THE LORD APPEARED TO HIM BY THE TEREBINTHS OF MAMRE; HE WAS SITTING AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE TENT AS THE DAY GREW HOT. LOOKING UP, HE SAW THREE MEN SANDING NEAR HIM. AS SOON AS HE SAW THEM, HE RAN FROM THE ENTRANCE OF THE TENT TO GREET THEM, AND HE BOWED TO THE GROUND.

 

THE ESSENCE OF SIGHT

HE SAW - Why "he saw" "he saw" twice? The first is to be understood according to its plain meaning. The second "saw" implies understanding, he saw that they were standing in one place and he understood that they did not want to bother him, and even though they knew that he would go to greet them, they stood in their place in his honor, and to show him that they did not desire to bother him; he acted first and ran to greet them (Bava Metsia 86b).

                                                                                                             (Rashi ibid., ibid.)

 

You find prophets who see angels as though they were human individuals. "Three men". Others from among them see [an angel] as if he were a man causing terror and amazement... Others from among them see [an angel] as fire... To Avraham, whose power was great, they appeared in the likeness of men; to Lot, whose power was weak, they appeared in the likeness of angels.

                                                                                                 (Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, II, 6)

 

The tzadikkim - the very righteous - are elevated by that which they see, as is written: "And he lifted his eyes and he saw three men standing" - therefore they are joyful with what they see, as is written: "Tzadikkim see and rejoice"(Job 22:19)

                                                                                                                 (Midrash Abba Gurion)

 

 

 

A TIME IS SET FOR EVERYTHING,

A TIME FOR EVERY EXPERIENCE UNDER HEAVEN:

A TIME FOR PLANTING, AND A TIME FOR UPROOTING THE PLANTED

A TIME FOR WAR AND A TIME FOR PEACE

 

Deborah Greniman

 

The following words are dedicated to the memory of my mother, Hannah, z"l, whose thirtieth yahrzeit falls on the 9^th of Kislev, 5763

 

A number of years ago, I gave a talk on the story of the Akeida, which appears in Parashat Vayera. I suggested that the story of God's test of Abraham may be interpreted as a condemnation of religious fanaticism. When God commanded Abraham to slaughter his son, he anticipated the same ethical response voiced by Abraham, his faithful servant, upon hearing of the divine plan to destroy Sodom and Gemorrah, at the beginning of our parasha: "Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?!" It was not Abraham's loyalty to God that was at stake in the Akeida narrative, but rather his resistance to being driven by that loyalty to commit acts of religious zealotry - such as sacrificing children on altars of fire - which do not reflect the ways of God.

Though I am no less opposed to religious fanaticism than I was then, I find, after a gap of years, that the issue has become more complex and my interpretation of the story less simplistic. Rereading the story, I realized that the akeida was actually God's second test of Abraham in this parasha; the first was none other than God's above-mentioned announcement of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra. Years earlier, in mid-life and at the peak of his prowess as a warrior and leader of fighting men, Abraham had sallied forth to battle for the sake of his nephew, Lot, who had been taken prisoner with the cature of Sodom by the alliance of four kings headed by Chedorlaomer. Abraham recaptured Sodom for its king, Bera (is it a coincidence that his name, in Hebrew, means "in evil"?), who, in effect, became his ally. Abraham emerged gloriously from that war, with the blessings and praises of Malkitsedek, King of Shalem. He surely sensed that his cause was just. God had granted him victory.

But now, in our parasha, with Abraham already in his declining years, the blow falls. God determines to destroy Sodom, on whose behalf Abraham had fought with all his might; and, moreover, he gives Abraham advance notice of his intentions. Abraham is asked not only to understand the divine origin of the decision, but also to preserve that understanding as an object lesson for future generations.

"Now the Lord had said: Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him? For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just."

In other words, when Abraham - invoking the same terms employed by God - responds, "Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?!" he is in fact an interested party. He has been asked to forego his concern for the very city on whose behalf he had so bravely - and justly - fought. Now God's justice demands precisely the opposite: the city's destruction. In this light, Abraham's effort to squeeze out a modicum of justification for saving the wicked city from the divine decree seems almost comical - Perhaps there are fifty innocents there? Forty? Ten? Nevertheless, God seems to respect Abraham's pleadings. Let us listen for a moment to the dialogue between God and Abraham as pictured in midrash Bereishit Rabba (49:9):

Rabbi Judah bar Simon said: "Thus spoke Abraham to God: Under the reign of a human sovereign, verdicts can be appealed to a governor, and from the governor to a commander. But you, since your verdict is not subject to appeal, shall you not deal justly?!" Rabbi Judah ben Simon continued: "When you wished to judge your world, you gave it over to two [rulers], Remus and Romulus, so that if one of them should wish to do something, his companion might hold him back; but you, since you have no one to hold you back, shall you not deal justly!?"

The midrash describes a human judicial system in which capital cases are subject to appeal. Its institutions guarantee that due process of careful deliberation without which there can be no true justice on earth. The midrash continues:

Rab Ehah said: [Abraham said:] "You swore that you would never again inundate the world; why are you now circumventing that vow? You may not be bringing a flood of water, but you are bringing a flood of fire, and so you have failed to keep your vow!" Rab Levi said: [Abraham said:] "Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?!" - if you want the world [to exist], there can be no [perfect] justice, and if you want justice, there can be no world. You are trying to grasp the rope from both ends - you want both a world and justice? By judging 'all the earth' without yielding, you will bring about not justice, but total annihilation." The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: "Abraham, 'You love justice' - you love to justify my creatures, 'and you hate wickedness' - you hate to condemn them; 'Rightly has your God, your God, chosen to anoint you with oil of gladness over all your peers.' (Psalms 45:8). Who are 'your peers?' From Noah to you, ten generations; and I spoke to none of them other than you: 'And God said to Abraham - Go forth.'"

Does God, in this midrash, reply to Abraham's questions and arguments? No! God does not justify Himself, His intentions, or His actions. But Abraham, in two respects, proves himself worthy: God appreciates his keen and erudite arguments on behalf of justice in the human sphere; and Abraham knows when to desist from arguing and accept the destruction of Sodom. We shall return to this point.

The idea of a "flood of fire" also appears, in different terms, in the Talmud:

Rab Simeon bar Nahmani said in the name of Rabbi Jonathan: Misfortune comes to the world only when there are wicked people in the world, and it begins with the righteous, as is written: "When fire is started and spreads to thorns" (Ex. 22:5) - When does fire go forth? When there are thorns for it to catch in. And it always begins with the tzadikkim, as is written, "so that stacked, standing, or growing grain is consumed". The verse does not say "so that it consumes stacked... grain" - but rather "stacked .. grain is consumed"; for the stack (the most important part of the field) has already been consumed." (BT Bava kama 60a)

The philosopher Emanuel Levinas notes in connection with this passage that in a situation of war, the "flood" does not spare the righteous (Nine Talmudic Readings, Reading 9). As Abraham had feared, "the righteous is swept away with the wicked"; and divine justice is not apparent in the world. Perhaps it is not even possible.

A similar apparent confusion of the righteous and the wicked emerges in the story of Job, whose depiction sitting in the dust and heaping ashes on his head recalls Abraham's description of himself as "dust and ashes". Job's fate, too, raises the suspicion that God's terrible acts do not distinguish between tzaddik and rasha. Like Abraham, Job faces this possibility without losing his faith; rather, it becomes stronger and deeper.

If that is the case, in a world where justice is invisible and we do not know how to act on its behalf, what can the story of Abraham teach us? Are we to abandon the divine idea that justice is possible in the world, and it is incumbent upon us to realize it?

In both the trials described in Parashat Vayera, Abraham is called upon to sacrifice something dear to him. In the first, he must relinquish the city for which he had fought - though he has a hard time discerning the divine justice of this act, both towards himself (having fought for the city) and towards humanity. Nevertheless, he accepts the word of God, without forgoing his own apprehension of the meaning of human justice and what is demanded of him in order to maintain it. In the Akeida narrative, he is asked - as he understands - to sacrifice his own son in an act that appears unjust, inhuman, horrific; and then, at the last moment, he is enjoined to desist from his heroic sacrificial act, the ultimate proof his loyalty to God.

Through these trials, Abraham was strengthened in those human qualities that made him a 'knight of faith', as he was called by Soren Kierkegaard, who expounded both the Akeida and and the story of Job. First of all, Abraham developed a keen sense of human justice. Secondly, he came to understand that his human understanding could not always comprehend God's actions and the justice of them, and he accepted his limitations. Finally, he learned that the implementation of one's principles does not occur in the abstract, detached from the vicissitudes of reality. At one time it was right for him to fight for Sodom, but later on it was right to acquiesce in the city's destruction. It was right, from a certain point of view, to offer his son up as a sacrifice - there are indeed occasions on which we are called upon to sacrifice what is closest to our hearts - and it was right for him to forgo the heinous deed. Abraham's unique talent lay in his ability to balance these principles and remain ever attentive to God's voice. In this way, as God intended, he bequeathed an ethical message to all succeeding generations.

It seems to me that we do not have look far to find examples of things for which it may be right to fight in some circumstances, but which we must, in other circumstances, let go. According to the words of Ecclesiastes, which we read on Sukkot, there is "A time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted... a time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones... a time for seeking and a time for losing... a time for keeping and a time for discarding... a time for war and a time for peace."

Deborah Greniman edits the magazine "Nashim" for the Study of Women and Gender in Judaism. She edits for the National Academy of Sciences and engages in translation and writing

 

 

The following poem (from Shelomo Ganor's book of poems, "Between Light and Darkness" ) and this edition of "Shabbat Shalom" are dedicated by the Ganor family to the memory of Nechmiah ben Shelomo Ganor, z"l, who fell in the Yom Kippur War.

 

LECH LECHA - GO FORTH

And he said:

Son of Avraham, go forth

From your land and from your birthplace and from your destroyed home

To the land which I showed your fathers.

I went to the land

(Ties to the Jew, wherever he may be

A bracelet like tephillin of the arm

A crown like frontlets between his eyes

And a sacral linen tunic with its fringes reaching the four corners of the world)

God did not remember Milkah

The wife of my father's brother, sole survivor of the inferno.

But my beloved conceived and bore child.

 

And he said:

Son of Avraham, go forth

To the land of Mor-Yah, land of gunpowder

With its promise of wars.

I took up my family, my children

To one of the mountains there - among them

My only firstborn, whom I loved - Nechemia,

And when he was an inaugural ram¹ in 5734

I fantasized hearing an angel calling from heaven

Son of Avraham, son of Avraham;

But the soldier/ram² was caught in the thicket of the pincers,

A horn in the north and a horn in the south

And Nehemiah was sent to the wilderness

A scapegoat to Azazel.

     Yishmael, son of the maidservant, remained the son of Avraham.

 

1.     The term "inaugural ram" refers to the ram sacrificed in preparation for the inauguration of the Mishkan. The Hebrew phrase is "miluim" - which, in modern Hebrew, refers to military reserve duty.

2.     "Ayil" = a ram; "chayil" = soldier.

 

"The matter distressed him... for it concerned a son of his" - Even though he was the son of the maidservant, it was his son and he loved him, for he was his firstborn, and he had compassion for him, as a father has compassion for a son, and he walked on the right path, for he grew up with him and he taught him the way of God, for even others he would teach and guide in the right path, all the more so his own son. It was wrong in his eyes to send him away from his home; he did not rebuke his wife for the sake of peace in the family, as we wrote with regard to Hagar (Bereishit 16:6), but he was distressed over the matter, and he suffered from his wife's quarrel until he was told [by God to follow Sara's words].

 (Radak, Bereishit 21:11)

 

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Translation: Kadish Goldberg

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