Terah was a stargazer. He saw in the stars that Haran would be burned and that from Abraham the world would be filled (Shocher Tov 9:7).

Terah chose the Land of Israel even before the Lord commanded Abraham to go there (Midrash HaGadol, Bereishit 11:27).

Terah has a share in the World to Come (Bereishit Rabbah 38:12).

It is not true that each of us receives an equal measure of the Divine inheritance. Often, in the Biblical narrative, the deeds of the children eclipse those of their parents. Perhaps no character casts a greater shadow over his patrimony than Abraham who, according to the rabbinic literature, rejects his father’s idolatrous ways in favor of belief in one Supreme Deity. The interpretation of these early chapters of Genesis seems to read "unlike father, like son.”

Why the negative "spin” on Terah by the rabbis of Late Antiquity? Perhaps the paucity of Biblical text on Terah compared to the verses and chapters devoted to Abraham’s career is viewed as a pejorative. Indeed, the creation of a paternal idolator makes Abraham’s "conversion” even more vivid. The mise-en-scene of Abraham smashing the carved figures in his father’s workshop is embedded in every religious school child’s mind at an early age. Abraham’s rebelliousness is not exactly a prelude to Look Homeward, Angel. What it is is a radical act of faith, to be even more radically reenacted when Abraham later attempts to fulfill another of God’s precepts by sacrificing his son, Isaac, on a priestly altar.

If Abraham brings faith in one God by overturning his father’s lifework, then the rabbis sanction and underline the significance of rebellion for the sake of righteousness. Terah seems to be as wooden, as incapable of response, as his statues of worship. And yet the rabbis recognize his contribution as they analyze the verse: "Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot (Genesis 11:27). Noting the repetition of "Terah” in the text, they conclude that this signifies that Abraham’s much maligned father will have a share in the World to Come. But how does an idolator merit such Divine mercy? Like Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, who eventually sees the light projected by his incomparable son-in-law, Terah understands his failings and fully repents.

Terah has a significant place in Israelite history. As father of the father of the Jewish people he provides the stage for Abraham, whose intellectual and moral status is undeniably superior to his own. That Terah ultimately recognizes Abraham’s gifts of Divinity and bows finally to the one God of Israel is to his lasting, and in the eyes of the Midrash, eternal credit.