Can we do תפילות prayers for:
The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS)
That through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?
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| Parashat Va-yera Genesis 18:1–22:24 October 23, 2010 / 15 Heshvan 5771 | A Taste of Torah A Commentary by Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz, director of Israel Programs, JTS |
| This week’s commentary was written by Dr. Deborah Miller, associate director of the Melton Research Center for Jewish Education, JTS. Is seeing believing? Or, to put it another way, is seeing necessary for believing? I am not asking a theological question, but a psychological/social/emotional one. Here is an example of what I mean: wherever you look—on the Internet, on television, in magazines—there are images of American celebrities lending their financial and moral support to a wide variety of charitable causes. Inevitably, those photographs include people who are on the receiving end—sick children in Africa, hurricane victims in Haiti, flood victims in Pakistan. When I review these pictures, I wonder if the experience of seeing the actual victims was a prime motivator for the celebrity to get involved in the charitable cause, or if the visit to these trouble spots only reinforced that person’s already-established commitment to helping. If the former, then it seems an example of the power of seeing a problem as a motivation to helping to solve it. The power of sight pervades this week’s parashah, Va-yera. The parashah’s name itself, which means “He appeared,” is the passive form of the word to see—ra-ah. It is not only this parashah that is flooded with verbs of seeing and sight—the whole Torah is. And, as we would expect, the meanings of seeing are as varied in Hebrew as they are in English. Consider what we mean by see in these phrases: I see what you mean (to understand cognitively and/or emotionally). I’ll see to it (to take care of). That’s your idea? I don’t see it (to envision and believe). I saw it coming (to predict). God saw that it was good (to judge). | Is it enough to simply perform mitzvot (commandments), or does the way they are done make a difference? In the opening of this week’s parashah, three strangers come to visit Abraham and Sarah. As he is sitting outside his tent (actively looking for guests), Abraham greets and welcomes them. Specifically, he “hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, ‘quick, three seahs of choice flour, knead and make cakes.’ Then Abraham ran to the herd, took a calf, tender and choice, and gave it to a servant boy who hastened to prepare it” (Gen. 18:6–7). In this short narrative we see four separate expressions of Abraham’s eagerness and the urgency with which he strives to attend to his guests, even though they are complete strangers to him. Is this mere desert hospitality, or is Abraham teaching us something beyond local custom, something about personal attitudes that make our actions all the more convincing and meaningful? In his commentary Divrei Torah Ad Tumam, Professor Ze’ev Falk suggests that Abraham sets a standard that the following generations strive to meet. Rebecca runs to get water for Abraham’s servant and his thirsty camels (Genesis 24:18, 20, 46), Jacob rushes to find food to feed his father (Genesis 27:20), and Joseph hurries out of the room because he was overwhelmed by compassion for his brothers (Genesis 43:30) (Falk, 31). Abraham teaches us about attitudes cultivated over a lifetime, attitudes toward gemilut hasadim, hachnasat orchim, and tzedakah. Even though acts of kindness, hospitality, and charity were not mitzvot per se in the time of Abraham, he intuited these cornerstones of a just and caring society. Abraham went a step further, his eagerness springing from his inner soul. May we be inspired by his actions and attitude in the coming days. The publication and distribution of A Taste of Torah are made possible by a generous grant from Sam and Marilee Susi. |
| Between the Lines—Va-yera Weekly Midrash Learning with Rabbi Andy Shugerman Genesis 21:17 God heard the cry of the boy (Ishmael), and an angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heeded the cry of the boy where he is.” Genesis Rabbah 33:14 
“Innocent until proven guilty” approximates God’s judgment of Ishmael in the midrash above. No matter how wicked other rabbis imagine Ishmael to have been, R. Simon contends that this ancestor of Arabs and Muslims was indeed righteous enough for God to save him from dying of thirst. Regardless of how Ishmael or his descendents might possibly treat God’s children later, in this text God sees only “the boy where he is” in that moment. If that seems radical, consider the implication of the concluding statement above that we are all blind until God makes us enlightened. While Hagar could not see the well before her, R. Benjamin asserts that our vision is no less obscured from noticing life-saving resources. Sadly, the ancient Sage describes well the inability of many Jews today to find common ground with Muslims and Arabs, and vice versa. The Sufi spiritual leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, head of the community seeking to build what has been inaccurately described as a “Ground Zero Mosque,” sought to reverse that trend through his 2004 book What’s Right With Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West:
This Monday, Chancellor Eisen will convene a roundtable forum at JTS on Judaism and Islam in America. The Jewish and Islamic clergy, leaders, and thinkers participating in this scholarly gathering will demonstrate through their attendance the principles of faith in humanity and trust in dialogue that Imam Rauf expresses in the passage above. Let us follow their example with similar efforts in our own communities. Our ancestor Abraham would expect no less. | |
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| Rabbi Marc Wolf Vice Chancellor and Chief Development Officer (212) 678-8933 | |
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