AND THE LORD CAUSED TO RAIN DOWN UPON SODOM AND GOMORRAH BRIMSTONE AND FIRE, FROM THE LORD, FROM HEAVEN. AND HE TURNED OVER THESE CITIES AND THE ENTIRE PLAIN, AND ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE CITIES, AND THE VEGETATION OF THE GROUND.

(Bereishit 19:24-25)

 

When He overturned the cities in which Lot had dwelt

It should be asked: What was the point of this overturning and great judgment of Sodom? There were certainly other nations in the world that were as wicked and sinful as they were, but they did not suffer such a punishment. Furthermore: Abraham, who was the very root of faith, could have prevailed upon them to repent, and repentance is the best of all results.

However, the town of Sodom was located in the Land of Israel. The Holy Land does not suffer sinners; it spits out people who engage in such abomination. It was because of the Land's greatness that it now spat out those people. The matter of Sodom and Gomorrah was a sign and mark for Israel who were to inherit [the Land] in the future, that if they did not observe the Torah and the commandments it would spit them out, just as it had earlier spat out the residents of Sodom and later the Canaanites after them. That is why at the end of his days Moses our Teacher mentioned the destruction of Sodom to them and said that the land would be destroyed if Israel deserted the Torah, and he said: Sulfur and salt have burned up its entire land... It is like the overturning of Sodom... Why did the Lord do so... It is because they abandoned [the covenant].

(Rabbeinu Behayey Bereishit 9:29)

 

Akedat Yitzhak: One Crazy Story

Joop Meijers

So what do we find in Bereishit, the book of "the deeds of the Patriarchs are a sign for their children"?

Here is a partial list: the first rebellion against God, the first murder, aggressiveness and violence within the family and between relatives, a long series of lies, betrayals, pathological sibling rivalries, the massacre of a weakened population, the kidnapping and sale of a victim by his own brothers, and collective punishment.

If the story of Bereishit were presented naively as a television program we might think it was an ugly soap opera. From this naïve viewpoint, Akedat Yitzhak is certainly one of Bereishit's "high points": one fine day an elderly father hears a voice commanding him to "take your son, your only one, whom you love, yea, Isaac, and go away to the land of Moriah and bring him up there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I will tell you."

The father doesn't think twice about it. Motivated either by blind faith or by deep and perfect fear of God, he "takes" his son on the road with him to the place were he will bring him up for a burnt offering, a sacrifice, or, in other words, he will slaughter his son in response to the divine call.

Of course, this is too literal a literal reading, a "dry" reading that has not passed through the "filter" of the midrashic literature and two thousand years of rich commentary ranging from midrashim describing the father's hesitations and doubts to the modern philosophical treatments offered by the Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Harav Kook, and others.

A psychologist who studies and treats children's problems and parent-child relations cannot neglect thinking about the son's feelings: what is a son supposed to think and feel as he is being led by his father to be bound up as a sacrifice by God's command - he is both a sacrificial victim and a victim of abuse! And what does a child of today think when he reads this story while identifying with Isaac? How will he view the father, and what will he think of Sarah, who remains uninformed of what might happen, thus becoming an unwilling silent bystander?

If this story were to occur today, when the rights of children are sanctified and anchored in law, we would charge the father with abuse. If he were to say in his defense that a divine voice had told him to sacrifice his son, perhaps he would be diagnosed as psychotic. He might be institutionalized if he were deemed dangerous to his son.

The Rorschach test is widely used by psychologists. A person is shown pictures of differently shaped inkblots and asked to describe what he sees in them. Various aspects of his personality may be interpreted according to his answers and what he finds in the inkblots. Every person (how could it be otherwise?) projects his inner life upon the dumb and silent inkblots, allowing us a peek into his soul.

There is no doubt that interpretations of the Akedah - like any reading that requires interpretation - reflects something from our religious, cultural, and psychological world which has been projected upon the story. Abraham bound up his son once but we, the readers and exegetes, bind him up a thousand times; each generation and its Akedah.

Like us, Abraham must determine whether the voice he hears is that of God or that of his own madness.

In a famous experiment, one group of people was told that they must not think of a white elephant during the next few minutes. The other group was told that they were allowed to think about anything they wished, even about a white elephant. Of course, the first group thought much more about white elephants than did the second.

When Abraham heard the voice commanding him to slaughter his son it is impossible that he did not also hear a second voice telling him that it is forbidden, immoral, and in contradiction to everything he had learned and understood from previous history. If I say "black" to you, then you must immediately think "white," and if I tell you "yes" you will immediately think "no." It cannot be otherwise. How did Abraham know which voice to listen to? How shall we know which voice to listen to?

I am reminded of a wonderful and touching movie, A Wonderful Mind, about the American mathematician John Nash who became afflicted with schizophrenia but also won the Nobel Prize for his contributions to game theory. One symptom of his illness is that he hears a voice that commands him to do all of the bizarre and dangerous things that drove him deep into his pathology. Later, after his recovery, he said that the most difficult thing for him was that the same voice which led him to great discoveries and the Nobel Prize was also the voice that maddened him: "I had no reason to doubt what the voices told me," said Nash in an interview with the psychiatrist Aaron Beck.

So what can be learned from the fact that Abraham listened to the voice that commanded him to do something that I find extremely frightening and cruel, and which contradicts everything I believe in?

No, there is no need to derive from this that one must "blindly" listen to the "divine" voice that commands one to do a deed that opposes one's faith, morals, and personal history, and silence the other, opposite inner voice.

There will always be different voices that will sometimes utter different and contradictory commands.

I believe that we are faced by the same challenge as was Abraham - to decide each time anew between the two voices.

An allusion to this may be found in the Akedah story itself. In the beginning of the story Abraham hears the divine voice commanding him to raise up his son as a sacrifice. When he is about to slaughter Isaac he twice hears the voice not of God, but of an angel. His dilemma is whether he should listen to the first voice (God telling him to make a sacrifice) or to the second voice (the angel telling him, do not send out your hand against the boy).

If only we in our lives would learn to listen to the voice which tells us to spare the son's life, to the voice which keeps us from sending out our hand against the Other where he is, even if there is always at the same time a different voice that can confuse us!

Dr. Joop Meijers is the head of the program in pediatric clinical psychology at the Hebrew University and a member of Kehillat Yedidya.

 

 

He lifted up his eyes and saw: here, three men... - The responsibility of protection and escort is more important than concern for physical needs and reception of the Holy Presence

The reward for escort is greater than everything and it is a law enacted by our father Abraham and the way of loving-kindness that he practiced; he would feed passers-by and give them drink, and accompany them. Greater is the bringing in of passers-by than reception of the Divine Presence, for it is written, And he saw, here, three men and his escorting them more than he received them. Our Sages said: Whoever does not escort is as one who sheds blood.

(RaMBaM, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Avelut 14:2)

 

Our hands did not shed this blood - Did it really occur to anyone that the elders of the Law Court are murderers?! But [the meaning of this is that] we did not see him, and we sent him off without food and without escort. And the priests say Atone for your people Israel.

(Rashi, Devarim 21:7, based on a Midrash Halakha)

 

There is no "preventative" punishment

Where he is - He is judged according to what he does now, and not according to what he will do in the future. The ministering angels accused and said: "Master of the Universe, you raise up a well for one whose seed is destined to kill your children with thirst?!" He replied: What is he now... a good person or a wicked one? "

They replied: "A good person. "

He said to them: "According to his current actions do I judge him," and this is [the meaning of] where he is.

(Rashi, Bereishit, 21:17)

 

Expulsion has its price

Drive out this slave woman and her son - [Drive out appears] thrice in the Bible: Drive out this slave woman, Drive out the scoffer (Proverbs 22:10), When he sends you free, it is finished - he will drive, yes, drive you out from here (Shemot 11:1) - Drive out this slave woman and her son, and then you will have driven out the scoffer, and because Sarah drove Hagar out of her home, she was punished, and her descendents were enslaved and had to be driven out of Egypt.

(Baal Haturim, Bereishit 21:10)

 

Ishmael, Son of the Slave Woman, Remains Son of Abraham

The matter was exceedingly bad... because of his son - Even though he was the son of the slave woman, he was his son, and he loved him, because he was his firstborn and he had pity upon him as a father pities his children, and he walked in a good path, for he grew up with him and he taught him the way of God, for even others did he teach and guide in the right path, all the more so to his son, and it was bad in his eyes that he be driven from his house; he did not admonish his wife out of considerations of peace in the home, as we wrote regarding Hagar (Bereishit 16:6), and he was saddened over the matter and he tolerated his wife's quarrel until the matter came before him.

(ReDaK, Bereishit 21:11)

 

Then the elder said to the younger: "Our father is old and there is not a man on earth to consort with us in the way of all the world."

 (Bereishit 19:31)

 

She who began the harlotry would end with harlotry - Their mother began the harlotry, [as it is written] Then the elder said to the younger: "Let us serve our father drink..." The next day came and the elder sister told the younger... - She taught her harlotry. That is why God took pity on the younger and did not make her known [as someone who slept with her father], but only [wrote] she lay with him, while regarding the elder it is written, she lay with her father. That one began the harlotry, and her daughters continued after her, for it is said, Then the people began to whore after the daughters of Moab.

(Tanhuma Balak 26)

 

It could be that Lot's daughters were naïve and unthinking, both because of their youth and because they had been born in Sodom and never left it. The people of Sodom were not hospitable to visitors; they had nothing to do with anyone else, leaving Lot's daughters ignorant of geography and of the existence of other nations under heaven. When they saw the great destruction of Sodom and its satellite towns, and that they had to flee Tzoar as well, they believed that the entire world had been destroyed in a flood of fire. That is why they thought their father had hidden in a cave - because no city of refuge survived. And so, they did what they did out of good intentions, in order to preserve life on earth. The Sages praised their deed, and said:

"A person should always hasten to perform a commandment. In reward for having preceded her younger sister by one night, the elder merited [having her descendant] become king over Israel four generations before her [sister's descendent became king over Israel]" (Nazir 23b-24a).

(Reggio ad loc)

 

Do not send out your hand against the lad, do not do anything to him! - The Akedah test as a process of understanding God's will

Do not send out your hand - to slaughter. Abraham said to God: "If so, you brought me here for nothing. Let me wound him and draw a bit of blood. "

He said to him: "Do not do anything to him - do not wound him. "

For now do I know –Rabbi Abba said: Abraham said to Him, I set my case before you: Yesterday you told me, For it is through Isaac that seed will be called by your name, and later you said, Take your son… and offer him up. Now you tell me, Do not stretch out your hand against the lad!?

The Holy One, Blessed Be He said to him: I shall not abrogate my covenant, and I shall not deviate from my word; when I said take to you, I did not deviate from my word. I did not tell you "slaughter him" but rather "offer him up "- raise him up, and lower him [afterwards].

(Rashi, Bereishit 22:12)

 

 

If you enjoy Shabbat Shalom, please consider contributing towards its publication and distribution.

• Hebrew edition distributed in Israel $700
• English edition distributed via email $ 100

Issues may be dedicated in honor of an event, person, simcha, etc. Requests must be made 3-4 weeks in advance to appear in the Hebrew, 10 days in advance to appear in the English email.

In Israel, checks made out to Oz VeShalom may be sent to Oz VeShalom-P.O.B. 4433, Jerusalem 91043. Unfortunately there is no Israeli tax-exemption for local donations.

US and British tax-exempt contributions to Oz VeShalom may be made through:

New Israel Fund, POB 91588, Washington, DC 20090-1588, USA

New Israel Fund of Great Britain, 26 Enford Street, London W1H 2DD, Great Britain

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE NEW ISRAEL FUND IS NO LONGER ACCEPTING DONATIONS UNDER $100.

PEF will also channel donations and provide a tax-exemption. Donations should be sent to P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc., 317 Madison Ave., Suite 607, New York, New York 10017 USA

All contributions should be marked as donor-advised to Oz ve'Shalom, the Shabbat Shalom project.

 

About us

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom is a movement dedicated to the advancement of a civil society in Israel. It is committed to promoting the ideals of tolerance, pluralism, and justice, concepts that have always been central to Jewish tradition and law.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom shares a deep attachment to the land of Israel and it no less views peace as a central religious value. It believes that Jews have both the religious and the national obligation to support the pursuit of peace. It maintains that Jewish law clearly requires us to create a fair and just society, and that co-existence between Jews and Arabs is not an option but an imperative.

5,000 copies of a 4-page peace oriented commentary on the weekly Torah reading are written and published by Oz VeShalom/Netivot Shalom and they are distributed to over 350 synagogues in Israel and are sent overseas via email. Our web site is www.netivot-shalom.org.il.