Readings for Saturday, November 16, 2024

Readings for Saturday, November 16, 2024

Va-yayra (“Appeared” i.e., “And God appeared to him…”)

18:1-22:24 Bereshit (Genesis)

Va-yayra is the fourth sedrah in Bereshit (Genesis).  The sedrah takes its name from the first Hebrew word in the first sentence of the portion.  “And God appeared (Va-yayra) to him by the terebinths of Mamre, while he was sitting in the door of the tent in the heat of the day.”  Va-yayra is also the second of three weekly portions featuring the life of Abraham.  Two of the chapters in this sedrah provide the readings for Rosh Hashanah.  Chapter 21, featuring the birth of Isaac is read on the first day of the New Year.  Chapter 22, featuring the Binding of Isaac, is read on the second day of the New Year.  Reform Jews read Chapter 22 on Rosh Hashanah.

18:1-8 Visit from the Strangers:  Abraham is visited by three strangers whom he does not know are angels.  Since he is recuperating from his circumcision, this visit is interpreted as teaching us the importance of visiting the sick.  Abraham rushing out to meet the strangers instead of waiting for them to come to his tent is considered the standard for hospitality.  Do not wait for guests to ask; anticipate their needs and make them feel welcome.  Abraham also shows the importance of sharing in domestic chores.  Instead of acting like the stereotypical husband who brings home three surprise guests for his wife to feed, Abraham takes an active part in the preparation.  (Yes, this is interpretation.  But interpretation is what helps to make the Torah relevant to each generation.)

18:9-16 Promise of Isaac’s birth:  The angels repeat God’s previous promise about the birth of Isaac.  Sarah laughs and then denies that she was laughing.  Why was Sarah laughing?  Did she lie?  And if she did lie, what does this say about the character of the first matriarch?

18:16-33 Impending destruction of Sodom:  The opening verses of this section provide us with a glimpse of God’s view of Abraham and Abraham’s mission.  This is followed by Abraham’s debate with God about sparing the city.  Here Abraham is displaying another Jewish view of the world.  The world is supposed to be a just place.  Nobody is immune from acting justly, not even God.  Compare this with the view of other ancient civilizations.  Even Rome, which was noted for its law codes, was not exempt from rule by caprice rather than by just laws.  A “thumbs-up” or a “thumbs-down” from the Emperor and man either lived or died.  Some say that ten is the required number for the minyan because ten was the minimum number of righteous people that were necessary to save Sodom.  God hears Abraham out and Abraham returns the courtesy by accepting God’s judgment once the argument has been made.  This is an excellent lesson in human relations regardless of the venue.

19:1-28 Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:  The entire chapter is taken up with the events leading up to the destruction, the destruction itself and the events following the destruction.  The narrative is pretty straightforward.  Just a couple of comments.  First, on the subject of hospitality, compare Abraham’s treatment of these guests with that of the people of Sodom and that of Lot in particular.  Second, look at Lot’s offer of his daughters to placate the crowd and then compare it to his drunken sexual interlude after the destruction for a lesson on the subject of character and people learning from their past.  Lot and his daughters may have left Sodom.  Sodom had not left Lot and his daughters.

20:1-17 Abraham’s journey to Gerar:  This story sounds an awful lot like the journey to Egypt.  The one difference is that Abraham establishes a relationship with Abimelech as we can see starting with verse 22 in the next chapter.  Just because something begins poorly, does not mean that it has to end that way.

21:1-8 The Birth of Isaac:  Finally, after all of the promises about numerous offspring and the false start with Ishmael, Abraham has the son who will be his heir.  The theme of the difficult or unexpected birth is repeated later in the Bible.  From Abraham’s point of view, Isaac is a gift from God.  God keeps his promises.  God is a just God.  For those of you who remember the Rosh Hashanah comments, you know where this line of reasoning is going.

21:9-20 Hagar and Ishmael:  At one level, Abraham looks like the classic hen-pecked husband and Sarah looks like the nagging wife.  As long as Ishmael is around, he is a threat to her son’s inheritance.  So she nags Abraham and until he finally gives in and sends Hagar and Ishmael packing.  This may not be the classic view, but a teacher I had posed it to us in rather graphic terms.  He said that Abraham’s acquiesce was a sign of his humanity.  It was one thing to stand up to God.  It was quite another to stand up to your wife.

22:1-19 Binding of Isaac:  If repetition is a sign of significance, this episode is a seminal event in the history of the Jewish people.  These verses from Bereshit are recited every day of the year in the opening part of Shacharit, the Morning Service.  In addition, all Jews hear these words yet again on either the First or Second Day of Rosh Hashanah.  There is a copious compendium of material on the Binding of Isaac.  There are whole graduate courses devoted to this topic.  So do not expect this short guide to even scratch the surface.  I would suggest that you read the text in its entirety in whatever edition of the Bible or Chumash with which you are comfortable.  The Stone, Plaut, Hertz, Etz Hayim and others all have interesting commentaries which I will not attempt to paraphrase.  I also recommend Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s treatment of this in his book Biblical Literacy.  It is quite readable and stimulating regardless of one’s level of knowledge.  As with so much else in the Torah, the text is spare and invites interpretation.  Those who call this the Sacrifice of Isaac as opposed to the Binding of Isaac are in error.  Isaac is not sacrificed.  Some Christians tie this story to the Crucifixion.  In fact, it is the opposite of the Crucifixion and provides one of the definitive differences between the two religions.  In Judaism, God rejects the death of a child as a sacrifice.  The road to salvation is through faith in God and observing the Commandments.  In Christianity, the deity demands the death of His child as the key to man’s salvation.  The role of Isaac in all of this is quite interesting.  If you do the math, Isaac is 37.  His father is over 100.  Surely he could have resisted.  But he didn’t.  How did Abraham get Isaac on the Altar?  The text does not say.  This is one of the many unknowns that have puzzled readers down through the ages.  You might remember that further on in Bereshit, Isaac’s poor eyesight causes him, in part, to bless Jacob instead of Esau.  There is a commentary that Isaac’s poor eyesight stems from the Akedah; his vision was supposedly dimmed so that he would not see the knife coming down.  Here is another way to look at the Akedah, which you may or may not have heard before.  Think of it is the second act of a two-act drama.  In chapter 21, we read about the birth of Isaac.  In chapter 22, we read about his brush with death.  Is it possible that Abraham obeys God in chapter 22 because, as described in chapter 21, he saw that God provides blessings (the birth of Isaac) and he believed in the ultimate goodness and justice of God?  Is it possible that Abraham understood that we must accept the will of God whether it is the birth of a son or the binding of a son?  When God promised Abraham an heir (Isaac), Abraham trusted him.  Possibly when he went up the mountain with Isaac he believed that God had a purpose and that purpose was something other than the death of this heir.  After all, when it came time to deal with Ishmael, God told him to listen to Sarah.  Listening to Sarah meant that Isaac was the chosen successor.  Surely God would not have lied to Abraham and Sarah.

22:20-24 Abraham’s distant family:  “And it came to pass…that Abraham was told….”  Thus begins what I think are some of the most poignant verses in the Torah.  Abraham is told about the children born to his kinsman far away.  Yes, Abraham went to Canaan to fulfill his divine mission.  But he paid a cost in human terms.  He was cut off from his family; from all who had loved him.  A passing stranger tells him he has nieces, he has nephews - he has a family to whom he has become a stranger.  Lest we forget, there is more to the reading than just the Akedah.  It ends with mention of the birth of Bethuel, the father of Rebecca, the future wife of Isaac.  For many of us, Jewish holidays mean family gatherings, whether immediate or extended.  Therefore there is an element of poignancy to the final verses “It came to pass after these things, that Abraham was told:  Behold, Milcah too has borne children to Nahor, your brother…”(22:20).  Since the commentaries are silent on this sentence we can only guess as to whom told Abraham about his brother’s family.  Did he hear it from a passing caravan?  Did some fellow shepherd hear of it and pass it along by word of mouth?  We shall never know.  What we do know is that the price of being a Patriarch was the loss of a family connection.  My son saved.  My brother lost.  As we have said, being Jewish is not always the easy way.

Themes

Commandments

There are none this time from the list of 613.

Customs and Ceremonies

While there are no commandments in this sedrah, the narrative does give rise to several customs, ceremonies and/or practices, some of which have taken on the weight of mitzvoth.  These include:

• Visiting the Sick;
• Practicing pro-active hospitality;
• Counting ten for the minyan;
• Blowing the shofar;
• Remembering the importance of humility;
• The Torah readings for Rosh Hashanah.

Table Talk Questions

1.     Why did the Lord send three angels?  According to Rashi, each angel had a specific role.  The first angel was sent to cheer up Abraham while he was healing.  The second angel was sent to destroy Sodom.  The third angel was sent to tell Sarah that she would give birth to a son in one year.

2.     Where do we see evidence of the humility of Abraham?  When Abraham intercedes on behalf of the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah, he says of himself, “…although I am nothing but dust and ashes” (18:27).  The man who had reached a level where he could talk to God saw himself as dust and ashes.

3.     Why did the angel command Lot and his family not to look back as the cities were being destroyed?  According to the Talmud, this is a reminder that we are forbidden to take pleasure while others are being punished.  This concept is repeated in the Midrash about God forbidding the Israelites from taking pleasure when the Egyptians drown in the Sea of Reeds.

Noah was a righteous Man in his Generation

This opening line from the sedrah No’ach (Noah) that we read a couple of weeks ago is one that philosophers and rabbis love to play with.  Why does it say “in his Generation?”  The answer may be found in this week’s sedrah when we compare the behavior of Noah with that of Abraham.  God tells Noah that the earth has become corrupt and lawless; that He is going to destroy the world; and that Noah should build an ark of certain specific dimensions so he can save his family and designated animals.  How does Noah respond?  “Noah did so; just as God commanded him, so he did.”  No questions, no appeals, no nothing.  He just went straight ahead and did what God told him to do.  But when God tells Abraham that he is going to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah, two sink holes of iniquity that probably deserved wiping out if any place did, what does Abraham do?  He challenges God.  “Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?”  This is pretty gutsy stuff.  Abraham knows God has a temper and He has the power.  After all, He made the flood and He is about to wipe out two major metropolitan areas.  How did Abraham know God wouldn’t zap him when he came up with the line about just judges?  He didn’t.  But at the same time, he was willing to risk everything, including the wrath of God for the sake of justice and equity.  Noah was a righteous man in his time, because in his time he was the only person who obeyed God.  Abraham was a righteous man for all times because he not only obeyed God; he was willing to challenge the Ultimate authority when the world was not ordered to His will.

Please do not bypass your servant

These words from the opening lines of this week portion have given rise to many dictums and stories about the importance of real hospitality.  For example:  In a town beyond the Carpathian mountains lived a wealthy merchant with a lovely daughter.  By the by, she married a young scholar and the couple lived with the merchant.  The young scholar noticed that whenever guests would come to the house, the wealthy merchant personally waited on them, even to the point of making up their beds for the night.  One day, as the merchant was preparing a room for a large number of unexpected lodgers the scholar asked his father-in-law why he didn’t just pay one of the peasants in town to do this seemingly menial work.  The merchant replied with two questions.  First, why should I give up the honor of the mitzvah of hospitality to anybody?  Secondly, why should I have to pay somebody who would be enjoying what should have been my mitzvah in the first place?  With that, the young scholar realized that his father-in-law was not just a wealthy merchant, and loving father, but a Tzaddik in the truest sense of the word.

Who Chose Whom

Beginning with last week’s sedrah, Lech Lecha, we repeatedly ask the question, “Who chose whom?”  Did God choose Abraham or did Abraham choose God?  This week’s reading provides a partial answer.  In speaking of His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah God asks, “Shall I hide from Abraham that which I am doing;” (18:17).  God answers his question (18:19); because He has “known” Abraham He must tell him.  When God says, “I have known him” it is in the sense of “I have loved him.”  As the commentators point out, when you love somebody you draw them close and let them “know you.”  Modernists would call this intimacy.  In other words God chose to let Abraham know that he was loved by God by letting him learn the ways of God.  Further on, we will find statements where God asks, “Have I not chosen thee from among all people and tongues…” thus reinforcing the concept that God chose Abraham and his descendants.  If you think this is the final word, think again.  When the Israelites are at Mt. Sinai, they make a conscious decision to choose God when they accept His commandments.  And as we shall see, they make that choice for all future generations.  So did the Jews choose God or did God choose the Jews?  Is the world run by predestination or free will?  Matzoth are called the “bread over which people talk” because we are supposed to discuss and study at the Seder.  Maybe we should consider our sacred texts as “the books over which people talk” since we need to keep mining them for ever more complex answers to ever more complex, yet eternal questions.

Circumcision

The commandment concerning circumcision is found in last week’s reading (17:10).  But in this week’s reading, we see Isaac as the first to be circumcised on the eighth day (21:8).  Throughout history there have been repeated attacks on this practice by those who have and who have not read the text.  The ancient Greeks saw it as an act of desecration.  They worshipped the human body and cutting it in this manner was a barbaric act.  Since many of their athletic contests were conducted in the nude the sign of the covenant was obvious and unacceptable.  In fact Jews who wanted to be accepted by the Greeks (Chanukah is not that far away) actually endured epispasm, a rather dangerous and painful procedure to remove the mark of the brit.  That they would go through so much pain and trauma to remove the sign of the covenant seems a little odd since another set of critics attack circumcision because of the pain and the trauma it causes the baby.  If you accept the false notion that about the pain and trauma of circumcision, when you combine the arguments of these critics they end up saying that pain and trauma connected with creating Jewish identity is unacceptable, but pain and trauma connected with denying Jewish identity is acceptable.  The really honest critics of circumcision as commanded in the Torah are the ones who cite it as barrier to Jews being accepted by everybody else.  They are correct; the brit is a tangible sign that Jews are different.  That is why Jews are commanded to do this.  When performing the most basic of bodily functions Jewish males are reminded of their special responsibility and role as Jews.  When Jewish men and women engage in the most intimate of relationships they are reminded that they are not animals, but human beings whom God loves.  And this means we must love each other.  One last word; for those modernists who contend that circumcision is a trauma which develops latent tendencies for violence, at the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian Pogroms or the European Death Factories, was it the perpetrators of the violence or the victims who had experienced the brit milah?

Why Lot?

There is a lot of discussion about why God chose to save Noah.  There is a lot of discussion about why God chose Abraham.  But there appears to be little or no discussion about God’s decision to save Lot.  There are some who assume that the decision revolved around Lot’s relationship to Abraham, but neither God nor Abraham raised the issue when they were bargaining over the fate of the two cities.  To paraphrase an earlier text, Lot was a righteous man in his town.  But that sure is not saying much.  Lot had chosen to live in Sodom despite its well-known reputation so that is a bit of a stretch.  Besides which, Lot appeared to be in no great hurry to be saved.  “And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying ‘arise, take thy wife and they two daughters that are here; lest thou be swept away in the iniquity of the city.’  But he lingered; and the men laid hold upon his hand…And they brought him forth, and set him without the city.” (19:15-16).   In other words, despite all of the warnings, the angels had to forcibly take Lot and his family out of the city.  To make this even more confusing, from a point of morality and justice, Lot and his family do not seem to have improved from the experience.  In a world when we are perplexed with how a Just God let the innocent perish in the European Night, the decision to save Lot becomes all the more perplexing.  I am sure that there is a Midrash explaining all of this, but I have not found it.

Etiological Explanations

Professor James Kugel explains that some of the events described in this week’s reading had an etiological meaning for the ancient Israelites i.e., the stories provided the Israelites with reasons why their customs were different from the other people among whom they lived.  For example, the Israelites practiced animal sacrifice but were specifically forbidden from sacrificing their children - a practice followed by other ancient peoples.  The story of the Binding of Isaac provides that rational.  “The tale of Abraham and Sarah in Egypt may have been designed more to account for Abraham’s fortune and to celebrate a certain craftiness than to praise his piety.”  The story of Lot might have been used to explain everything from peculiar rock formations to why some of Israel’s neighbors spoke similar languages but were implacable enemies.

Sarah’s Laughter

Here is another of view of Sarah’s alleged laughter when she heard that she was to bear a child and then her attempt to cover her apparent folly.  “And Sarah laughed within herself, saying:  'After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?'  “And the Lord said unto Abraham:  'Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying:  Shall I of a surety bear a child, who am old?  Is anything too hard for the Lord?  At the set time I will return unto thee, when the season cometh round, and Sarah shall have a son.'  Then Sarah denied, saying: 'I laughed not'; for she was afraid.  And He said:  'Nay; but thou didst laugh.'”  It says that Sarah laughed “in herself” which could mean she did not laugh out loud, but, as they say “chuckled to herself” which could be construed as two different acts.  When she said she did not laugh, she meant she did not laugh out loud.  Furthermore, if she had laughed silently to herself she would certainly have been “afraid” since she had concept of the all-knowing, all powerful, all present deity.

Why We Study/How We Should Teach

A group of visitors came to spend Shabbat Va-yayra with a rabbi in a town beyond the Carpathian Mountains.  While they were eating their meal, the rabbi called in his five year old son who was reputed to be a prodigy when it came to Torah and Halachah.  “Run along, my boy, and prepare a novel interpretation of the laws of hospitality” which are contained in this week’s Torah reading.  “When the child returned a little while later, his father asked:  ‘Well have you thought something original?’  The boy replied that he had, and the guests quickly finished their meal filled with the anticipation of hearing some novel interpretation of Jewish law.  As soon as the meal was over, the father said to them:  ‘Let us come along together and see what he has to show us.’  Sure enough, as they entered another room his original interpretation of the laws of hospitality caught them pleasantly by surprise:  for each of them the boy had made up a bed for the night, with pillows and quilts all neatly in place.”  The father smiled with delight for his son knew that we learn so that we may do and that the best way to teach the laws of hospitality is to be hospitable. (Based on the teachings of Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin of blessed memory.)

Lot’s Daughters

We don’t know their names, but we do know the names of their sons.  The older daughter named her son Moab.  ”He is the father of the Moabites today” (19:37).  The younger daughter named her son Ben-ammi.  “He is the father of the Ammonites of today” (19:38).  The Moabites and the Ammonites were ancient people who had a variety of interactions with the Israelites which are mentioned in The Torah and Prophets.  At one time they each occupied kingdoms east of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea in what is the modern nation of Jordan.  By describing the offspring as being the father of these two nations, it is obvious that the author of the story lived long after the event occurred.  By tracing the origins of these two nations to a drunken incestuous event, the writers are casting aspersions (to put it mildly) on these people.  Strangely enough, King David had Moabite blood in him.  Ruth, his famous ancestor, was a Moabite woman which means one of the books of the Bible is named for, and tells the story of, one who descended from the product of a drunken orgy.  Speaking of drink, this is the second time that we have seen wine consumed in quantities that lead to folly.  This is not the last time that we will see the unwise consumption of alcohol lead to a bad end.  Aaron’s two sons are killed, according to some, because they were drunk when they entered the Tabernacle.  In fact, there is a Biblical prohibition concerning the High Priest consuming alcohol before performing his duties.

Haftarah (Ashkenazim)

4:1-37 Second Kings

Haftarah (Sephardim, Chabad Chassidim, Jews of Frankfurt am Main)

4:1-27 Second Kings

This is one of those weeks where how much you will read depends upon what synagogue you attend.  The haftarah describes episodes in the life of the prophet Elisha.

The Book/The Man:  Second Kings is the last book in the section referred to as the Early Prophets.  Originally there was only one book of Kings.  The translators of the Septuagint were the ones who divided it into two books in the third century, B.C.E.  Jews did not finally accept this division until 1518 when Daniel Bomberg incorporated it in his edition of the TaNaCh.  Second Kings begins with a narrative about Elijah and the Israelite King Ahaziah (approx. 896 B.C.E.).  The text describes several major events including the destruction of the Northern Kingdom and the Babylonian Exile (586 B.C.E.).  The text ends with the death of Gedaliah, the governor of Judea after the destruction of Jerusalem, and King Jehoiachin’s liberation from prison by his Babylonian captors (approx. 549 B.C.E.).  Second Kings continues the message of First Kings stressing the importance of the Temple, Prophecy and the House of David.  Elisha literally received the mantle of prophecy from Elijah.  He is credited with performing even more miracles than his illustrious predecessor; seventeen in all, two of which appear in this haftarah.  He was active starting in the reign of King Ahaziah (approx. 897 B.C.E.) and ending with his death his death (approx. 838 B.C.E.) during the reign of King Joash.  Elisha appears to have been a more sociable figure than Elijah had been.  He was probably popular with King Jehu and his descendants since he prophesied Jehu’s accession to the throne of the Kingdom of Israel.  According to tradition, Jonah was a contemporary of Elisha having been sent to prophecy in Nineveh somewhere between 862 and 862 B.C.E.

The Message:  The reading describes a series of miraculous events related to the prophet Elisha.  The first two revolve around providing oil and income for a widow so she can support her children.  The second two revolve around a barren woman giving birth and the resuscitation of a seemingly deceased child.  In reading these and other stories related to Elisha (and his master Elijah for that matter) remember that the early prophets sometimes were a blend of the masters of mystical powers as well as early harbingers of the later preachers who dealt only with issues of morality, ethics and social justice.

Theme-Link:  The prophetic portion parallels three of the themes found in the Torah Reading.  First is the importance of hospitality (2 Kings 4:8-10).  Second is the birth of a child to the infertile, aged couple (2 Kings 4:14-17).  Third is the divine intervention in sparing a child’s life (2 Kings 4:18-37).

 

 

Readings for Saturday, November 9, 2024

Readings for Saturday, November 9, 2024

Lech-Lecha (Get thee out)

12:2 - 17:27 Bereshit (Genesis)

Lech-Lecha is the third sedrah in Bereshit (Genesis).  The sedrah takes its name from the fifth and sixth Hebrew words in the first sentence of the sedrah.  “And the Lord said unto Abram:  Get thee out (Lech-Lecha) of thy country.…”  It is the first in a series of three weekly readings that deal with the life of Abraham.  The sedrah covers a lot of ground.  At the same time, the text is spare and almost cries out for interpretation.  So let’s look at some of the major items covered in the narrative and then touch on at least a few of the many messages (see Themes below) contained in this portion.

12:1-9 The initial travel to and through Canaan

The trip appears to come without warning.  However, if we look back to the penultimate verse of No’ach (“And Terach took Abram his son…and they went forth from Ur of the Chaldees to go unto the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.” 29:31), we might have caught at least a hint of the trip.  The sedrah gives us no reason why God selected Abraham to make the trip.  The only thing we know about Abraham is that he was 75 years old.  At least with Noah, we knew that he was chosen because he was a righteous man in his generation.  All that we know of the character of Abraham we must deduce from events that unfold over the next several chapters of Bereshit.

12:2 "And I will make of you a great nation…"

This is the first in a series of promises that God repeats to Abraham throughout this sedrah.  In 12:7, "To your offspring I will give this land.…"  In 13:14-17, God adds the promise of numerous offspring to the promise of the land.  This series of promises reaches a climax in 15:1-12 with the “Covenant between the Parts,” in 15:17-20 and 17:1-8 when God changes the first patriarch’s name from Abram to Abraham.  Almost from the start, the Torah shows us that Judaism rests on the three elements:  Revelation, Covenant and Land.

12:10-17 Abraham and Sarah journey to Egypt because of a famine

This journey reinforces the concept that the travels of Abraham presage the travels that will be taken by the Jewish people in future generations.  It is here that Abraham instructs Sarah to tell the Egyptians that she is his "sister."  The Plaut Chumash provides an explanation of what that term meant in ancient times.  Most commentators are perplexed by what appears to be Abraham’s dissembling if not outright lying.  The episode raises the question if it is ever acceptable to tell a lie.

13:1-4 Abraham returns from Egypt

Abraham returns to Canaan laden with gifts from a grateful Egyptian king.  This presages the experience of the Israelites who will depart from the land of bondage laden with wealth offered up to them by their former Egyptian masters

13:5-9 Lot and Abraham go their separate ways

This brief passage offers us a lesson on the importance that Abraham and therefore all Jews place on the need for peace in the household.  He deferred to his younger kinsman, letting him make the choice.  This passage also offers a lesson on the relationship between materialism and immorality.  Lot chose a place of ease even though he knew it to be place of questionable moral standards.

14:1-24 The War of the Kings or the Rescue of Lot

To some, this story seems out of place; almost an interruption in the narrative.  Furthermore, Abraham seems to be on the side of leaders of Sodom which Abraham has previously been told is an evil place.   Maybe it is here to show another facet of Abraham’s personality.  He is not some wimpy, marginal figure.  Here he is an imposing man of substance, a man of action.  He answers Cain’s question about am I my brother’s keeper in the affirmative by going to war to rescue his kinsman.  The first Jew teaches all Jews a sense of responsibility for our co-religionists.  Throughout the ages, Jews have sought to rescue their brethren from captivity and harm.  This has included special funds to ransom travelers taken by brigands during the Middle Ages to Operation Joseph in our own time.  (No, the text does not state this and the ancients may not have meant it this way but that does not make the lesson any the less valid.)

15:13-16 A glimpse into the future

This is a most disquieting interlude.  God tells Abraham not to worry.  He will die in peace at a ripe old age.  But his offspring are going to be slaves for more than four hundred years.  Personally I find Abraham’s silence a lot more puzzling than I do his behavior when it comes time for the binding of Isaac in the next sedrah.  Why did he not plead for his descendants?  Why did he accept this enslavement with silence?

16:1-16 The whole chapter is devoted to Hagar and Ishmael

The relationship with Hagar is a study in contradictions.  God has promised Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens.  Yet he still has no children.  Is his mating with Hagar an example of Abraham’s lack of faith in God?  Does he have to respond to his wife’s apparent barrenness like any mortal and cohabit with somebody who can give him an heir?  Considering the events that follow Hagar’s pregnancy, this interpretation provides an excellent lesson in what happens when we become impatient waiting for the divine plan to reach fruition.

17:9-14 and 17:23-27 The Brit or Circumcision

Both Plaut and Telushkin provide brief, yet complete discussions on the origins of the ritual.  Its true origins are lost to antiquity.  Suffice it to say this ritual has been a critical aspect of Judaism since ancient times.  When the Syrians and Romans banned the practice, Jews risked death to follow the commandment of the Brit.  Attempts by some early Reform leaders to abolish the commandment were no more successful.  The Brit is not just a sign of our covenant with God.  The Brit is a symbol of a four thousand-year-old heritage reaching back to the first patriarch.  It is a symbol of our antiquity and our uniqueness.

17:15-21 God changes the first matriarch’s name from Sari to Sarah

He promises this 90-year-old woman with the 100-year-old husband that she will have a son.

Themes:

Commandments

2. The commandment of circumcision (17:10).

Biblical Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

Customs and Ceremonies

The Brit Milah or Covenant of Circumcision is performed on the eighth day because Bereshit 17:18 states “…every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days.”   Why wait eight days?  The text does not say.  Some commentators contend that the hiatus between birth and brit is tied to the story of Creation, which took seven days.  The child is named at the time of the brit because Abram became Abraham at the time of his circumcision.  In the first part of the Amidah we say, “Blessed are You, Lord Our God, shield of Abraham.”  This concept of God as shield (as in protector) comes from this sedrah when God says, “Fear not, Abram, I am a shield to you…” (15:1).  Those who have re-written the Amidah and invoked Sarah at this point must have chosen to overlook the Biblical text.  The Hebrew word for shield is “Magen,” which most of you connect with Magen David, the six-pointed star.  In An Ancestral Fragrance, Stuart Schoffman reminds us that “nothing…is unchangeable - nothing except the covenant, the brit, carved as it is into the flesh of Abraham’s descendants, blood relative and convert alike.”  Rabbi Akiva was asked by a Roman why males are born with foreskins if foreskins are made to be removed.  The rabbi replied, “Because man is required to improve upon nature.”

Names

Name changes often indicate a change in character or responsibility.  Among the Patriarchs we go from Abram to Abraham and from Jacob to Israel.  But Isaac gets his name from God and his name never changes.  Abraham’s other son, Ishmael, also gets his name directly from God.  Ishmael means “God hears.”  In 14:13, the text identifies the first patriarch as “ha-ivri” or the Hebrew.  This is the first use of this term and should put to rest the claims that others would like to make that Abraham was something other than the first Jew.  In 15:8, Abraham becomes the first person to address God as “Adonai” or in English, my Lord.  “And he said, ‘O Lord God (Adonai), how shall I know.…’”

The name of the sedrah has several translations.  Each translation provides a different insight into the sedrah.  There is the common "Get thee out" which is seen as God commanding an obedient Abraham to leave his native land and go to Canaan.  There is "Go for yourself" which implies that Abraham should make this journey for his own benefit i.e., if you go to Canaan you will be the father of a great nation that will inherit that land.  One more is "Go to yourself" which speaks to the inner or spiritual nature of the journey.  In other words, life is made up of two aspects - the outward physical aspect and the inward spiritual aspect.  Part of the purpose of man’s journey through life is to bring harmony between the spiritual (higher level) and physical (mundane) aspects of life.

Abraham

Abraham was the first of the three Patriarchs.  They are critical figures in the lives of the Jews.  After all, we invoke their names every day when we recite the Shemoneh Esray or Amidah.  What was the nature of Abraham?  He was brave enough to leave his home and all that he knew to go to a strange and possibly less civilized place.  He was human enough to dissemble to the Egyptians when he thought his life was in danger.  He was courageous enough to go to Lot’s rescue.  He was a man of peace as we can see by his giving Lot first choice as to who would live where.  Was he the first monotheist, as we are taught in Sunday School?  No less an authority than Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz says Abraham was not.  According to Steinsaltz, monotheism was the natural order of man’s belief.  Idolatry was a descent from man’s original monotheism.  Abraham was in effect practicing Teshuvah (the act of returning).  When he left his native land to go to Canaan he was returning to the belief in one God that had previously existed.  Whether he was the first man to believe in ethical monotheism or whether he was returning to a long lost belief the question still is what made Abraham tick?  Why did he do it?  Did God find Abraham or did Abraham find God?  As to the nature of Abraham's God, that begins a whole new set of questions that we will ponder as we continue our future years of Torah study.

Hagar and Ishmael

Who was Hagar?  The text says she was an Egyptian maidservant.  Midrash claims that she was the daughter of Pharaoh, who gave her to Sarah because he thought she would be better off living with the virtuous Sarah than with Egyptian noblewomen.  Regardless, she was never Abraham’s wife.  Ishmael was Abraham’s first son.  But when Abraham asks God to protect Ishmael so that he might inherit from him, (17:18) God tells Abraham that Ishmael will not inherit the covenant.  Ishmael will have his own inheritance (17:20).  “But my covenant I will maintain with Isaac” (17:21).  Revisionist can spin to their heart’s content.  For once the text is quite clear as to who is to inherit what.

Sin

According to the commentators even the first Jews, Abraham and Sarah, were capable of sin.  In commenting on the statement concerning their treatment of Hagar, “Abram said to Sarai, ‘Your maid is in your hands.’  Then Sarai treated her harshly.…” (16:6).  Nachmanides, also known as the Ramban, says that Sarah “sinned by such maltreatment, and Abraham too by permitting it.”  Not only are we not supposed to abuse people, we cannot remain silent while others engage in such behavior.

Age and Change

“Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.”  Considering all that we do not know about Abraham, why are we told his age and what is the significance of his beginning his trip at such an advanced age?  Some people, like some characters in the Bible, know what they are to do with their lives from the outset.  Consider King David.  Samuel anointed him when he was a youth.  His whole adult life was devoted to fulfilling the role of becoming King of Israel.  Other people move smoothly from one role to the next.  For example Joshua successfully fulfilled his role as Moshe’s assistant and then took on the mantle of leader in his own right.  Then are those for whom life is a series of ups and downs and ups again.  Consider Moshe.  First he was an Egyptian Prince.  Then he was a fugitive in Midian.  Finally, at the age of eighty, he rebounded as the man who saw “God in the face.”  There are people like Abraham; people who think that life is done with them only to find out that they are about to embark on the greatest journey of their lives.  Abraham leaving Haran at seventy-five should be a reminder to us all that we are never too old to learn, to change and to grow.  No matter how old we are, we must listen for the call of Lech-Lecha, “go to yourself.”  We are never too old to seek our own authenticity, to be true to ourselves which for the Jew means being true to our heritage.  Only when we do this will we find our ultimate reward as Abraham did when he responded to the command of Lech-Lecha.

What Happened to the Converts?

“Abram took…the souls that they had acquired in Haran; and they set out for the land of Canaan” (12:5).  According to the commentators “the souls that they had acquired” refers to those who had converted.  The men converted under the tutelage of Abraham.  The women converted under the tutelage of Sarah.  We see an echo of this in the naming convention for those who convert.  They are always referred to as the son or daughter of Abraham and Sarah.  These newly minted followers of Hashem followed the first Patriarch and Matriarch to Canaan.  But what happened to them once they got there?  They do not seem to be around when we meet the next Patriarch, Isaac.

Rabbi Chanoch Henich HaKohen of Alexander, a 19^th century sage, says they fell away from Hashem because of the difference in the nature of the first two Patriarchs.  Abraham epitomized the attribute of Loving Kindness.  Isaac epitomized the attribute of Strict Justice and Awe.  The converts were attracted by the former and put off by the latter.  They convinced themselves that Isaac was not as worthy a leader as his father so they returned to the ways they had follow before their encounter with Sarah and Abraham.  There is more than one lesson to be learned from this.  First, when there is a change in leadership, stick around.  If these ancient converts had, they might have come to see that even though Isaac differed from Abraham he was a Tzaddik in his own right.  Second, belief should not be tied to one leader.  Leaders come and go.  The teachings of the Lord are eternal.  Just because a Jew does not see eye to eye with a particular leader is no reason to walk away from the House of Israel.  Rabbi Chanoch lived for over seven decades and taught many lessons.  Here is one more example.  In Psalms, we read "The Heavens belong to God, and the earth He gave to humans." (Psalms 115:16).  Rabbi Chanoch takes this to mean, “The Heavens are heavenly in any event.  God gave the earth to humans so that they could make that which is worldly, heavenly.”  This is another twist on the basic concept of “elevating the mundane” that, among other things, gives rise to the multiplicity of blessings for the events of our daily existence.

Profiting at the Expense of Others

In the sedrah we find the line “And there was famine in the land” (12:10).  This line is echoed in the Shabbat prayers “In famine You have sustained us and in plenty You have nourished us.”  In a land beyond the Carpathian Mountains, there was a drought which led to a shortage of grain.  The local merchants jacked up their prices figuring to profit on the shortage.  Since it looked like the drought was going to last for more than one year, the merchants sold only some of their grain, thus making the famine even worse.  They figured that in a second year of shortage their stock of grain would be worth even more and they would become even richer.  Lo and behold, the rains came.  The drought was broken.  Instead of a famine, there was a bumper crop.  The merchants were left holding the bag.  They lost so much money on the grain that they had hoarded that all of the profit made during the drought was wiped out.  To make a profit is one thing, the Sages said.  To make a profit off of misery is another thing all together.

The Oleh and the Yorad

Zionists contend that Zionism is as old as Judaism.  As soon as Abraham heard the voice of God, he made Aliyah - he moved from his home to Eretz Israel.  He was the first Oleh, the Hebrew word for an immigrant to Israel.  But if Abraham was the first Oleh, he was also the first Yorad, the Hebrew word for a Jew who emigrates from Israel.  As soon as there was trouble in the land (in this case a famine) Abraham hit the road and headed for the wealth and comfort of Egypt.  Abraham, the man of character who followed the voice of God, immediately began betraying his values when he moved into Galut, in this case Egypt.  Like Jews who will be living in the Diaspora centuries later, Abraham had to lie and connive just to stay alive.  The Zionists would say, Abraham returned to Eretz Israel because it is only in his own land that he fulfilled his destiny. But then the Zionist view of things is not necessarily  the final authority.

Harbingers of Things to Come

Note the names of the places connected to the travels of Abraham described in this portion including Beth-El, Ai (12:8) and Hebron (13:18) to cite but three.  Some commentators cite these references as a link to the future of the Jewish people since each of them will play a prominent role in Biblical history.  Some of the critics who dispute the antiquity of the Biblical narrative contend that these names were inserted by later authors to create the semblance of connection between the Jewish people and the mythic figure of Abraham.

Historicity of the Abraham Narrative

Modern (19^th century) Bible critics seized on the lack of non-Biblical evidence to support the stories in the Bible.  Twentieth century archaeologists, typified by W.F. (William Foxwell) Albright, the son of American Methodist missionaries, discovered whole hosts of evidence in their digs that indeed provided just such evidence, including the mention of places which Abraham had visited and written evidence of a legal and cultural civilization that had many similarities to what is described in Bereshit (Genesis).  Nobody has found a clay tablet that says “Abraham, the first Jew slept here” but they have found evidence that buttresses the antiquity of the narrative of the Patriarch.

The Tests of Abraham

This week’s portion is but the first of three weekly readings devoted to the life of Abraham.  We will wait until the last of three before analyzing the life and impact of Abraham.  However, you should note that this week’s reading begins a motif that will follow through all three readings - the difficult life of Abraham which some view as the tests of Abraham.  See how many things you can identify in this week’s reading that you would describe as Tzoritz (troubles) and the sages would have called Tests.  Abraham is the first of the Chosen People.  And then there is the old joke about the suffering Jew barely surviving in the Pale of Settlement who calls out to God, “Next time when you have to “choose” a people, could you choose somebody else?”

Circumcision:  The Law v Reality/Food for Thought

In this portion we read “You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.  And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days.  …And if any male who is uncircumcised fails to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his king; he has broken My covenant.” (17:11-14).  But was this always the case?  Apparently not for in the Book of Joshua (5:2-9) we read about a mass circumcision ceremony that took place as the Israelites entered the Promised Land.  Apparently, none of the men who had been born during the forty years in the Wilderness had had a Brit.  And while you are pondering that one, consider that the sign of the covenant was made on the body of the male.  At the risk of offending anybody’s sensibilities or pre-conceived notions, this would seem to be grounds for the argument that among the ancients the rule was patrilineal rather than matrilineal decent since there is no similar ceremony for girls and women.  Maybe the Reform Movement was not so far off the mark in 1983 when it recognized patrilineal as well as matrilineal decent as a determining factor in establishing the Jewish identity of the children born in a “mixed marriage.”  Now that should give you something to talk about at your next Shabbat Kiddush!

Laughter

Everybody has their favorite Jewish comedian or Jewish humorist.  Whether it is Shalom Aleichem, the man who gave us Tevye, or Jack Benny or Seinfeld or Adam Sandler - there is always some Jew who is making us laugh.  But where did all of this laughter come from?  Who laughed first?  According to Meir Shalev, the first laugh or laughs are found in Lech Lecha.  Laughter is the response of both the first Patriarch and the first Matriarch when each of them hears that Sarah will have a child.

In chapter 17, we read of Abraham’s response “And God said unto Abraham:  'As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.  And I will bless her, and moreover I will give thee a son of her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be of her.'  Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart:  'Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?'”

Then in chapter 18 we read Sarah’s response to the news.  “And they said unto him:  'Where is Sarah thy wife?'  And he said:  'Behold, in the tent.'  And He said:  'I will certainly return unto thee when the season cometh round; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.'  And Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him. - Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. - And Sarah laughed within herself, saying:  'After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?'  And HaShem said unto Abraham:  'Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying: Shall I of a surety bear a child, who am old?  Is anything too hard for HaShem.  At the set time I will return unto thee, when the season cometh round, and Sarah shall have a son.'  Then Sarah denied, saying: 'I laughed not'; for she was afraid.  And He said:  'Nay; but thou didst laugh.'”

Note God’s reaction to each episode of laughter.  He really does not seem to be bothered by Abraham’s laugh.  But He sure does seem to be upset about Sarah’s laughter.  Strangely enough, God asks Abraham why Sarah laughed.  He does not ask Sarah.  God only speaks to Sarah about her laugh when the first Matriarch denies the sound of her mirth.  According to Shalev, this is not only the first laugh in the Bible; it is also the last laugh.  The only reminder of laughter is found in the name of their offspring, Isaac.  In Hebrew his name is Yitzchak which translates as “he will laugh.”  Why does laughter disappear so quickly from the Biblical lexicon?  Was God so offended by the cause of the first mirth that He banned it from His book?  Now we have another topic to explore and to discuss over a Shabbat Kiddush.

Realpolitik

One of the favorite aphorisms in the world of Realpolitik is “The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend.”  It is a statement used to rationalize all kinds of alliances that often defy moral and ethical norms.  For example, in World War II, when England was fighting the Nazis without any allies and the Germans invaded Russia, Churchill was asked if he would make common cause with the Stalin and his Communists.  In explaining why he, a devout anti-Communist would ally himself with Stalin, Churchill said he would make a pact with the Devil if the Devil were fighting Hitler.  This week’s Torah portion offers a slightly different view of things.  When Abraham hears that Lot has been captured, he goes to rescue him which means fighting the enemies of Sodom.  But when the King of Sodom wants to strike up an alliance with Abraham, the Patriarch backs off.  The implication is that he knows that Sodom does evil in the sight of the Lord.  Attacking a common foe to free his kinsman does not mean that he wants to have anything to do with Sodomites or their King who appears to have been absent from the rescue mission.  It is a hard needle to thread, but Abraham is providing us with a warning that we should be wary of whom we join as allies; that their habits can become our habits.  Abraham would seem to have learned another lesson - he who lies down with dogs gets up with fleas.

Perfection

In his commentary on this week’s portion, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks asks, “How Perfect Were the Patriarchs and Matriarchs?”  More specifically, how perfect were Abraham and Sarah.  On the one the one hand they show great courage and moral fortitude by heeding God’s call, leaving their comfortable life and their family and traveling to Canaan.  On the other hand, Abraham conspires to deceive the Egyptians about his marital status and makes his wife a partner in his duplicity.  And Sarah’s treatment of Hagar is something that even the mostly of rabbinic sages criticizes.  So they answer to the question is they were not perfect at all.  But as Sacks and others have pointed out, this should not bother us and in one sense should encourage us.  The characters in the Bible are human beings, not saints.  In some instances they behave nobly and in other cases their behavior is reprehensible.  Noah can build an ark.  But he can also get so drunk he is an embarrassment to his family.  David can face Goliath.  But he also can seduce Bathsheba.  King Solomon can build the Temple.  But he can also build palaces for his foreign princesses where they can pursue the idol worship that God forbids.  The characters in the Bible are faced with decisions.  Do I leave the Promised Land and go to Egypt because of the famine or do I stay and trust that somehow I will survive?  Do I talk to the rock when I need water or I do I strike it with my staff?  The Biblical characters are constantly faced with challenges, just as we are, and sometimes they get it right and sometimes they get it wrong.  And so it is with us today.  But the Biblical characters remind us that we are not all good nor all bad.  Which means we should enjoy the “victories” but learn from the “defeats.”  Just because we got it right once does not mean we will always get it right.  And just because we get it “wrong” does not mean we are doomed.

Haftarah

40:27-41:16 Isaiah

The Man/The Book:  The reading comes from the Second Isaiah or the Isaiah of the exile.  We have no biographical information on this remarkable author.  Based on statements in the texts and analysis of style and language all that we can say for sure is that he (or she for that matter), lived in Babylon among the Jews during the end of the Sixth Century B.C.E.  This corresponds to the rise of the Persians and the Medes who, under Cyrus would conquer Babylonia and end the First Exile.

 

The Message:  The prophet is reassuring the Jews of the Babylonian Captivity that God has not forgotten them and that He will redeem them.  He offers a message of optimism.  If the Jews grow weary, they only have to renew their faith in God and they will find rest and strength.  When faced with the challenges of life, the pagan fashions new and better idols.  The prophet calls upon the Jews to ignore these inanimate statutes and be faithful to the teachings of God.

Theme-Link:  In the sedrah, we see Abraham being chosen by God.  In the haftarah, the prophet says that God will remember the exiles because they are the “chosen, seed of Abraham My friend” (41:8).  Additionally, the prophet mocks those who make idols, a reminder of the Midrash about the occupation of Abraham’s father and what Abraham does to his creations.  Finally, the sedrah has God assuring Abraham of His protection, “I will bless those who bless you and curse him that curses you…” (12:3).  Isaiah invokes this same reassurance, “They who strive with you shall become as naught and shall perish…Less than nothing shall be the men who battle against you.” (41:11-12).

History and the Haftarah:  This year marks the 75th anniversary of Operation Magic Carpet, which began on November 8, 1949.  Operation Magic Carpet was the name given to the Israeli Airlift that flew 60,000 Jews from Yemen to Israel.  Golda Meir, who would eventually become Prime Minister of Israel, would go out to the airport and greet Israel’s newest citizens.  She said she marveled at their courage and endurance.  She asked one elderly chap if he had ever seen an airplane before.  He told her he had not.  She asked him if was afraid.  He said he was not afraid.  After all, he told her, this had all been foretold in the Book of Isaiah.  “They shall mount up on wings of eagles.”  And then he stood there and recited the entire passage from Chapter Forty of the Book of Isaiah.  Part of this is found in this week’s haftarah, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles…”  If you can ever read this haftarah again without getting a lump in your throat, you are a better person than I am.

On a more poignant note, today marks the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht.  Some would say that the difference between the fate of the Jews of Germany and the Jews of Yemen was the miraculous creation of the state of Israel.

Hollywood and the Haftarah:  You may remember the film classic Chariots of Fire about two English runners, one Jewish and one Christian, and the challenges they faced because of their respective religious beliefs.  At one point, a competing American runner offered Biblical words of encouragement the origins of which are found in this week’s prophetic portion, “they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (40:31).

Calendar Coincidence

This Shabbat when we read Lech-Lecha (Get thee out) we are marking the eighty-sixth anniversary of Kristallnacht when the Jews of Germany could not get out just as the hostages being held by Hamas for more than a year cannot get out and regain their freedom.

Copyright; November, 2024; Mitchell A. Levin