xxvi. 5), "And he kept my charge"? Whence then did
Abraham learn the law? Rabbi Shimon says his reins (literally kidneys)
were made like two water-jars, from which the law flowed forth. Where do
we learn that it was so? From what is said in Ps. xvi. 7, "My reins also
instruct me in the night season."
_Bereshith Rabba_, chap. 95.
The masters of the Kabbalah, of blessed memory, say that Abraham's
Rabbi, i.e., teacher, was the angel Zadkiel.
_Rabbi Menachem's comment on the Pent._, Exod. iii. 5.
Adam's book, which contained celestial mysteries and holy wisdom, came
down as an heirloom into the hands of Abraham, and he by means of it was
able to see the glory of his Lord.
_Zohar Parashah Bereshith._
Abraham was the author of a treatise on the subject of different kinds
of witchcraft and its unholy workings and fruits, as also of the Book of
Creation, through holy names (by means of which, namely, anything could
be created).
_Nishmath Chayim_, chap. 29.
The whole world once believed that the souls of men were perishable, and
that man had no pre-eminence above a beast, till Abraham came and
preached the doctrine of immortality and transmigration.
Ibid., fol. 171, col. 1.
A good son delivers his father from the punishment of hell, for thus we
find that Abraham our father delivered Terah, as it is said in Gen.
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