Sarai, leaves with her, his father and his cousin Lot in search of a supreme God. After Abram is captured by soldiers of Amraphel, king of Shinar, his sincerity so impresses the king that he is freed. Abram, upon discovering that Lot has taken an idol with him, destroys it. At the city of Haran, where Abram finds the people sinful and intolerant, Tereh dies. Lot's wife sacrifices the child of Lot's servant to Moloch, the god of Babylonia, as is the custom. Abram and his party barely escape slaughter during an Arab attack. In Canaan, Abram builds an altar to God and soon prospers, but Lot's jealousy leads Abram to give Lot a choice of land, whereupon Lot chooses the plains of Jordan. God promises Abram that all the land within sight will belong to him and his descendants forever. Four Mesopotamian kings invade Canaan and defeat its five kings. Lot sends a servant to Abram for help, and with God's help and 318 armed servants, Abram, who has no knowledge of battle, fights the kings and rescues Lot. As he reaches old age, Abram, who has gained recognition in Canaan as the high priest, fears he will be childless. Because Sarai is childless, Hagar, Sarai's Egyptian handmaiden, bears Abram a son, in accordance with the custom of the time. The son Ishmael inherits his mother's unruly spirit. The shamis then tells the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and explains that God refused Abram's plea that he not destroy the sinful cities because Abram could not find even ten righteous people living there. God tells Abram that his name shall in the future be Abraham and that Sarai's shall be Sarah. She bears him a son, Isaac, but the priests of the land demand that the first born son shall be sacrificed to Moloch, a practise to which Abraham earlier refused to object because he didn't want to interfere with the customs of the land. Meanwhile, Sarah realizes that Hagar is trying to usurp her position, and because of this and Ishmael's wild nature, she asks Abraham to cast them out. Painfully, Abraham complies, and the mother and son go off into the wilderness. After Hagar gives Ishmael the last drop of water she has, they fall exhausted, and she puts the boy under a shrub and prays to her idol to do with her son what it wills. In Canaan, Abraham gives a feast the day Isaac is weaned. Later, as Abraham holds Isaac on his lap and envisions the sacrifice that Moloch demands, an angel's hand stays his and Isaac is saved. With the story ended, the children tell the rabbi and the shamis the lessons they've learned: that humanity should live in harmony and that their forefathers had a mission to make brothers of humanity. The rabbi says that Abraham did not falter in his mission to humanity and tells the children that they must not despair against the persecution and intolerance of the present day, but carry on the mission for the betterment of the world and the brotherhood of mankind.