Aliya-by-Aliya Parshat Vayeira 5762
““It was unnaturally hot; that was G-d’s doing, to spare Avraham the bother of visitors. However, Avraham is distressed by the absence of visitors, so G-d sends three angels to him in the guise of wayfarers. This can teach us something about how to behave towards the elderly and infirm.”
“When the angels came to Sodom to rescue Abraham’s nephew, Lot, before destroying the city, Lot invited them in and ‘prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread [u’matsot ufah]’ (19:3). Rashi’s comment here has long intrigued me – ‘Pesach haya, it was Pesach.'”
Covenantal Models of Protest and Submission
“Vayeira is an especially challenging and memorable Torah portion for it provides us with two very different models of what it means to live in covenantal relationship with God. When God tells Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah, and all of their inhabitants will be destroyed because of their unlawfulness, Abraham immediately protests God’s proposed actions.”
“In spite of this plethora of material I always seem to be drawn to the narrative of the Akedah. Perhaps it is because I still have not come to terms with it. Perhaps it is because there are so many ways and so many perspectives from which one can interpret it . But whatever the reason I am once again drawn to the story this year.”
“Biblical stories are often laconic, leaving the reader to imagine the details. The rabbinic sages lived in a very different environment when it came to storytelling. It seemed inconceivable to them for major characters to be left unidentified and for loose ends in a story not to be resolved. It is for this reason that the first story in this week’s haftarah (4:1-7) was so provocative for them.”