Christianity, and Islamic Traditions

The Significance of Abraham in Judaism, Christianity, And Islamic Traditions

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ABRAHAM IN JUDIASM, CHRISTIANITY, AND ISLAMIC TRADITIONS

Lesson Overview:

Modern day Palestine (the Promised Canaan) is the home of Jews, Christians, and Arabs. Abraham (Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of these Abrahamic monotheistic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Abrahamic narrative in the Book of Genesis centers on the theme of posterity, land, and blessings in the Promised Land-Canaan. In Judaism, Abraham is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews and God; in Christianity, he is the spiritual forefather of all believers in God, whether Jewish or non-Jewish; and in Islam, he is a common link to the Islamic prophets beginning with Adam and ending with Muhammad.This lesson will provide information about the conflict in the Middle East relative to the descendants of the biblical Abraham and the possession of the Promised Land. Students will review historical and current events in the Middle East and examine the complexities in resolving the issues.

Key Concepts: The Promised Land, Palestine, the Arab Israeli conflict, Quran, or Koran, nationalism, Mecca, The Kaaba, Hajj, intifada, The Balfour Declaration, Nakba Day, the Temple Mount, Hamas, Salam

Objectives:

Students will: • connect the biblical account of the life of Abraham to his descendants in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. • compare the points of view of citizens of Israel and Palestine regarding the Arab Israeli conflict. • summarize negotiation attempts and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. • provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions. • cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

Expected Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the lesson students will:

• understand the role that the Abrahamic narratives play in the Middle East land conflicts. • compare the points of view of Palestinian citizens regarding the Arab Israeli conflict. • summarize negotiation attempts and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

Materials:

• Video: Abraham, Father of Many Nations (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5ZDoGqFfxg )

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• Video: The Complete Story of Abraham: The Father of Nations (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv9usf6BrEY) • Video: The 12 Tribes of Israel in the Bible (Whiteboard Bible Study) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP-EXMy4Xas) • Article: “Place of Abraham in Islam, Christianity, Judaism” (https://hp.haccessonlineforms.com/?page=newtab&cid=iliimbpbpliabblllmgebklpjkgeag jp&ap=appfocus1&source=d-ccc4-lp0-dsf_forms-cp_12887637018-tst1-bb9&uc=20210503&uid=9766caf4-c28a-44ca-9b60-4d4f19b54a71&i_id=forms_1.3&) • Video: Conflict in Israel and Palestine (https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins/era-7-the-great-convergenceand-divergence-1880-ce-to-the-future/74-end-of-empires-betaa/v/conflict-in-israel-andpalestine-crash-course-world-history-223-beta)

Procedure:

• Read the article: “Place of Abraham in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.” • Respond to the study questions. • Watch the video lessons and respond to the study questions. • Write a reflection on the lesson. Edit writing for errors. • Post the reflection on the discussion board, • Label the post: A Reflection on Abraham and the Middle East Conflicts

Study Questions:

Article: “Place of Abraham in Islam, Christianity, Judaism” https://hp.haccessonlineforms.com/?page=newtab&cid=iliimbpbpliabblllmgebklpjkgeagjp&ap=a ppfocus1&source=d-ccc4-lp0-dsf_forms-cp_12887637018-tst1-bb9&uc=20210503&uid=9766caf4-c28a-44ca-9b60-4d4f19b54a71&i_id=forms_1.3&

Directions:

Indicate whether the following statements are (A) CORRECT or (B) INCORRECT. 1. In Islam tradition, the name Abraham is Ibrahim. 2. Abraham is a prophet in Islamic cultures. 3. In Islam, a prophet is a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God. 4. The phrase “Peace be unto him” (PBUH) follows Abraham’s name in Islamic cultures. 5. Salam is a greeting in Arabic that means "Peace be upon you." 6. As-salamu alaykum is an Arabic greeting that Muslims worldwide use regardless of their language background. 7. In Islam, Abraham (Ibrahim) is a “friend of God” and the father of Ishmael and Isaac. 8. In Islamic tradition, Abraham is the father of Jacob (Yaqub). 9. The Quran, or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God.

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10. Arabic name for Mecca is Makkah. 11. Mecca is an Arabic city in western Saudi Arabia, located in the Ṣirāt Mountains, inland from the Red Sea coast. 12. Mecca is the holiest city in Islam. 13. The word Hajj (Hadj) means to make a resolve to visit a holy place an refers to Visiting the Ka’ba in Makka (Mecca). 14. The Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca takes place in the last month of the year. 15. Hajj involves a series of rituals that take place in and around Mecca over a period of five to six days. 16. The Kaaba (Kaba) is a sanctuary attributed to Abraham and Ishmael. 17. The Kaaba is the central structure around which the Hajj takes place. 18. The visit to the Kaaba represents devotion to Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael. 19. In Islamic tradition, Prophet Ibrahim settled his wife and son in the valley of Makkah (Mecca) by God’s order. 20. Mecca is the holiest city in Saudi Arabia.

Study Questions

Directions:

View the video: Conflict in Israel and Palestine

(https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins/era-7-the-great-convergence-anddivergence-1880-ce-to-the-future/74-end-of-empires-betaa/v/conflict-in-israel-and-palestinecrash-course-world-history-223-beta). Respond to the study questions.

Are the following statements (A) TRUE or (B) FALSE? 1. The conflict between Israel and Palestine over the last decades relates to theological and land differences between Islam and Judaism. 2. In both Judaism and Islam, the key prophets descended from Abraham's son Isaac, or his son Ishmael. 3. The main conflict in the Middle East results from different religious views on land inheritances. 4. In the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire ruled over what we now know as Palestine. 5. According to 1878 Ottoman records, eighty-seven percent of the population was Muslim, ten percent was Christian, and three percent was Jewish. 6. Ancient Ottoman Palestine was a place in which people of different religious faiths lived together peacefully. 7. In the late 19th century during the Golden Age of European nationalism, at least ten different nations wanted their own state. 8. In that nationalistic empire lived a Jewish journalist named Theodor Herzl who hoped that Jews could assimilate into European nations. 9. He later became convinced that the Jewish people needed to leave Europe and settle in their own state.

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10. The concept of Jewish nationalism came to be known as Zionism. 11. Zionists were secular Jews who imagined Israel as a state for Jews more than a religious

Jewish state. 12. 1917, the British government, hoping to gain the support of Jewish people, issued the

Balfour Declaration. 13. The Balfour Declaration promised "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." 14. A year before the Balfour Declaration, the British had secretly promised the French that they would divide up the Arab territories and Britain would keep Palestine. 15. In 1915, other British officials had promised the ruler of Mecca, Sharif Hussein, that he would rule over an Arab state including Palestine if he led an Arab revolt against Ottoman rule. 16. In all, the British leaders had promised Palestine to the Meccans, to themselves, and to the

Zionists. 17. After the end of the war, the British established a colony in Palestine with the assumption that would rule until the Palestinians could govern themselves. 18. Meanwhile, the British established separate institutions for Christians, Jews, and Muslims, making it difficult for Palestinian Christians and Muslims to cooperate. 19. The British were able to "divide and rule" the inhabitants of Palestine. 20. Meanwhile, the British did attempt to honor the Balfour Declaration's promise to, quote, "facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions." 21. Between 1920 and 1939, the Jewish population of Palestine increased by over 320,000 people, and by 1938, Jews were just under thirty percent of the population of Palestine. 22. The growing Jewish population focused on purchasing land from absentee non-Palestinian

Arab landowners. 23. Small farmers became in debt to rich families which led to the transfer of land to the new owners and then eventually to the Jewish buyers. 24. By controlling both the land and the labor, the Jewish population hoped to establish a more secure community within Palestine. 25. These land purchasing practices heightened tensions between Jewish people and Arab

Palestinians between the 1920s and the 1930s. 26. Along the way, Palestinian Arabs began considered themselves as the Palestinian nation. 27. The growing sense of nationalism erupted in 1936, when the Palestinians revolted against the British. 28. With the help of Jewish militias, the British brutally suppressed the Palestinian revolt. 29. Afterwards, the British limited Jewish immigration to Palestine, and called for the establishment of a joint Arab and Jewish state in Palestine within ten years. 30. This arrangement left the Zionists angry at Britain for limiting Jewish immigration at a time when Jews needed to leave Europe. 31. The Arab Palestinians were unhappy about the prospect of waiting ten years for a state.

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32. At the beginning of World War II, Palestine experienced peace, but later, the tensions resumed, and the British handed the issue of Palestine over to the newly created United

Nations. 33. In November of 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into separate

Palestinian and Jewish states. 34. The Partition Plan called for two states in Palestine of equal in size. 35. The borders of the Palestinian states are easy to define. 36. The 1948 Arab Israeli War broke out with Israel on one side and the Palestinians and Arab states on the other. 37. The Israelis won the war, and an armistice was signed in 1949. 38. After the war, Israel occupied a third more land than they would have had under the UN proposal. 39. Meanwhile, Jordan, an Arab region, controlled and later annexed the West Bank and the old city of Jerusalem, while Egypt controlled the Gaza strip. 40. Over 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes and became refugees in the surrounding Arab countries. 41. To Israelis, this was the beginning of their nation; to the Palestinians, this was the nakba, or catastrophe, as they became stateless. 42. Nakba Day is the day of commemoration for the Nakba, also known as the Palestinian

Catastrophe, which comprised the destruction of Palestinian society and homeland in 1948. 43. In 1967, Israel and Arab states went to war again for six days. 44. Israel won the Six-Days War. 45. IsraelgainedcontrolovertheWestBank,theGazaStrip,theSinaiPeninsula,andtheGolan

Heights. 46. The UN passed Resolution 242 that outlined a basic framework for achieving peace in the region. 47. The Resolution included Israel withdrawing from the territory acquired in the war, and all participants recognizing the rights of both a Palestinian and an Israeli state to exist. 48. After the Six-Days-War, the broader Israeli-Arab conflict transformed into a more specific

Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 49. Palestinian is a word used to describe the ethnic identity of those who have historically lived in Palestine, including Jews, Christians, and Muslims. 50. The Israeli government began to establish Jewish settlements in what had been Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. 51. By the late 1980s, Palestinians launched the first intifada, which means "shaking off." 52. The intifada began as a boycott of Israeli products and services and refusing to pay Israeli taxes. 53. When the Israeli armed forces confronted the protesters, violence ensued. 54. In 1993, the first intifada resulted in the founding of Hamas, which launched the first suicide bombing against Israel.

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55. Hamas gained support because of its militancy and from its social welfare projects in Gaza. 56. President Bill Clinton’s talks came closer than any other time in recent history to an actual peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians. 57. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was willing to give up more land currently claimed by

Israel than at any other time in the past, but peace between the Israelis and Palestinians did not take place. 58. Ehud Barak's government was undermined, and in September of 2000, Prime Minister candidate Ariel Sharon led a group of 1,000 armed guards to the Temple Mount in the Old

City of Jerusalem. 59. To Muslims, the Temple Mount is known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in

Islam. 60. The Kaaba in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina are the holiest sites of the

Muslims. 61. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. 62. The march on the Temple Mount sparked a massive protest and led to the much more violent Second Intifada. 63. During the protest, more than three thousand Palestinians and one thousand Israelis died. 64. In 2002, the Israelis began construction of a wall around the West Bank to include Israeli settlements on the Israeli side. 65. In 2005, Yasser Arafat died, and in an election shortly thereafter, Hamas won a majority of the parliamentary seats. 66. Since then, Palestine has been poorly governed. 67. In the past ten years, Hamas has frequently launched rocket attacks into Israel. 68. Israel has retaliated with violence. 69. Both parties claim that they are responding to the provocations of the other. 70. The conflict reflects the consistent failure on all sides to understand the legitimacy of the others’ narrative.

For Reflection:

Genesis, Chapter 12 makes a unilateral contract that only He is required to fulfill. What are the terms of the contract? What are the symbolic actions of God and Abraham in Genesis, Chapter 15 to seal the contract? Explain why the covenant is official according to ancient Israelites’ traditions of covenant making. Explain the importance of blood in the covenants. Explain the use of symbolism in God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis, Chapter 12. Document source(s). (5-8 sentences). Edit your writing to correct errors. Post the reflection on the discussion board. Label the post: Symbolism in the Abrahamic Covenant Making. (Suggested reference: “Covenant Making in Anatolia and Mesopotamia” by Moshe Weinfield Hebrew University of Jerusalem) (file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Moshe_Weinfeld_Covenant_Making_in_Anatol.pdf).

A Closing Thought:

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“The Promised Land is not a place to be conquered by armies and solidified by displacing other people. The Promised Land is a corner in the heart.”

― Joseph Campbell

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