54: Not to make a covenant with idolaters

The Book of Knowledge
Laws of Idolatry and Paganism
Not to make a covenant with idolaters (Deut. 7:2)

A little context: The midrash tells us a story about Abraham, the father of Judaism, when he worked for his father Terah, an idol maker. One day, in protest, Abraham smashed all the idols in his father’s workshop and placed a club in the hand of the largest idol. When his father asked what happened, Abraham blamed it on the idol with the club. Terah balked – the idols weren’t alive; they could not do that. Abraham asked if the idols weren’t alive, then why did his father worship them?

ABRAHAM and TERAH in a workshop

dozens of idols smashed to pieces lay on the ground

TERAH
but i’m your father

ABRAHAM
you worship the wrong gods

TERAH
i held you as a baby

ABRAHAM
my God burns bright with glory

TERAH
as a child you’d cling to my leg
what happened?

ABRAHAM
the one true God has revealed himself to me

TERAH
but i can still be you father

ABRAHAM
you can if you forgo these idols

TERAH
they’re my livelihood
they’re my faith
they hold my soul

ABRAHAM
wicked wicked man

TERAH
Abraham please i love you

ABRAHAM
your idols are lies

TERAH
they’re lies sometimes and sometimes for some they’re real and that’s enough

ABRAHAM
wicked

TERAH
let me hold you son

ABRAHAM spits and exits

the backroom of the workshop

there is an enormous IDOL – six-feet tall, made of wood, holding a club

and alive

the IDOL is weeping

TERAH enters

TERAH
i’m so sorry
i’m so sorry

TERAH sits beside the weeping IDOL

IDOL
i loved him too

TERAH
i know

IDOL
i loved him i loved him why has he forsaken me?

TERAH
i still love you

IDOL
but he made me

TERAH
i know

IDOL
carved me from wood and brought out my soul

TERAH
don’t cry for him

IDOL
he’s my father and i loved him

TERAH
you can be my child now

IDOL
i hurt all over

TERAH
let me hold you son

the IDOL lays his head on TERAH’s shoulder

and sobs and sobs

END OF PLAY