Print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 135-157).

Out of Ur -- Abraham the iconoclast -- Which Gods shall we break today? -- Three paths to the sacred -- The primal trauma of the Jewish people -- (Re)embracing Teraḥ -- From broken idols to broken tablets -- The sound of broken glass : Jewish iconoclasm and anti-Semitism.

The story of Abraham smashing his father's idols might be the most important Jewish story ever told and the key to how Jews define themselves. In a work at once deeply erudite and wonderfully accessible, Rabbi Salkin conducts readers through the life and legacy of this powerful story and explains how it has shaped Jewish consciousness. Offering a radical view of Jewish existence, this book views the story of the young Abraham as the "primal trauma" of Jewish history, one critical to the development of a certain Jewish comfort with rebelliousness and one that, happening in every generation, has helped Jews develop a unique identity. The author shows how the story continues to reverberate through the ages, even in its connection to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism. This work - combining biblical texts, archaeology, rabbinic insights, Hasidic texts (some never before translated), philosophy, history, poetry, contemporary Jewish thought, sociology, and popular culture - is nothing less than a journey through two thousand years of Jewish life and intellectual endeavor.

English.