Sunday, November 13, 2011

Haran's Choice

In the midrash that we learned last week, Avraham's father Terach brought him to Nimrod (the king) after he refused to believe in idols. Nimrod ordered that Avraham should go into a fiery furnace and if his beliefs about one, all-powerful G-d was true then it could be proved by weather he survived. Avraham's brother was asked if he sided with Avraham or Nimrod. He said that whoever wins, he will side with. After Avraham survived the furnace, Nimrod asked Haran who he sided with. He answered Avraham, the clear winner. He then was sent into the furnace. There he was burned alive and was not saved by G-d. Haran's comments and ideas can be seen in two different ways. One way could be that he like everyone else had been tought from the very beginning about the power of idols, therefore it wasn't really his fault that he believed in them. The point of G-d saving Avraham from the fire was to prove that there is an omnicient, omnipotent G-d and the idols are nothing but inanimate objects with no divine powers. After seeing this Haran seemed to be convinced that there is a G-d and Avraham was right. If Haran had come to the conclusion that Avraham (and G-d) had been hoping all of the people would come to then why was he punished with dying in the furnace?
Well, for one Haran is not like every other person. He is Avraham's brother. He has had the chance to hear Avraham's beliefs and he had chosen to continue worshiping the idols. Unlike everyone else who had been tought nothing but the idea of idol worship, Haran had had two separate ideas to choose between. Also, Haran had not said to Nimrod as his answer 'I will go with whoevers G-d is proven real' or something similar to that. He said I will side with whoever wins. This does not prove that he now believes in G-d, he just wants to be on the winner's side. All of this proves that Haran did not deserve to be spaired by G-d.

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