Oral Tradition

The Setting: Around 800 BCE, Aviel, a young boy in a story-telling clan rebels against his family’s profession. After storming off from a storytelling session being led by his father, Aviel encounters an elderly man from the village who shares some unknown and exciting information about Aviel’s father.

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Unable to sit silently while his father rambled on about some old guy named Abraham, Aviel abruptly rose to his feet and stormed away from the circle of people gathered to hear the stories of their ancient past.“Abraham this and Abraham that”, he muttered under his breath.“I get so tired of hearing about some old guy who probably had too much to drink when supposedly God promised him some land.” Stopping by a very tall tree whose limbs and branches provided shade to a portion of a nearby churning stream, he whispered under his breath,“Give it a rest people. This guy Abraham is old news!”

For the past few weeks, young Aviel had been feeling restless which made it difficult for him to sit still like a stone and endure his father’s nightly retelling of his family’s glory days. Each night he lay awake dreaming of a time when he could sneak away to any other location that he desperately hoped was more exciting than his current backwoods home. He constantly promised himself that he would steal away from this dreary place someday soon and go make some history of his own.

On this particular night, he did the unthinkable and interrupted his father just as he was getting to the part of the family story about Abraham and Hagar. For what seemed liked the millionth time, young Aviel heard the opening lines to the story of how Abraham ended up having a kid with some women who wasn’t his wife. Leading up to his abrupt departure, Aviel was slowly churning in his anger at his father and the others in the circle who just sat there night after night listening to the same old stories. Was he the only one who saw these nightly rituals as a waste of time? Was his father always this talkative and domineering? From his standpoint, Aviel could never envision his father as being a young boy who had to answer to someone else in authority. He was not only dad, but he was the third generation story teller who had already shared his intention of passing on that title to an increasingly reluctant Aviel. As he was storming away, Aviel could hear his father’s reprimand.“Boy, when I was your age, children actually enjoyed hearing these stories. Now shut up and listen, because this is important stuff you need to know.” Obviously, Aviel didn’t see what all the fuss was about. Was it really necessary to hear these ancient stories over and over again? What use was there to dwell on the