Abraham אברהם אבינו

Avraham was born in 1948. Midrash says that as a child he worked out for himself that the world has an Owner, and spent his life persuading others; for refusing idolatry he was thrown into the furnace of Ur Kasdim and came out alive.

At seventy-five he hears: "Go forth from your land, your birthplace, your father's house." The promise is threefold—a nation, a land, and blessing for all families of the earth. His life follows: famine and descent to Egypt, war to rescue Lot, the Covenant between the Parts with its prophecy of four hundred years of exile, the birth of Yishmael, circumcision at ninety-nine, his argument over Sodom—"shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?"—and the birth of Yitzchak at a hundred.

The last trial is the Akedah. He died in 2123 aged 175 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah he had bought. His defining trait is chesed: a tent open on all four sides.