Abraham

What was Abraham doing when God called him to leave Ur? What happens between the end of Genesis 11 and the start of Genesis 12. I was wondering why G-d "waited" so long between Eden and Abraham.

Shalom!

Thank you for your question.

The chapters and stories of the Torah do not necessarily follow each other one after the other. There could be many years, if not decades, between one chapter and the next. Genesis 11 deals with the story of the Tower of Babel and the birth of Abraham. As you will see, there might very well be a 40 years gap between the story in Genesis 11 and the story in Genesis 12.

According to Jewish tradition, Abraham discovered G-d on his own at the age of three and continued to pursue his faith as he grew older. He realized on his own that the world must have a creator and that we were put in the world to serve Him and do good deeds.

For example, according to one Midrashic teaching, one day Abraham looked up at the sun and pondered whether that big, bright, warm sun might be the Creator of the world. But then the sun set and a new being arose: the moon. So, then Abraham pondered of whether the Moon, with its army of starts might be the all-mighty power in the world. But the moon, too, soon after disappeared. Abraham continued to ponder such thoughts until he came to the conclusion that there must be One all powerful G-d. Eventually God called upon him at about the age of 40 to start his mission as the father of the Jewish people.

Every human being is expected to recognize and serve the One and only G-d who created the world.