Crossposted to Jewschool.
Arurtz Sheva, the news service of the West Bank’s settlers says:
In a powerful echo of the Biblical story of the patriarch Abraham, a Mumbai doctor smashed his father’s idols and eventually decided to become a Jew in the Land of Israel.
Abraham was born Vagirds Frads to a Hindu cleric who worshipped idols, and a mother who prepared food for them. As did the Biblical Abraham, young Vagirds could not understand how his father could honor a man-made statue, nor why his mother would cook for them. “Sometimes I eat it in secret,” he confided…
What’s wrong with this? Special Thanksgiving Turkey points to the first person who gets it right.
Pingback: Spot the error–or, Arutz Sheva can’t read the Bible | Jewschool
Where in the bible is the story of Abraham smashing the idols? That’s midrash.
Now where’s my turkey?
JBB, I said Turkey points, not Turkey. Here are your points. Redeemable wherever quality Turkeys are sold in exchange for Turkey points.
See, Arurtz Sheva? That wasn’t so hard to get right.
You’re obviously just the worst kind of ignoramus, David. Don’t you know that רש”י means רבוי שכתב יה? “The Extension that God Wrote”?
Kidding, obvs.
I knew the right answer, but others beat me to it, so I am deprived of my turkey points.
I do remember learning the story early in my Hebrew school career, and thought then that it was a bible story. Is it possible that G’veret Berman told us an untruth? Or that the Zvi Scharfstein simplified Chumash that we used mingled the McCoy with the midrash?
As BZ and Joshua have pointed out in the comments on this post at Jewschool, the story is in the Koran.
Quoth BZ: “Now Arutz Sheva shows its true colors.”
You heard it here first, folks, Arutz Sheva is a covert Islamist propaganda machine.
I’m reminded of the first day of my Intro to Biblical Criticism class my sophomore year of college, at JTS. The professor (Rabbi Steve Garfinkel) was explaining the difference between p’shat and drash and why it’s important to know the difference. “I can’t tell you how many people think the story of Avraham smashing the idols is in the Torah,” he said. And a yeshiva high school grad looked up, stunned, and blurted out with disbelief, “It’s not??” He very calmly picked up the Chumash on his desk, handed it to her, and said, “Find it for me.” She flipped pages furiously for a few minutes. Perhaps she’s writing for Arutz Sheva now.
That’s terrific!