the division of the estate now. In effect, this disregard for the authority and governance of the elder is parricide, for only the father’s death would legitimately give him a share of the property. From the state of harmony and order, we are plunged into a civil war—the younger son challenging the father as Absalom rose up against his father, David. But what starts as an act of rebellion, a political act, soon turns into something more prosaic, even banal: “A few days later the younger son gathered