| Young Abraham | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Written by | Ron Mezey |
| Produced by | Oliver Cohen Charlie Cohen Moshe Dayan Sidney El Hadad Janet Zucker |
| Edited by | Todd Shaffer |
Production company | Big Bang Digital Studios |
Release date |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | 1.8 million |
Young Abraham is a CGI animated film portraying the early years of biblical Abraham.
The film opens with a portentous observation by King Nimrod's chief stargazer. He witnesses one star consuming four surrounding stars, after which an ethereal light emanating from the remaining star bathes one house in the city of Ur Kaśdim, the seat of Nimrod's kingdom. Inside this home, a baby has been born to Nimrod's general Terakh and his wife, Amaslei. Spurred by his stargazer's warnings of impending rebellion by this infant, Nimrod orders young Abraham put to death.
Terakh deceives Nimrod and furnishes the baby of his servant girl to take Abraham's place. Amaslei flees, and for the next several years she rears Avraham in hiding. Early on, Avraham displays high intelligence and he quickly arrives at the conclusion of a singular god. Emboldened by his discovery of God in a pervasively polytheistic land, he returns to Ur Kaśdim where he assumes a janitorial position at his father's idol shop. One day, Utz visits the shop to buy an idol. Abraham innocently asks Utz to explain how an inanimate idol of stone can provide for and he urges Utz to disavow idolatry. Then, after destroying all the idols in the shop, Avraham places the mallet into the hand of a stone likeliness of Nimrod, the largest idol in the shop and attempts to mollify his father Terakh, insisting that the idol of Nimrod was the perpetrator of the iconoclasm. Enraged by the carnage of his idols, Terakh permits Nimrod's men to frogmarch his son to Nimrod to be condemned for his blasphemous and treasonable actions.
Abraham breaks loose of the guard's grip en route the palace, and finds himself on the run once again. After a fortuitous encounter with an angel, who saves him from certain death in the desert, Abraham is led by the angel to the yeshiva of Noah. Noah takes Abraham under his wing and eventually instructs a now-matured and grown up Abraham to return to Ur Kaśdim and smash the pyramid of Mesopotamian idolatry.
The final scene of the film is a showdown in which Abraham defiantly refuses to acknowledge Nimrod's bald self-declaration as "God Supreme" of the world. An infuriated Nimrod hurls Abraham into a bonfire, but he miraculously survives before the eyes of a repentant Nimrod, who now recognizes the God of Abraham and instructs his people to convert to Abraham's monotheistic beliefs.
Drawing on the Bible, Midrash and numerous commentaries, Rabbis Yisroel Bernath and Zvi Hershcovich researched and wrote the first draft of the script. [1]
A production of Bible Kids Club, the film was produced for direct-to-video release by Big Bang Digital Studios. The film was directed by Todd Shaffer and produced by Oliver Cohen, Charlie Cohen, Moshe Dayan and Sidney El Hadad. The four-year-long project was produced at a budget of $1.8 million. [2] The film was released in 2011. [3]
Young Abraham has been well received by audiences and has garnered positive reviews. [4] [5] [6] In a feature article for Lubavitch News Service/Lubavitch.com, Mendy Rimler wrote, "...the climax and message of the CGI (computer generated imagery) animated motion picture, a vivid and compelling retelling of the biblical and Midrashic story of Abraham’s discovery of God: At last, kosher entertainment with Jewish and visual depth." [7]
The Dove Foundation awarded Young Abraham five doves, [8] their highest rating.
Abraham is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews and God; in Christianity, he is the spiritual progenitor of all believers, whether Jewish or non-Jewish; and in Islam, he is a link in the chain of Islamic prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad.
In the Hebrew Bible, Amraphel was a king of Shinar in Book of Genesis Chapter 14, who invaded Canaan along with other kings under the leadership of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. Chedorlaomer's coalition defeated Sodom and the other cities in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim.
Terah or Terach is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis. He is listed as the son of Nahor and father of the patriarch Abraham. As such, he is a descendant of Shem's son Arpachshad. Terah is mentioned in Genesis 11:26–27, Book of Joshua 24:2, and 1 Chronicles 1:17–27 of the Hebrew Bible and Luke 3:34–36 in the New Testament.
Abraham was a prophet and messenger of God according to Islam, and an ancestor to the Ishmaelite Arabs and Israelites. Abraham plays a prominent role as an example of faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Muslim belief, Abraham fulfilled all the commandments and trials wherein God nurtured him throughout his lifetime. As a result of his unwavering faith in God, Abraham was promised by God to be a leader to all the nations of the world. The Quran extols Abraham as a model, an exemplar, obedient and not an idolater. In this sense, Abraham has been described as representing "primordial man in universal surrender to the Divine Reality before its fragmentation into religions separated from each other by differences in form". Muslims believe that the Kaaba in Mecca was built by Abraham and his son Ishmael as the first house of worship on earth. The Islamic holy day 'Eid ul-Adha is celebrated in commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son on God's command, as well as the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to the Kaaba.
Sarah is a biblical matriarch, prophetess and major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pious woman, renowned for her hospitality and beauty, the wife and half-sister of Abraham, and the mother of Isaac. Sarah has her feast day on 1 September in the Catholic Church, 19 August in the Coptic Orthodox Church, 20 January in the LCMS, and 12 and 20 December in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Nimrod is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of Shinar. The Bible states that he was "a mighty hunter before the Lord [and] ... began to be mighty in the earth". Later extra-biblical traditions identified Nimrod as the ruler who commissioned the construction of the Tower of Babel, which led to his reputation as a king who was rebellious against God.
Arpachshad, alternatively spelled Arphaxad or Arphacsad, is one of the postdiluvian men in the Shem–Terah genealogy. The name is recorded in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible and subsequently copied in different biblical books, including the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament.
Hud is the 11th chapter (Surah) of the Quran and has 123 verses (ayat). It relates in part to the prophet Hud. Regarding the timing and contextual background of the revelation, it is an earlier "Meccan surah", which means it is believed to have been revealed in Mecca, instead of later in Medina.
Al-Anbiyaʼ is the 21st chapter (sūrah) of the Quran with 112 verses (āyāt). Regarding the timing and contextual background of the believed revelation, it is an earlier "Meccan surah", which means it is believed to have been revealed in Mecca, rather than later in Medina. Its principal subject matter is prophets of the past, who also preached the same faith as Muhammad.
The Spider is the 29th chapter (surah) of the Quran with 69 verses (āyāt).
As-Saffat is the 37th chapter (sūrah) of the Qur'an with 182 verses (āyāt).
The Bible: In the Beginning... is a 1966 religious epic film produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by John Huston. It recounts the first 22 chapters of the Biblical Book of Genesis, covering the stories from The Creation and Adam and Eve to the binding of Isaac.
Serug was the son of Reu and the father of Nahor, according to Genesis 11:20–23. He is also the great-grandfather of Abraham, thus the ancestor of the Ishmaelites and the Israelites.
Noach, Noiach, Nauach, Nauah, or Noah is the second weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 6:9–11:32. The parashah tells the stories of the Flood and Noah's Ark, of Noah's subsequent drunkenness and cursing of Canaan, and of the Tower of Babel.
Ur Kasdim, commonly translated as Ur of the Chaldeans, is a city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the birthplace of the Israelite and Ishmaelite patriarch Abraham. In 1862, Henry Rawlinson identified Ur Kaśdim with Tell el-Muqayyar, near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq. In 1927, Leonard Woolley excavated the site and identified it as a Sumerian archaeological site where the Chaldeans were to settle around the 9th century BC. Recent archaeology work has continued to focus on the location in Nasiriyah, where the ancient Ziggurat of Ur is located.
Noahidism or Noachidism is a monotheistic Jewish religious movement aimed at non-Jews, based upon the Seven Laws of Noah and their traditional interpretations within Orthodox Judaism.
Bible Ki Kahaniyan is an Indian Hindi-language television program based upon scriptures from the Bible. The production aspired to complete both Old Testament and New Testament narratives of the Bible but was later discontinued after covering the Patriarch narrative in the Book of Genesis. It was produced by Appachan through his Navodaya Studio and was broadcast on DD National from 1992 to mid 1993 and again, concluding with the remaining episodes, in 1996.
Abraham and the Idol Shop is a midrash that appears in Genesis Rabbah chapter 38. It tells about the early life of Abraham. The commentary explains what happened to Abraham when he was a young boy working in his father's idol shop. The story has been used as a way to discuss monotheism and faith in general.
Ezekiel 14 is the fourteenth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter records a visit of some of the elders of Israel to Ezekiel, and God's response through the prophet dealing with the sins of idolatry.
Balıklıgöl, is a pool in the southwest of the city center of Şanlıurfa, Turkey known in Jewish and Islamic legends as the place where Nimrod threw Abraham into a fire. Balıklıgöl and neighbouring Aynzeliha pools are among the most visited places in Şanlıurfa.