Category Archives: Abraham

5784, Abraham, AI art, Genesis, Parsha, Vayera

A Fertility Strategy (Vayera)

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PDF version for print: Kli Yakar Vayera

A Fertility Strategy (Vayera)

 Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven. -Henry Ward Beecher

Abraham Welcoming

Three travelers, who turn out to be angels, stop by Abraham who is just recovering from having circumcised himself at the age of 99 years old. Abraham rushes to greet them and give them water and food, as well as shade from the hot Canaanite sun. One of the travelers prophetically declares:

‘I will certainly return unto thee when the season cometh round; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.’ Genesis 18:10

Abraham and Sarah are the classic biblical example of an infertile couple. After years of trying, after tearful prayers, after attempting every conceivable and even some unusual strategies, they frankly give up. When they reach advanced ages, it is naturally impossible for Sarah to conceive and unlikely for Abraham.

There are various rabbinic explanations given as to why they were tested in this fashion and why it took so long. Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Prague, the Kli Yakar (1550-1619) on Genesis 18:6 explains why they finally had a child.

He compares the case to another hauntingly parallel story in the Bible.  The prophet Elisha is given extravagant (for those days) hospitality by an older woman of Shunam who recognizes Elisha as a man of God (see II Kings 4:8-17 for the story). Though past child-bearing age, she is blessed with a son, in almost the same language and words as the prophetic announcement of Sarah’s birth to Isaac:

‘At this season, when the time cometh round, thou shall embrace a son.’ II Kings 4:16

The Kli Yakar explains that a possible reason for their blessing and miraculous births was simply because of their great hospitality.

May our acts of hospitality give birth to many blessings.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

On the marriage of Atara Razin and Baruch Katz. Mazal Tov!

5784, Abraham, AI art, Genesis, Kli Yakar 2, Lech Lecha, Parsha

The Power to Bless (Lech Lecha)

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PDF Version for print: Kli Yakar Lech Lecha

The Power to Bless (Lech Lecha)

 No man or woman can be strong, gentle, pure, and good, without the world being better for it and without someone being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness. -Phillips Brooks

Abraham Blessing

Dry conventional theological wisdom might claim that only God is capable of affecting blessings upon us. There is a perhaps apocryphal joke of a Lithuanian (non-Hasidic) Rabbi who is approached by a simple Jew and asks the Rabbi to bless him. The Rabbi answers:

“Are you an apple that I should bless over you?”

The Hasidic and Sephardic traditions on the other hand are rife with blessings being bestowed at every opportunity.

When God commands Abraham to leave his homeland and head towards Canaan, He states:

“And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.” Genesis 12:2

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Prague, the Kli Yakar (1550-1619) on the verse wonders as to the seeming repetition of ‘be thou a blessing’ and what is the difference from ‘I will bless thee’?

He explains that not only will Abraham be blessed for obeying God’s word, but that Abraham will also have the power to bless whoever he wants to and will indeed be the source of the blessings he bestows.

The Kli Yakar further explains the simple metaphysical mechanics of how one achieves the power to bless. God is the ultimate source of all blessing. The closer one is behaviorally or “physically” to God (the Kli Yakar also points to the Temple mount as a ‘source’), the more one will acquire His ability to bestow blessing.

May we acquire more and more the power to bless – and may we use it.

Shabbat Shalom and blessings on our hostages, our injured, our soldiers, all of Israel and all our brethren around the world.

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

 To the countless selfless and heroic deeds of our people. The stories we’ve heard, the stories we are yet to hear and the stories we will likely never hear.

5783, Abraham, Bat Ayin, Chayei Sara, Genesis, Parsha

The Ultimate Agent (Chaye Sara)

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The Ultimate Agent (Chaye Sara)

The condition of an enlightened mind is a surrendered heart. -Alan Redpath

Sarah has died, Abraham is getting older, and their son Isaac has yet to marry. According to the Midrash, Isaac is forbidden from leaving the land of Canaan, but none of the women of Canaan were considered suitable for Isaac.

Abraham sends his loyal servant, who the Midrash names as Eliezer, to return to Abraham’s hometown, Haran, northeast of Canaan, and find a wife for Isaac. Eliezer dutifully goes to Haran and is immediately successful in finding Rebecca, who happens to be from Abraham’s family (a granddaughter of Abraham’s brother, Nachor – making Rebecca and Isaac first cousins once-removed). Thankfully, Eliezer convinces her resistant family to let her return with him to Canaan to marry Isaac.

The Torah is effusive in its description of Eliezer, calling him “the elder of his house and the one who rules everything that is his [Abraham’s].” The Bat Ayin on Genesis 24:2 wonders as to how Eliezer achieved such distinction as a servant. He explains that Eliezer had such respect and awe for Abraham, that he completely identified with Abraham’s mission and goals and annulled his own desires to the extent that he was the ultimate agent on Abraham’s behalf. The Bat Ayin elaborates that when a servant of the king is so closely identified with the king, then the servant, in a certain respect, is comparable to the king, in his power and majesty.

Eliezer subsumed and annulled his own desires so thoroughly and took on Abraham’s goals so devotedly that he became comparable to Abraham himself. That gave Abraham the confidence to send Eliezer on this most vital mission for the continuity of his family, to find a suitable match for Isaac. Hence, the Torah’s description of Eliezer as “the elder of his house and the one who rules everything that is his.”

By surrendering his own ego and fully accepting the role of a humble servant, Eliezer became the authoritative representative of the great Abraham and the master of Abraham’s entire domain.

May we realize that to serve often means to lead.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To NASA’s Artemis 1 launch to the moon.

5783, Abraham, Bat Ayin, Genesis, Lech Lecha, Parsha

Attracted to Holiness (Lech Lecha)

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Attracted to Holiness (Lech Lecha)

A soul without a high aim is like a ship without a rudder. -Eileen Caddy

Abraham is famously directed by God to leave his homeland and venture to the land of Canaan, a land that God would bequeath to Abraham and his descendants. However, what is perhaps less noticed, is that a few verses before God’s directive to Abraham, the Torah tells us how Terach, Abraham’s father, takes his family from their homeland, from Ur of the Chaldeans and heads to Canaan. However, Terach’s journey ends when they arrive in the town of Haran, before entering the land of Canaan. It is only Abraham, later, who successfully enters Canaan.

The Bat Ayin on Genesis 12:1 wonders as to what the cause of the apparent false start was. Why does Abraham’s family, when accompanied by his father Terach head towards Canaan, before God commands it; why are they initially unsuccessful in entering and why later, does Abraham, without Terach, succeed?

He explains that while still in Ur of the Chaldeans Abraham started to perceive the holiness of the land of Canaan. He ventures west, attracted by the holiness of Canaan, independently of God’s command. His father Terach, seeing Abraham’s efforts, is taken up by the spiritual journey and he too seeks the holiness of Canaan. However, upon reaching the town of Haran, in close proximity to Canaan, they realize something that gives them pause. They come to the conclusion that though they’re attracted to the holiness, they don’t feel themselves worthy of entering the land. They are not yet at a level where they could fully connect with the inherit holiness of the land.

It is then, after God’s command, that Abraham redoubles his spiritual efforts and realizes that he needs to divest himself of his material, worldly attachments. Only with a pure spiritual focus can one fully connect to the inherent holiness of the land. Abraham succeeds in reaching that spiritual level, that focus on the transcendent and that connection with God. He is then worthy of entering the land and claiming its spiritual and material bounty for himself and his descendants.

May we take advantage of the road to holiness our forefathers already paved for us and bequeathed to us and connect to the holiness of the land of Israel.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To democracy.

5782, Abraham, Chidushei HaRim, Genesis, Parsha, Sarah, Toldot

Cruel Cynics (Toldot)

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Cruel Cynics (Toldot)

The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game. -Henry Ward Beecher

Sarah miraculously gives birth to Isaac when she’s 90 years old. Isaac was the child of Sarah and Abraham, with Abraham having reached the ripe old age of 100. The miraculous birth was the talk of the town. The prime Torah commentator, Rashi, is quoted as saying that the cynics of the generation attributed the birth not to Abraham, but rather to Avimelech, King of Gerar.

The reason for the false attribution is that Sarah, due to her incredible beauty, had been a captive briefly in Avimelech’s palace, before Isaac’s conception. However, before Avimelech could lay hands on Sarah, God intervenes, warns Avimelech from touching Sarah, tells Avimelech to return Sarah to Abraham, and as a result, Abraham would pray for Avimelech and his household’s wellbeing, whom God had struck during Sarah’s captivity. Avimelech returns Sarah, Abraham does pray for Avimelech and his household who are immediately healed, including the ability to give birth. Shortly after that Sarah gives birth. Rashi quotes the Talmudic dictum that one who prays for others receives a response for his own needs first.

The Chidushei HaRim on Genesis 25:19 wonders why Rashi calls them “cynics” as opposed to “evil” for spreading such vicious slander about Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac. Why the need to make up a story of adultery? He answers that these cynics weren’t denying that Abraham was Isaac’s father. Rather they were highlighting the irony of the circumstances of the birth. Sarah, after decades of waiting, finally gives birth to a son, but only after Abraham had prayed for Avimelech. So in a sense, Avimelech was the catalyst for Isaac’s birth, hence the cynics’ attribution of the birth to Avimelech.

Though there may have been some aspect of truth to what the cynics were claiming (i.e. that the prayer for Avimelech was a catalyst for Isaac’s birth), it was cruel nonetheless.

May we beware of the corrosiveness of cynicism.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To four special cities in Israel: Tzfat (air), Tiberias (water), Hebron (earth), and Jerusalem (fire).

5782, Abraham, Chayei Sara, Chidushei HaRim, Genesis, Parsha

The Novelty of the Elderly (Chaye Sara)

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The Novelty of the Elderly (Chaye Sara)

To resist the frigidity of old age, one must combine the body, the mind, and the heart. And to keep these in parallel vigor one must exercise, study, and love. -Bonstettin

 

Abraham lives to the impressive age of 175. The Torah starts the beginning of the last chapter of his life with the beautiful description that “Abraham was now old, advanced in years, and God had blessed Abraham in all things.”

The Chidushei HaRim on Genesis 24:1 quotes a dictum from Pirkei Avot which states: “He who learns when a child, to what is he compared? To ink written upon a new writing sheet. And he who learns when an old man, to what is he compared? To ink written on a rubbed writing sheet.”

However, the Chidushei HaRim states that Abraham did not follow this standard understanding of old age. It is easy and common as we get older to get entrenched in our ways and our thinking. There is less room for novelty in our lives. Our bodies, minds, and spirits can become ossified.

However, Abraham did not follow this common route to old age. Abraham embraced new encounters, new people, new concepts, new possibilities with vigor, with freshness, with an openness that belied his years. He combined the enthusiasm and adventurism of youth with the wisdom and experience of age.

This allowed him to continuously innovate in his life of service to God. It allowed him to obediently follow God’s directives while embracing and attracting to God all those who came into contact with him. This life attitude allowed Abraham to illuminate God’s word and wishes with his own personal imprint, with authenticity and originality, yet at the same time true to God’s desires. It was this dedication, commitment, enthusiasm, and drive that made Abraham the founding father of the Jewish nation.

May we be able to combine the vitality of youth with the wisdom of age.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the memory of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”tl, on the first anniversary of his passing. Commemorate his memory via the Global Day of Learning in his honor at https://rabbisacks.org/communitiesinconversation/.

5782, Abraham, Chidushei HaRim, Genesis, Lech Lecha, Parsha

Blinded by Reality (Lech Lecha)

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Blinded by Reality (Lech Lecha)

You too must not count too much on your reality as you feel it today, since like yesterday, it may prove an illusion for you tomorrow. -Luigi Pirandello

Abraham’s first documented encounter with God is when God addresses him and commands him to leave his land (literally, “go for you from your land”), his birthplace and his father’s home to the ambiguous “land which I will show you.”  Abraham, full of faith, obediently complies, and does leave his life in the advanced and cosmopolitan Mesopotamian Empire. He leaves his homeland, leaves his father and treks to the relative wilderness of the land of Canaan; the rural, rough and uncultivated land bridge that connected the two ancient major political, economic and cultural powers of the Ancient Near East – the Mesopotamian and the Egyptian Empires.

That command starts Abraham’s journey. We see the development of his relationship with God. We see Abraham’s kindness and generosity. We see his bravery and faith. We see his devotion and sacrifice. It all started with Abraham leaving his land.

The Chidushei HaRim on Genesis 12:1 reads more deeply into the command of “go for you from your land.” The word “from your land,” in Hebrew, “Me’artzechah,” can also be read as from your landedness, from your materiality, from your obsession with the material world and material things.

The Chidushei HaRim explains that in order to serve God, the first step is to leave the trappings of the physical world which blind us to the evil, to the materiality that we’re submerged in. We have to leave that mindset of preoccupation exclusively with the corporeal, even if we don’t know where we’re going.

Once we’ve become free of our fixation on material things and approach God without pretense and in truthfulness, then God will lead us to “the land which I will show you,” – to a more elevated existence, to a deeper relationship with God and the truth of our existence, to the development of our soul and our own personal, divine missions on Earth.

May we loosen our shackles from the “realities” that both bind us and blind us, and may we follow in the footsteps of our patriarch, Abraham.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To William Shatner’s real star trek!

5781, Abraham, Bechor Shor, Genesis, Parsha, Vayera

Sacrifice (Vayera)

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Sacrifice (Vayera)

For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice — no paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service. -John Burroughs

In the middle of the synagogue service, a man quietly walks up to his Rabbi who is sitting at the front of the synagogue and admits to having committed a horrible, highly embarrassing sin, and that he is now seeking to repent. The Rabbi looks at him, thinks, and then tells him to go to the middle of the synagogue, bang on the table, and publicly declare to the entire congregation his sin.

“Here? Now?” the man asks, his face ashen.

“Yes,” the Rabbi declares firmly. “It’s the only way to repent.”

The man looks incredulous, but he trusts his Rabbi and he deeply needs to repent. He walks to the middle of the synagogue as if it were a death sentence. He is about to bang on the table when a hand grabs his shoulder. It’s the Rabbi.

“That’s far enough,” the Rabbi tells the man. “That’s all you need to do. You needed to demonstrate that you were willing. That’s your repentance.”

For me, one of the more theologically challenging narratives in the Bible is God’s apparent command to Abraham to bring his son Isaac as a sacrifice. The Sages throughout history have praised Abraham’s complete devotion to God and willingness to sacrifice his long-sought and beloved son.

Nonetheless, there remain troubling aspects. Did God truly desire Abraham to kill Isaac? It doesn’t seem likely. Did Abraham misunderstand such a significant divine communication from God? Also, hard to imagine. Did God never intend for Abraham to carry through with the sacrifice but purposely mislead Abraham? It’s not clear from the plain text.

The Bechor Shor on Genesis 22:12 suggests that there was some level of purposeful misdirection on God’s part. He explains that God knows the heart of every person and He knew very well that Abraham was so completely devoted to God, that he would even sacrifice his son, the very son God had promised him, if that was God’s command. But it seems that not only did God want Abraham, Isaac, and us, their descendants to see that he was willing to make such a sacrifice to God, but He also wanted the nations of the world to realize Abraham’s commitment to God.

The misdirection comes in the Hebrew word that God used here for “sacrifice” – Olah. In the common language of sacrifices, an Olah, translated as an Elevation Sacrifice, is an animal sacrifice which is completely consumed by the fire of the Altar. However, in its simplest meaning, Olah means to elevate. The Bechor Shor suggests that God never intended Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but He did want him to think that He wanted him to sacrifice Isaac. It was a test that Abraham passed with flying colors. God wanted Abraham to elevate Isaac, to bring him up to the altar he built on Mount Moriah without harming him, but He also wanted Abraham to demonstrate his willingness to follow God’s directive, as excruciating, as incomprehensible, and as sacrificial as it might seem.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

On the engagement of our son, Elchanan, to Zavi Lava. Mazal Tov!

5780, Abraham, Chayei Sara, Genesis, Jacob, Meshech Chochma, Parsha

Choosing Daughters-in-law (Chaye Sarah)

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Choosing Daughters-in-law (Chaye Sarah)

Choose your wife as you wish your children to be. -Proverb

In his old age, Abraham instructs his servant to travel to Abraham’s hometown of Haran, to his family, and find a wife for his son Isaac. He warns the servant that Isaac should not marry a local Canaanite woman. The Meshech Chochma wonders why Abraham is having this discussion with the servant and not with Isaac himself.

The Meshech Chochma answers that a son is exempt from listening to his father’s instructions when it comes to marrying. That is, if a son decides he wants to marry someone and the father doesn’t want the son to marry the woman, the son doesn’t have to obey his father, but rather can marry the woman he chooses (assuming it is someone that he is allowed to marry by Torah law).

That is the reason Abraham instructs the servant and not his son. The servant would obey Abraham. Isaac would not have to obey his father.

However, in the next generation, Isaac gives his son Jacob a similar command and instructs him not to marry any Canaanite women. What changed? Why did Abraham refrain from commanding Isaac about whom he could or couldn’t marry, but Isaac has no qualms about restricting Jacob?

The Meshech Chochma explains that in the case of Isaac commanding Jacob, the instruction was conditional. In the same meeting where Isaac commands Jacob about marriage, he also tells Jacob that he will pass on to him the blessings and inheritance of Abraham. The marriage command is conditional. In theory, Jacob could marry whoever he wants. However, if he wants to receive the blessing and inheritance of Abraham, he needs to marry according to Isaac’s instructions. If Jacob would have married a Canaanite, he would have forsaken both the blessings and the inheritance. While it seems a father can’t unilaterally force a son to marry a woman of his choice, a father can provide incentives to do so.

As we know, both Isaac and Jacob followed their father’s directives and married the type of women they wished for their sons. This led to significant blessings as well as to the creation of the nation of Israel.

May all our children marry well.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the Yanofsky, Reiner, Galan and Fischgrund families on their inspiring Bat and Bar-Mitzvah ceremony in Jerusalem. Mazal Tov!

5779, Abraham, Berdichever, Genesis, Lech Lecha, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Uncountable People (Lech Lecha)

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Uncountable People (Lech Lecha)

Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty. –Jacob Bronowski

God communicates with Abraham. God tells Abraham, who at the time was old and childless, that his progeny will be as uncountable as the dust of the earth, as the stars in the heavens. To further deepen the wonder of God’s promise to Abraham, the Midrash recounts that among Abraham’s many amazing attributes and capabilities was the fact that he was one of the greatest astrologers that ever lived. He knew how to read a person’s destiny based on the movement of the planets through the constellations. When he sought his own astrological prognosis, he saw that he would remain childless.

The Midrash continues the conversation with God telling Abraham to look beyond the astrology, beyond the stars, for his destiny and that of the future people of Israel is not tied to this physical, visually-perceived world. Jews, from their very inception, are beyond nature, above physical laws.

The Berdichever, in his commentary on the phrase, “if a man were able to count the dust of the earth, so too, would your progeny be counted,” recalls that there is a Torah prohibition against directly counting the nation of Israel. When a census was done, the counting was done indirectly, using a coin for each person. To this day, when we want to determine if there are ten men, the minimum for a Minyan (a prayer quorum), we are prohibited to count the people directly (i.e. we don’t count 1, 2, 3, etc.). The classic way is to recite words from a verse that we know contains ten words.

The Berdichever elaborates that not only are we prohibited from counting Jews, but that more fundamentally, it is impossible to count Jews. Israel as a whole, and its component members individually, are beyond understanding, beyond rational grasp. How can you count something that you don’t understand, that you can’t comprehend? What is the meaning of numbering an entity or entities that are beyond our perception?

In some deep sense, we are as numerous and as uncountable as the dust of the earth and as the stars in the universe.

Because Israel can’t be understood in our world, in our reality, even Abraham, the great astrologer, can’t see his or our destiny in the constellations. We are not limited by our physical reality. We’re beyond that. We’re physically unknowable; essentially uncountable; spiritually limitless.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the upcoming Mayoral elections throughout Israel. Every vote counts.