Why is the covenant with Abraham important in Jewish history?

What happened to the two doves when Abraham made the covenant with God?

• God made a covenant with Abraham, making him the father of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. When they made covenants, or contracts, back then, they brought farm animals and offered them. Abraham also brought farm animals to make his covenant with God, including a ram. Each animal was cut in half and the halves were laid on top of each other. This happened to all the animals except two doves. What happened to those two doves?

• Answer:

  Ok, the ritual described by the book of genesis was to dig a trench and kill sacraficial animals, letting their blood flow into the trench. Then the two people making the covenant, would walk through the trench, signifying that the same thing would happen to them if they broke the covenant. But doves dont have much blood in them. Not enough to flow out, and certainly not enough to make the effort of cutting them in half worthwhile. So Abraham slit their throats and placed them by the trench so that their blood flowed into it like the other animals. One last thing though: Only God walked through the blood. Abraham did not, presumably because God commanded him not to. Thus, God took on both halves of the covenant because he was the only one who walked through the blood.