CHUMASH CANDESCENCE
PARASHA VA'YEIRA
GENESIS 18:01-22:24
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
"Tie Me Up; Tie Me Down"
SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT:
Abraham is having a bad day. He has just circumcised himself at the age
of ninety-nine. Then he plays host to visiting angels. His wife Sarah
announces she will give birth within a year. God tells Abraham that He
will destroy Sodom, and Abraham bargains with God to try to save the
city. Abraham's nephew Lot saves his guests from being raped by
Sodomites. God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah, but saves Lot, his wife, and
his two daughters. Lot's wife dies by turning into a pillar of salt.
Lot's two daughters get their father drunk and have sex with him. Sarah
gets abducted by King Abimelech. Sarah is rescued and Isaac is born.
Abraham listens to Sarah and expels his first wife, Hagar, and their
son, Ishmael. Abraham is told by God to sacrifice Isaac. And you think
you have tsourres (Yiddish for aggravation)!! To find out how Abraham
copes with these events and what we can learn from them, please read
further.
As we can see from this parasha's synopsis we have a lot going on. Let
us, therefore start at the beginning. At the end of last week's parasha,
Abraham has been commanded by God to circumcise himself and the males in
his camp. It is still the same day. Abraham is sitting at his tent's
doorway "in the heat of the day" (Gen. 18:01). God appears to him. From
this first verse, our sages teach us the mitzvah of visiting the sick.
God Himself visits Abraham while he was recovering from his circumcision.
In the next verse, Abraham sees three strangers, and even though he has
just had surgery and it is the heat of the day, he runs to them and
offers them hospitality. He offers them water, shade, and a foot bath. He
orders Sarah to make three cakes of the "finest flour." He orders
Ishmael to prepare a "tender and good" calf and serve it with cream and
milk. Abraham did not eat with the guests, but stood and attended to
their needs.
Although Abraham did not know this at the time, these three visitors,
according to the traditional view, are angels. The Talmud says that an
angel does a "function that God wishes to have performed." An angel can
only do one function at a time, according to the Midrash. The sages
explain it was angel Michael who told Sarah she would give birth, angel
Gabriel who would overturn Sodom, and angel Raphael who healed Abraham
and saved Lot. Raphael means "healer of God." It is from the root word
"refu," and we use this word when we wish someone to get well (r'fua).
Note that Abraham leaves his first guest, God Almighty, to take care of
these three travelers. Our sages teach in Talmud Shabbat 127A, that
"hospitality to wayfarers is greater than receiving the Divine Presence."
The Jewish notion of hospitality so important that it is one of the 613
commandments. It is called "hachnotot orchim." Talmud Tractate Bava
Metziah 86B says that whatever good deeds Abraham did that day, God
reciprocated later. Abraham got a calf; God gave us quail (Num. 11:31).
Abraham gave milk and cream; God gave us manna (Ex. 16:04). Abraham stood
and attended to his guests; God stood before us by the "rock of water" in
Horeb (Ex. 7:06). Abraham escorted his guests; God lead the Israelites
with a pillar of clouds (Ex. 13:21). Abraham gave his guests water; God
gave us water from the rock (Ex. 17:6).
Taking care of our fellow humans, we have seen, is more important
than taking care of God or ritual. And God rewarded Abraham's children
for making this proper judgment. Tractate
Kiddushin 7A says that when we give to others, and when they accept the
gift, we have received something important back from them.
The Talmud in Tractate Shabbat 88B goes a step further. The rabbis say
that if not for of Abraham's hospitality, Moses would not have received
the Torah. The sages say the angels saw God about to give the Torah to
Moses and they protested. The angels said that man was not worthy to have
the Torah. God gave Moses Abraham's face and said to the angels, "Is this
not the very person who you visited and ate with in his home? Now you
are claiming that humans should not get the Torah?" A little bit of
kindness can go a long way.
Visiting the sick (bikur cholem) is also a commandment. Tractate Nederim
39B says "whoever visits a sick person, takes away one-sixtieth of his
suffering." "Whoever visits a sick person causes him to live, but
whoever does not visit a sick person causes him to die"(Nederim 40A). The
themes of comforting the sick and hospitality are repeated in this week's
Haftorah ( II Kings 4:1-37) where a woman prepares meals for the prophet
Elisha, the disciple of Elijah. She goes so far as to give him his own
private room, with a bed, table,chair and lamp. She is barren. Elisha
prays to God to bless her with a son. She gives birth to a son. Some time
passes and the son becomes ill and dies. Elisha does mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation and revives the boy.
The rabbis of the Talmud were perplexed by Abraham's serving milk with
meat. They teach that Abraham learned Torah, not yet given to the
Israelites at Sinai, in the "yeshiva of Shem." Shem was a son of Noah.
They posit that Abraham served the dairy first, and then waited the
appropriate interval before serving the meat. The rabbis also note, that
while mention is made of the calf, cream, and milk being served, there is
no mention of Sarah's three cakes being served. They say that she just
begun her menses and was not ritually pure, and hence could not serve
food. The rabbis then ask, if she had her menstrual period (she was 90
years old) why she laughing when the angel told her she would give
birth. They decide that it really was not the onset of menses, but just a
spot of dark discharge that Sarah misinterpreted.
Hospitality also saved Lot's life. When two of these angels, Gabriel and
Raphael (Michael had completed his mission and returned to God), came to
visit Lot in Sodom, Lot saved their lives. Lot begged them to enter his
home and not sleep in the town's square. He also offered them a foot bath
and a feast. Later, the men of Sodom came banging on Lot's door and
demanded that Lot surrender these two visitors so that they could have
sex with them. Lot refused to give up his guests and offered his two
virgin daughters as substitutes. God strikes the Sodomites with blindness
and they continued their attack albeit unsuccessfully. The angels told
Lot, his daughters, their fiances, and his wife, to flee Sodom. Lot's
future son-in-laws refused to listen to Lot because Lot "appeared like a
jester in their eyes"( Gen. 19:14).
When we think of Sodomites, we have been told to think of the homosexual
rape that the men of Sodom wished to do to Lot's guests.
But this is not what our sages teach us. The sin of Sodom was that they
believed, "What is mine is mine, and what is yours in yours" (Pirket Avot
5:10). Ezekiel 16:49 says the sin of Sodom was arrogance. They had
"plenty of bread and untroubled tranquility, yet Sodom did not support
the poor and the needy." The Midrash says that Sodom was so rich
that "there was not a path that did not have the foliage of seven trees
over it, each shading the one below it--vine, fig, pomegranate,walnut,
almond, apple, peach--so that each lane was fully sheltered." The
Sodomites knew they had fertile land. They did not wish newcomers to move
there. This is why they went out of their way to mistreat travelers.
Ramban ( 13th-century Spainish Nachmanides) says, "the Sodomites
prevented the entry of all strangers....They refused to share their
bounty with the less fortunate." The Sodomites were not sexual perverts,
as our Western misreading of the Bible makes them out to be. The Bible
charges them with lack of justice (Is.1:10; 3:9), disregard of ethics and
moral values (Jer. 23:14), and ignoring the needs of the poor (Ez
16:48-49). The rabbis of the Talmud call them "mean, uncharitable,
unjust, and inhospitable."
After the destruction of Sodom and the death of Mrs. Lot, Lot's two
daughters think that they are the last three human survivors in the
world. They get Lot drunk and seduce him, as they think he is the only
man left to repopulate the earth. The eldest names her son Moab, meaning
"from my father." The youngest daughter names her son Ammon, meaning "of
my people." Please note that Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David
was a Moabitess. Naahmah was also from Moab. She was queen of King
Solomon and mother of Solomon's son and successor King Rehoboam. The
rabbis say that this shows that God knows the daughters' motives were
pure, and hence it was permissible for them to break the Noahide
commandment against incest. However, they say that, while Lot may have
been hoodwinked the first time his eldest daughter got him drunk and
seduced him, he was lecherous in allowing it to happen again with his
youngest daughter. The Midrash also says that when Lot chose Sodom to
move to in last week's parasha, he did so not because of the grazing
land, but because he was attracted to the immorality of this city.
Time passes and Isaac is born to Sarah. She sees Ishmael "making sport"
or "mocking" (Gen. 21:09). Sarah orders Abraham to expel Hagar and
Ishmael. She does not want Ishmael sharing Isaac's "inheritance."
Abraham is "greatly distressed" (Gen. 21:11). God tells him not to be
upset and to listen to Sarah. The next day, he sends Hagar and Ishmael
into the wilderness with bread and water. Rashi says that Sarah was not
concerned about Isaac sharing Ishmael's first born rights of inheritance,
but was concerned that Isaac would learn bad ,"sporting" behaviors from
Ishmael.
In September, when we studied parasha Ki Seitzei, we read the following
verses from Deuteronomy 21:15-17: "If a man will have two wives, one
beloved and one hated, and they bear him sons, the beloved one and the
hated one, and the firstborn son is the hated one's, than it shall be
that on the day that he causes his sons to inherit whatever will be his,
he cannot give the right of the first born to the son of the beloved one
ahead of the son of the hated one, his firstborn. Rather he must
recognize the first born, the son of the hated one, to give him the
double portion in all that is found with him; for he is his initial
vigor, to him is the right of the firstborn." Since Abraham supposedly
knew Torah law from Shem, he chose to disobey it in order to "listen" to
his wife Sarah and keep shalom byat (peace in the house). Hindsight is
always "20/20." If Abraham took the time to reason with Sarah, and gave
Ishmael two thirds of his land (a double portion), and Isaac one third,
would we even be discussing the sharing of Jerusalem and other sections
of the land promised to Abraham in today's peace talks? It would instead
have been shared a long time ago. Perhaps this is the real reason that
Hagar and Ishmael's expulsion are known as Abraham's eight and ninth
trials (refer to last week's D'var Torah). Did Abraham fail or pass these
two tests?
The Talmudic rabbis justify this expulsion by pointing out that Hagar is
carrying the provisions in the dessert but the 17 year old Ishmael is
not. They further say that Abraham gave them enough water for their
journey, but that Ishmael drank it all. Further, they say that Ishmael
took up archery. For these reasons, Sarah did not want Isaac to be
influenced by Ishmael. Tractate Rosh Hashanah 17B tells of how the angels
argued with God for Him not to save Ishmael and Hagar in the dessert.
They said ,"Ishmael's descendents would one day be responsible for
killing Jews, so why save him and have Jews suffer later on? Let him die
now." God answered, "At this moment, is he righteous or evil? I only
judge man as he is, here and now."
The parasha ends with Abraham's tenth trial. He is commanded by God to
take his son Isaac to be sacrificed. This event is referred to
euphemistically as the "binding" (akeidah). The Talmud tells us that this
event took place on Rosh Hashanah (new year), which is why these verses
were also read on Rosh Hashanah.. When God calls Abraham, he answers "Here
I am" (Gen. 22:1). When he is told that God wants him to sacrifice Isaac,
he gets up early the next day, saddles his donkey, and rushes to fulfill
God's command. Isaac was 37 years old. Abraham could not force a 37 year
old to go to his own death. He had to have convinced Isaac to come along.
Tractate Sanhedrin 89B records Abraham's conversation with God.
"God said, 'Take your son.'
'But I have two sons, which should I take?'
'Your only one!'
'But each of them is the only son of his mother!'
'Whom you love!' God answered.
'But I love them both.'
'I mean Isaac.' God replied."
The Midrash questions how Abraham could say to God that he has two sons
if he sent Ishmael away. The sages say that for Rosh Hashanah Ishmael
and Eliezar came to visit Abraham. The Midrash says that Satan tried to
talk Abraham out of sacrificing Isaac. Satan also says to Isaac,
"Remember the cute toys that your mother, Sarah, made for you to play
with? If you die, Ishmael will inherit them." The Midrash does not
explain how this argument would work on a 37 year old man. Later, Satan
forms a river to block their path. Abraham and Isaac wade into the water
until it is up to their necks and plead to God to make the river go dry
so that they can complete their mission.
When Isaac and Abraham go up the mountain to make this human sacrifice,
Abraham tells Ishmael and Eliezar that "we both will return to you"(Gen.
22:05). God does call this a "test"(Gen.22:01). Does Abraham suspect that
he will not have to carry through with this horrible commandment? Isaac
allows himself to be bound on the altar. What is Isaac thinking? He had
asked his father a few moments before, "where is the lamb for the
offering?"(Gen. 22:08). For Isaac and Abraham, this Rosh Hashanah really
was a "day of awe."
Luckily, Abraham is stopped by an angel and a ram is slaughtered
instead. The Torah records that when the event was over, "they stood up
and went together" (Gen. 22:19). The Talmud does not record this
conversation. Nor does it record the conversation Sarah had with Abraham
when he left to kill her only and long-awaited son. The Talmud does
record that Sarah dies from this trauma at the age of 127. The Targum
Yonatan (Aramaic paraphrase of the Chumash by Yonatan ben Uziel, circa
100 CE) records that Satan lied to Sarah when Abraham and Isaac were away
and told her that Abraham had actually killed Isaac. She died lonely and
broken-hearted. Luckily, Sarah was not alive to witness what happens
later. Abraham soon remarries, as we will read in the next parasha. His
third wife, called Keturah (Gen. 25:01), whose name means "beautiful
incense" in Hebrew and "restrained and chaste" in Aramaic, is supposed to
be Hagar, according to the Midrash. Poor mixed up Isaac. His familial
dysfunction will carry into the next generation.
What was the purpose of this tenth test? Soren Kierkegaard, the
19th-century Chistian Danish philosopher, in his 1843 book " Fear and
Trembling," calls this act a "leap of faith." He used this chapter of
Genesis to posit that religion was absurd. He argued that God requires us
to hold beliefs and perform actions that are ridiculous and immoral by
rational standards. He called Abraham a "knight of faith." Kierkegaard
said that true faith is measured by the sincerity and passion of the
believer and that "religion's truth is subjectivity." He criticized all
attempts to make religion rational, and said that God wants us to obey
Him, not argue for Him.
But Jewish philosophers say that it is love that Abraham had for God, not
just faith. The Kaballistic Zohar states, "so it is written 'thou did
love righteousness and hate wickedness' (Ps. 45:8) and it is further
written 'Abraham who loves Me'(Is. 41:8). Abraham is said to have loved
God because he loved righteousness; this was Abraham's love of God in
which he excelled over all of his contemporaries." Is this "leap of love"
for God better than love for one's son or another human? Philo of
Alexandria (1st-century CE) thinks not. He said if the sacrifice of Isaac
(whose name means "will laugh" ) was carried out, then all of the
laughter in the world would be eradicated. What would be left of
Abraham's love of God if this sacrifice was fulfilled? It would be a
spiritual death for Abraham and would show him that his God was fickle.
Abraham's life philosophy was one of chesed (kindness). He tried to
emulate God's kindness and love. Sacrificing Isaac was going against his
entire philosophy. Was it God testing Abraham, or Abraham testing
himself? Or was Abraham testing Isaac?
Dr. Victor Frankel of 20th-century Germany, who survived the
concentration camps to become an existential psychiatrist, writes in his
"Man's Search for Meaning," that the need for man to have meaning in his
life is his most profound need. Abraham was not only asked to kill Isaac,
he was asked to kill his entire life's meaning. His spiritual life was
at risk as well as his son's corporeal life. In Kaballistic terms, the
opposite of kindness is justice. It is strict, exacting justice. When God
calls on Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, God is called "Elohim"(Gen.22:1-2).
Elohim are judges. When God, through his angel, tells Abraham to stop, He
is called "Adonai," the name of God that is associated with kindness
(Gen. 22;11-12). Abraham learns, perhaps that pure kindness must be
tempered with judgement if one is really to be a father of a great
people.
And what of Isaac on this day? Abraham is not commanded to tie up Isaac.
The Midrash says that Isaac asks to be bound. He says, "Father, the soul
is willing, but the flesh is weak. Tie me down in order to restrain me,
to prevent me from flinching upon seeing the blade." We do not hear about
Isaac again until two chapters later when he is standing in a field,
praying to God. Later Isaac goes blind. The Midrash says that his eyes
became blinded from the tears of the angels which fell in his eyes when
it appeared that Abraham would go through with the sacrifice.
The sages are astounded with the entire story. They say in Tractate Shabbat 89B
that when Jews sin, Abraham and Jacob tell God to "wipe them out." It is
only Isaac who pleads for mercy by saying "remember that I sacrificed my
soul in front of You for You." This is the lesson that Isaac learned and
that all of us need to learn. Every day our souls and lives are
potentially ready to be sacrificed and taken from us. We need to be kind
and merciful to others as well as be kind and merciful to ourselves.
What can we learn from the juxtaposition of these four events discussed
in this D'var Torah? Both Abraham and Sodom are blessed with bounty.
Both make choices. Abraham uses his wealth for chesed. Sodom uses theirs
for stinginess. America is a great, rich country. We Jews have prospered
here. Should America and we be miserly? Or like our father, Abraham,
should we hear the outcry of others in need? Can we actively run and seek
out those that need our aid, or wait passively until it is too late to
help? Can we open up our doors on Shabbat or other days to feed a
newcomer or someone less fortunate? Can we visit those in the hospital or
those who are home bound? Can we do a better job of taking care of our
communities' aged? And once we have mastered taking care of others, can
we learn from Abraham's test with the "binding of Isaac" and the
resulting death of Sarah, or from his expelling Hagar and Ishmael, to
treat our families with the love and chesed with which we should treat
strangers?
The crux of this whole convoluted parasha is found in verse 18:19 of
Genesis. "For I have singled Abraham out, that he may instruct his
children and his posterity to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is
just and right." Quoting from the 8th-century BCE
prophet Micah (6:8), "What is good and what does the Lord require of you?
ONLY (emphasis mine) to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk
modestly." More than a millennium later, the rabbis of the Talmud would
invoke it as a proof text that the Jewish people's main goal is to be
"merciful, modest, and purveyors of good deeds" (Tractate Yevamot 79A).
Shabbat Shalom!
RABBI ARTHUR L. SEGAL
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