The Hebrew Bible

A colleague of mine once called the Hebrew Bible “one long dysfunctional family story.” She was making the comment humorously, but the reality is, the people in the Hebrew Bible aren’t idealized, and their family lives aren’t perfect. List and describe three examples of “family dysfunction” you encountered in the Torah: What are the social/historical dynamics that might have created this dysfunctional family? What purposes might it serve? Take into account not only the stories as narrative (Abraham and Sarah as literary characters, for example), but also the political and historical contexts of the stories (the prevalence of the younger son over the older one, for example).