The language is striking. Abram and Sarai were childless. Yet among their retinue were “the souls they had formed in Haran”.
Who were these souls?
For Resh Lakish, the talmudic sage, the implication is profound. Abram and Sarai were teachers: “Anyone who teaches Torah to the child of another,” he says, “the verse ascribes them credit as though they formed that student” (Sanhedrin 99b).
Teachers do not merely impart information: they help form people. Pupils instinctively know this. Ask children their favourite subject and they will often answer by naming their favourite teacher. As David Brooks memorably put it: “people learn from people they love.”
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