I have said "untold" in the sense that this story does not appear in the Torah, itself, but was passed down unto us by way of oral tradition. This story appears in the Midrash Rabba (Genesis Rabba), at the end of the section on Noah.
Terah, the father of our ancestor Abraham, was a maker of statues used at that time as idols by the people, and he would sell them in his trade. When an occasion presented itself that he must go out of the city for a short venture, he placed his son Abram in his stead, to keep watch over the shop and to sell his statues to prospective buyers. At which time, there came into his shop an elderly man to buy a certain idol, and Abram wittily enquired of the man how old he was. When he gave the answer that he was about fifty or sixty years old, Abram retorted: "Woe unto that man who is aged sixty, and yet seeks to bow down unto him who is but a day old!" (Meaning, the statue was freshly taken out from the kiln.) At hearing this, the old man was ashamed, and so he went away.
Once, a certain woman came into the shop, carrying in her hands a bowl of finely-sifted flour. She said to the youth Abram: "Take this, and offer it before them!" When she went away, Abram stood up and took a club in his hand, and smashed therewith all of the statues in his father's shop, placing afterwards the club in the hand of the largest statue, which he had purposely left standing.
When his father returned from his journey, he enquired concerning the statues, and who it was that broke them. Abram answered his father: "How can I deny? There came a certain woman carrying with her one bowl of finely-sifted flour. She then said to me, 'Take this, and offer it before them.' I offered it before them, when suddenly this statue said he would eat first, and the other statue said, no, he would eat first! The largest statue of them all then stood up and took a club in his hand, and broke them all!" His father responded: "Quit teasing me. For what do they know?" Abram then answered his father: "Now, will not your ears hear what your mouth is saying? For idols know nothing!"
At this show of insolence, Terah took Abram his son, and delivered him unto Nimrod, who was the tyrant of that place. When he stood before Nimrod, the king said to him that men ought to bow down and worship fire. Abram, reasoning within himself, said to the tyrant king: "Should men not rather bow down and worship water, since it extinguishes the fire?" Nimrod then said to him: "Well be it, then. All men ought to bow down and worship water." Abram, again reasoning within himself, said: "If that were so, should men not rather bow down and worship the clouds, since they carry the water?" He said to him: "Well be it, then. All men ought to bow down and worship the clouds." Being somewhat emboldened by the king's patience with him, Abram answered: "If that were so, should men not rather bow down and worship the wind, since it scatters the clouds?" The king answered: "Well be it, then. All men ought to bow down and worship the wind." Again, Abram reasoned within himself and answered the king: "But is it not rather more correct that men bow down and worship man, himself, since a man carries within his body wind, and despite the many orifices in his body, that wind does not escape!"
Nimrod, being now impatient with his answers, said unto him: "Thou art merely churning up words! As for me, I will have nothing but the fiery furnace! Behold! I have decided to throw you in it!"
Haran, who was Abram's brother, stood by observing this great debate. Yet, was he still indecisive where the truth lie. He said to himself: "If Abram wins this contest, I will say that I belong to his party. But if Nimrod wins this contest, I will say that I belong to his party."
When Abram was thrown into the fiery furnace and was miraculously delivered, the people who stood by asked Haran to which party he belonged. He said to them that he was from Abram's party. Yet, since they suspected him of delivering Abram through his witchcraft and sorcery, they took him up and threw him into the fiery furnace *, and his bowels were incinerated. Therefore it says, "And Haran died before his father Terah, in the land of his nativity, etc."
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* One tradition says that instead of taking him up to throw him into the furnace, fire came down from heaven and burnt him because of his disbelief.
Posts: 1031 | Location: Israel | Registered: December 05, 2005
I told my girls about this story and they already knew it. But they had heard it slightly differently from a Rav JOseph Tellushkin book JEWISH LITERACY. They had not heard the part about the flour offering.
Posts: 700 | Location: TEXAS, USA | Registered: May 31, 2006
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