Who Was the First Jew? The Answer Isn't Just Abraham's Name

Welcome to Who Was the First Jew?: Lesson Three

We know the answer already — it’s Abraham. But when, exactly, did he become Abraham? Was there a single moment where “the first Jew” was actually completed?

In this class, Rabbi Heschel Greenberg argues that Abraham’s circumcision at age 99 wasn’t just a covenant — it was the moment his identity was finished. The Talmud says it would be a sin to call him by his old, shortened name, Avram, once he had earned the extra letter. That single Hebrew letter, a hey, represents mastery over the five hardest parts of the human being to control: two eyes, two ears, and the reproductive organ. Once Abraham achieved total control over all five, his name — and his status — changed for good.

From there the class builds outward: why Judaism treats the body as holy rather than something to be suppressed, why Abraham’s circumcision fell on the 13th of Nissan (the same date Haman later chose to target the Jewish body for annihilation), and why the Amidah’s opening blessing concludes with “Shield of Abraham” and mentions no one else — not Isaac, not Jacob. The second half turns to Abraham’s defining trait, kindness, using the midrash of the three disguised angels (representing desert, land, and sea) to show how every person’s life — barren, productive, or stormy — is meant to be brought to Abraham, meaning met with an act of kindness regardless of how we feel.

🔎 In this video we explore: Why the Talmud calls it a sin to shorten Abraham’s name back to Avram What the extra letter hey actually represents — and why it’s the number five Why circumcision happened on the same date as Haman’s decree against the Jews Why Judaism sanctifies the body instead of scorning it, unlike most theologies Why the Amidah’s first blessing ends with Abraham alone, not Isaac or Jacob Why women are described as “circumcised” naturally, without the procedure The midrash of the three angels — and what “the world was created for Abraham” really means Why the Rebbe said the key to bringing Moshiach is simply “a little more goodness and kindness” Why Sarah and Rivka aren’t named in our prayers, even though their judgment saved the Jewish future

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📚 Sources discussed: Talmud (Brachot, on the prohibition of calling Abraham “Avram”), Mishnah (the 248 limbs), Pirkei Avot (the world stands on three pillars), Midrash (the three angels; the anagram of Bereishit), Megillat Esther (Haman’s decree), Rashi on Bereishit (the three connotations of Yishmael “playing” with Yitzchak), the Amidah/Shemoneh Esrei liturgy, Parshat Vayera, Parshat Toldot

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