Abraham and Disaster (Parshat Vayera)
Describing the events of Parshat Vayera and what it says about Abraham
By Rabbinical Student Laila Takolander
This is a taste of our Year of Torah series delivered hot and fresh to the students at Darshan Yeshiva. We’re letting you taste a few weeks for free for now. But this will soon be behind a paywall. So if you like it, better join today — you’ll get it free for life!
Week 4: Parshat Vayera
Torah Portion: Genesis 18:1 - 22:24
Haftarah Portion: II Kings 4:1 - 4:37
Summary: The parshah includes the story of the angels visiting Abraham, the birth of Isaac, and the binding of Isaac. The Haftarah narrates miraculous events, reinforcing the idea of God's intervention and providence.
Thematic Connection: Divine Intervention
This weeks parsha is Vayera, one of the most difficult to describe on one page. I am lucky. I am just a beginner at this so I can do many more in the future, God willing, and pick all the important parts just to present shortly this is a parsha where Abraham tries to rescue the city of Sodom, God promises Abraham and Sarah child, Abraham visits Egypt, and in the end everything culminate in the binding of Isaac.
We are experiencing a lot of destruction and disaster around us at the moment. The Torah actually prepares us for destruction on several occasions. This week it is about destroying Sodom and Gomorra. A few weeks ago, in parsha Noach, it was about destroying everything else, except what was saved into Noah’s ark. There is an enormous difference between these two events. God shares his plan with Noah and Noah does exactly as God wants to. Gold shares his plan with Abraham, and Abraham challenges God. Obviously, Abraham wants to save the cities. So, they haggle about how many pious persons there should be in the city, so that it will be saved. And each time God buys Abraham’s bid. But Abraham’s plea is in vain, as there are no pious persons in the cities.
Abraham once again proves how big of a leader he has become. He’s not looking to win anything for himself in haggling with God. He is doing it for the other ones. Now, if you think about the relationship between God and Abraham, starting from Abraham, who was Abram and who was asked to leave his comfort zone, mentally and physically, and go somewhere else – Abram and Abraham did not question God. In fact, he never questioned God when the issue was something with himself. He always replied: Here I am. But he was a leader, who wanted good for people and therefore was willing to question God’s decisions, even though there was nothing for him to win. What a magnificent patriarch God chose for us!
I feel that God saw the goodness in Abraham and therefore he is the patriarch for big nations in the world. It is we who are the descendants of Abraham who should adopt the same way of thinking, and thus would be as accommodating, respectful, and inclusive, as the Abraham’s thinking was. But even within our own nation, it has been extremely hard to perceive for a while now. Obviously, I admire Abraham in many ways, but I am not blind for his faults. If I could choose, though, I would rather be Abraham than Noah.
Back to our reality: we are not in the position to haggle for the good of someone else if we are threatened in the way that we experienced just four weeks ago. On the contrary, at the moment as a nation, we feel very much excluded. Alone. Despicable. Isolated. And this is the time when we should pray to our God for ourselves, because they are the one who will help the nation of Israel to be resilient, arise again, flourish and grow strong. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his Isaac – Rashi teaches that after these devarim, (devarim meaning words or phrases), we learn about the binding of Isaac. We do not know exactly which phrases Rashi refers to – if it is the whole parsha or only the previous section. But WE know we do not want to sacrifice even one more soul. Enough is enough.
With these words, I wish you Shabbat shalom. May it bring us peace. And may the memory of the fallen be a blessing, and may the captives be brought home now. Am Israel chai!