"וילך אברם"

סיפורי מסע כסיפור ייסוד

תקציר

All travel narratives are structured around the moments of arrival and departure, and what transpires between them, and they can be characterized according to their narrative focus along this trajectory. This article examines the relationship between travel and foundation narratives using the reception of the biblical account of Abraham’s journey from Ur to Canaan as a focal point. Both the Second-Temple and Rabbinic traditions re-write this biblical travel tale of Abraham’s emigration, but each does so in a manner that reflects its own ideological agenda, constructing a different fiction of identity, a different Other, and a different meaning for home. While the biblical text concentrates solely on the moments of departure and arrival in order to highlight Abraham’s obedience, the Book of Jubilees recounts a travel tale of religious persecution and flight that stresses Abraham’s difference from both his place of origin and his destination. This double otherness enables him to be a stranger in his own land, as befits a sectarian foundation narrative of self-imposed isolation. The narrative in the rabbinic midrash is not about moving away but about travel towards. The rabbinic text re-motivates the moment of Abraham’s arrival, because unlike his departure, which VI was dictated by divine command, the destination is a matter of the character’s choice. For the rabbis it is the moment of arrival that defines identity; it is when and why the traveler decides to cease traveling that defines him and his journey.