Toldot - The Tale of the Twins

 

Sorry about the mess in my kitchen in this picture, I was in the process of freezing produce from my garden at the time, but since I don't have twin guys in my family I had to use twin squash from my garden, so here are Jacob and Esau or Esau and Jacob!!!!  (you choose, I could probably make a lesson either way, ha ha!  Just roll with the VeggieTales theme here, would you?)  I always try to have a visual to go with my lessons.  Somehow it just seems to help me, does it help you even if it is a picture of squash?  I, personally tend to remember things better when a picture is involved. 

This Parashat is perhaps one of the more difficult writings for me, at this time.  I think it is due to something weighing heavy on my mind regarding a tragedy in our community.  I feel the need to write a lesson on that in the near future yet feel the need to expound on this section first.  There are a lot of lessons in Toldot, I just don't particularly have any of them on my heart right now.  The only lesson I am leaning toward at this time is geared to women, so I hope if you are one of my male readers you just hang with me on this one, but men you could take a little clue from this one that God REALLY does talk to women in unique ways.  With that in mind, you might want to listen a little closer to your wife at times (or perhaps ask her what God has told her lately).  Hint, hint!! 

Last week we learned about the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca.  This week we pick up where that Parashat left off.  After 20 years pass in their marriage, it is apparent that Rebecca can not conceive (sound familiar).  Isaac pleads with the Lord God on her behalf and God not only hears, but answers the prayer by allowing Rebecca to conceive.  I am not sure if I mentioned the fact last week that Rebecca was a devout, Godly woman.  When she married Isaac the Shechinah Glory of God, which had departed when Sarah died, rested once again upon the tent.

We now have a pregnant woman who is obviously in-tune with the Lord God.  (I know there are a great number of women reading this, who know exactly what I am talking about here.  You will totally relate with what I am going to say, because YOU have these conversations with God all the time or you had one during a pregnancy.)  Rebecca is probably midway or more through the pregnancy since she can feel movement and although she has never been pregnant before, she knows something isn't right.  Come on now, you girls know what I am talking about.  It's not a feeling like you are going to miscarry, but like maybe the enemy is trying to take your child before he is even born!  You know you have a fight on your hands at the very onset.  If you have more than one child you knew what each child was going to be like while they were still in the womb. 

Whatever Rebecca was feeling she knew something just wasn't the way it should be and it greatly troubled her!  It troubled her so bad that she went to her knees before God Himself, and cried out to Him.  "If it be so, why am I like this?"  In other words, "If you have blessed me with these children, why am I so distraught?"   And God answered her!  He graciously told her what she needed to know, yet the answer was twofold.  There certainly was a spiritual battle going on inside of her.  She would have two children.  The older would be worldly minded and the younger would be spiritual minded.  Not only that, but the older would serve the younger and both will turn into great nations, yet one of the nations would not seek God, but idols.  Gee, I don't think I ever got a word from God like that, have you? 

I know that during both of my pregnancies, God clearly spoke to me about my children.  I knew things about them I could not have known otherwise unless God told me.  Do you have a similar story?  I think we have overlooked this portion when reading this story many times.  Now, follow me on down into the story further, because it skips a lot of years in the re-telling of it. 

We see that as they grew up, Esau became one who knows hunting, a man of the field;  but Jacob was a wholesome man, abiding in tents.  Our problem with seeing this verse from a western way of thinking, is interpreting Esau as a man's man and Jacob as a Mama's boy.  Admit it, isn't that the way you have heard this lesson explained many times in Sunday School or from a pulpit?  Come on now.  The fact of the matter is, nothing could be further from the truth.  Esau, according to the Jewish Rabbi's and sages was a deceiver.  His game was in his mouth did not refer to hunting, but referred to the fact that he could deceive you with his mouth.  He also idled away the hours in the fields "where the idols were," rather than taking care of the things he needed to at home.  (You know the ones, out skateboarding or playing video games instead of cleaning their rooms or doing homework, ahem!!!  Just joking, but trying to kind of put a modern day spin on the story  ;-)  Jacob, however, is described as one who "dwells in tents" a phrase meaning to seek the righteousness of the Lord God on a daily basis. The person who dwelt in tents was one who walked with God; meditating on Him day and night and spending time with Him in conversation. I don't think that sounds like a Mama's boy, does it? 

For instance, the Talmud (the Oral Torah) tells us that the day of the birthright incident takes place on the very day of Abraham's death.   (The twins would have been 15 at the time.)  The day when a family and probably the entire area around for many miles was in mourning, Esau was no where to be found.  He certainly wasn't taking care of family business and when he did come in from the fields he didn't even seem to be concerned that his grandfather had passed away.  On the other hand Jacob was there taking care of his father and mother and family business that day.

Just wondering....do you see the ending to this day with Esau selling his birthright to Jacob any differently now?  Someone who thinks so little of family and obligations thereof  ...... hmmmm ........ would think highly of his birthright?  Rather than seeing Jacob as an opportunist, do you maybe see him as someone trying to hold up the family honor?  Maybe even a little angry at his brother for acting so non-chalantly about Abraham's death and the fact that his own father, Isaac was grieved?  Okay, let us go on.

Now, let's fast forward  a few years toward the end of Isaac's life and his blessing of the two boys, or rather men.  What do we know for certain about this passage:  Isaac was either blind or near blind at the time, the family had lived through a famine and a well digging incident and Rebecca and Jacob set out to deceive Isaac so Jacob can receive honor and glory, right?  Are you sure about that last statement?  Let's take a closer look at the story with new eyes. 

Isaac is (according to the Midrash), 123 years old at the time.  He is mostly or completely blind and knows his death could come at any time.  He has probably been thinking about what he needs to do to get his affairs in order and passing on the Patriarchal blessing is one of those.  I kind of doubt there were wills, insurance policies and mutual funds in those days to worry about. 

What we read and what the Jewish Rabbis teach seems to be worlds apart.  The commentaries I have read on this one says that Isaac knew Jacob was a man of God and was intent on serving Him.  Isaac was so well pleased with that fact, he wanted nothing to interfere with that goal, therefore he wanted Esau to have the blessing of ruling cities and governments so Jacob would not be burdened with such and could live out his calling. He also believed Esau needed the blessing, in order to arm him in his struggle to overcome an inborn nature toward bloodshed and other cardinal sins.  Can you see a little bit in this how we can have the correct motive, but be making plans to go in the wrong direction?  I think I have heard a scripture quoted about that which says something like, "My ways are not your ways, says the Lord".  Quite a different picture than the many lessons I have been taught. 

The Rabbis also teach that in order for the Patriarchal blessing to take place, the prophetic spirit must be resting upon someone and that person must be in a state of joy (Shabbos 30b).   That is why Isaac tells Esau to bring him some game prepared the way he likes it before he can bless him.  Rebecca overhears the conversation and suddenly she is in overdrive.  She knows Isaac and she remembers the words of the Lord God during her pregnancy, (not that she has ever forgotten them).  What should she do?  She has never told Isaac about them.  I wonder why she never revealed those words to him?  The Rabbis say the Lord God never authorized her to tell him.  Hmmm  Here is the interesting thing about this situation, if the prophetic spirit is the one who will give Isaac the words to say in the blessing, then Rebecca has no way of knowing what Isaac will say in the blessing of the young men, right?  Then why is she so worried and why does she go to such great lengths since she knows God has already pronounced the blessing on them?  Wouldn't you think she would be confident that God would take care of it all?  Pondering....pondering....pondering.  I really have no answer and can't find one from the sages.

I think I need to sidebar for just a moment here on something.  I did call them young men just a few sentences back, but according to the Jews, (and there is clear evidence for this), the twins were 63 at the time of the blessing.  Not so young in our time, huh?  Esau had been married for 23 years to two Hittite women, who are said to be a kind of "spiritual blight" to Isaac and Rebecca.  The commentaries are divided on the meaning of this:  either they were leading him away spiritually to idols OR they were the daughters-in-law from you know where.  Either way, not a good family bonding experience or in modern day terms - a little dysfunctional family situation.  Those poor, poor grandchildren is what I'm thinking about right now!  Oy vey! (woe, woe!)

We see when Rebecca tells Jacob what to do in order to receive the blessing, Jacob does not want to go along with it.  This further exemplifies Jacob's character as he lets his mother know there will be a curse associated with deceit of this nature.  Rebecca is so adamant about this matter she is willing to accept the curse on herself if necessary and so the plan begins. 

There is more than a spiritual difference between the men.  It is apparent that Esau is a hairier man than Jacob, so that fact must be dealt with.  Rebecca to the rescue.  She takes the skin of the goats she has just prepared and covers Jacob's neck, arms and hands with them.  She also takes a piece of Esau's clothing for Jacob to wear.  Not just any clothing, but the clothing he received by killing Nimrod.  (I'll let you research that one!) 

Jacob enters Isaacs presence with the meal his mother has prepared.  He addresses his father and Isaac asks who it is.  Jacob never really says he is Esau.  You have to catch the play on words he uses.  The Hebrew translation reads as follows:  " It is I, Esau your firstborn."  As if to say, "It is I, Esau is your firstborn."  It is actually with the character of his own mouth that Jacob is nearly given away when his father asks how it is that he was able to find game this quickly and get it prepared.  Jacob responds with thanking the Lord God for blessing him with the meal.  Isaac quickly picks up on this matter, because he knows Esau rarely ever expounds, spiritually, on matters. 

We can look the part, smell the part and even cook up the part, but the words that come from our mouth will always give us away.  Our words reflect the heart. Jacob's mouth almost gave him away.  It was a true reflection of his heart, one that sought God with all his being yet Esau's heart was one that followed idols and his mouth revealed the truth.  Remember his game was in his mouth?  Even in relaying the birthright incident to Isaac at the blessing, he recounted it as if it were a deception that came from Jacob.  It was however, a lack of a connection with the Lord God Himself that led Esau to sell his birthright.  He chose to give it up, because it meant nothing to him.  There was no deception involved.  We all know those Esaus.  The siblings in a family who are all up in every situation that gets attention for themselves, but when the family needs them they are nowhere to be found.  Lots of excuses and no time to be involved.  Bottom line, they just don't care about anyone but themselves.  They will shrug their shoulders if it bores them or cry rivers if that's what it takes to get the attention.

I want to leave you with one parting thought on this Parashat.  Rebecca was a great Godly woman.  Isaac a great Godly man.  Two sons, one of them drawn to idols while the other was drawn to God.  Did Isaac and Rebecca love both of their sons?  I think the answer to that is, absolutely!  When the time came for the blessing, Isaac and Rebecca had the same motive yet different ideas on how that should play out.  A mother's heart, a father's heart.  Both loved their sons dearly.  Both wished to see Esau walking a Godly path like Jacob, I'm sure.  We are not told if the two of them ever discussed this situation beforehand.  We really aren't told if they inquired of the Lord with the exception that the prophetic spirit would give Isaac the words to say at the blessing.  If they had, I wonder if the reading of this entire Parashat would have been different......what do you think?

What about your motives?  Do you discuss them with God to make sure they line up with His plans?  You can have the best of intentions in the world, but be on the wrong course.  If your intentions are to supply food for the hungry in a Third World country, you will not buy loads of fresh meat to take with you.  Would they love fresh meat?  Absolutely, but they have no way of storing it and you could only feed them for one day.  Take several hundred or thousand pounds of rice or beans and they can store that for months, it goes a looooonnnng way and their hunger is satisfied for weeks to come!  Your'e intentions are the same, just different ways to go about it.  Take along enough seed and tools to show them how to plant and harvest their own crops and you can feed them for years.  Now, try talking to God before you go.  Tell Him your intentions and He might have an even greater way of feeding the hungry that you haven't even thought of!!!!   "You have not, because you ask not!"


I would love to read your comments on any of the postings from Hannah's Song, so please feel free to comment away!  We may not agree, but the Jews have this wonderful saying:  "Ask two Rabbis, get three opinions!"  To the Eastern way of thinking there are many answers to every question, so we don't have to agree.  I am hoping to have something more than a Parashat between now and Thanksgiving, so until then, Shalom!!!!  And if by chance I don't publish another until next weekend, Happy Thanksgiving, be thankful and stay safe my friends!!!

 

Chayei Sarah

This week's lesson is from Genesis 23:1 - 25:18.  It begins with the death of Abraham's wife, Sarah.  An entire lesson could be spent on the way the scripture gives her age, but I am not being led to give that at this time.  God is leading me to teach a different lesson for now.  I know that one particular person will swear I am leaning in this direction due to a life situation for them, but God spoke to me about this matter two days before the phone call I received from them.  In fact, God has placed this matter on my heart for some time now and this parashat has opened the door for such a great starting point. 

We go on to read in chapter 24 that Abraham was old and well on in years.  The sages tell us that Isaac was 37 at the time of Sarah's death and he had no wife, so Abraham set about to take care of that matter.  Abraham knew the importance of having a Godly wife for his son.  He, himself had been priviledged to have the most Godly wife for over 100 years.  Sarah had stood beside him through the good and bad.  She exemplified the Proverbs 31 woman, although Proverbs had yet to be written.  Kind of makes me wonder if Solomon had Sarah in mind when he wrote that chapter.  Hmmmm, guess I'll have to check further into that one.  Anyway, back to our parashat, Abraham knew that the women living around them did not adhere to the Godly ways of he and Sarah so a wife for Isaac would have to come from a different location. 

Our story picks up with Abraham calling his servant, Eliezer into his presence and swearing him to an oath.  Eliezer is charged with the task of traveling back to Abraham's kindred and finding a wife from among them for Isaac.  Out of his devotion for his master he willing takes on the task and with camels and gifts in hand sets out for the city of Nahor.  While on his way, Eliezer comes up with a way to figure out which young woman is the right one for his master's son.  I guess you could say he strikes up a deal with the Lord God.  He stops at a spring just outside the city shortly before the time when the women would come to get water.  He asks God, "Let it be that the maiden to whom I shall say, 'Please tip over your jug so I may drink,' and who replies, 'Drink, and I will even water your camels,' her will You have designated for Your servant, for Isaac; and may I know through her that You have done kindness with my master."  Genesis 24:14  And God graciously answered his prayer, actually before he even finished praying.  Rebecca makes her way to the spring and follows through exactly the way Eliezer had hoped.  She was everything he could have hoped for in a wife for his master's son and met the qualifications to be the next matriarch of the Jewish nation. 

Rebecca's own words and actions praise her worthiness in her new role.  Her family is not willing to let her go so easily.  They want to wait a year or so before letting her leave, but Eliezer is insistent that she leave now.  Rebecca's family decide to call her in and ask her what she wishes to do and she replies, "I will go."  So they pack up her things, send her nurse with her and tell her goodbye and bless her by saying, "Our sister, may you come to be thousands of myriads, and may your offspring inherit the gate of its foes."

As Eliezer and Rebecca, along with their enterouge, are approaching the land of Abraham, Rebecca sees Isaac and inquires as to who he is.  When Eliezer tells her it is his master, she takes her veil and covers her face.  Eliezer then recounts the events of the last few days to his master Isaac and the Word of God tells us that, "And Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, he married Rebecca, she became his wife, and he loved her; and thus was Isaac consoled after his mother."  Genesis 24:67

I have so much I WANT to teach from this lesson, but time just will not allow at this moment.  There is a much needed lesson here on tents, but I will save that for a Hebrew lesson at some point.  There is, however, one thing I must introduce to you at this point and that is the concept of a fractal.  A fractal is an image that when you look at a smaller section, that section contains the whole image.  Are you confused yet?  Let me give you an example:

Broccoli.  Guess you never thought of broccoli as a fractal, did you?  I could have zoomed in on one little branch of this stalk of broccoli and shown it to you and said, "I grew this in my garden and if there were nothing around it to give you depth, it would have looked like a full sized head, because each little branch contains a picture of the whole.  If you want to research this concept further, I have found a terrific website that explains the concept of fractals in layman's terms https://www.fractalus.com/info/layman.htm
 
Now, back to Isaac and Rebecca and I will show you how the fractal fits in.  There are only a few men in the line of Yeshua (Jesus) who only have one wife and Isaac is one of those men.   Marriage was instituted by the Lord God, himself, at creation, because it is a fractal of something much greater.  Take a look with me at Revelation 19:7“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” & 9:Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” 
Can you see the picture?  The Lamb is the Messiah, Yeshua and the marriage set forth at creation was a fractal of that marriage to come.  There is an even greater picture of this marriage, but I will get to that in a later parashat.

Now to another point I really want to make in this weeks lesson.  I will do a lot of confession time here.  I have been married for a little over 35 years to the same man.  It is the first marriage for each of us, but it has been a very rocky 35 years.  I was 17 and still in high school when we married.  He was 20.  We came from very different backgrounds.  I had been brought up in a home where we went to church at least three times a week, studied our Bibles daily and made sure to tell each other "I love you" before going to bed each night.  My Daddy always gave my Mother a kiss before leaving for work each morning, again when he left for work at lunch and when coming home from work in the evening and at bedtime.  He continually would wink at her and tell her he loved her.  He would do loving things for her and she for him.  I never heard raised voices in anger and there was always a sense of peace in our home.  Tithing was a given and we were never in need.  We had no real excess, but were never in want either.  At Christmas time our family would gather for a large meal and gift exchange and I would always receive many gifts.

For my husband, it was a different kind of story.  He did not come from an abusive situation, just different.  Rather than three times a week in church, he can only remember three times ever going to church and that was with an aunt and uncle.  He told me he could never remember ever hearing the words I love you being spoken in their home.   His family was very poor, food was whatever they could raise on their farm and Christmas time meant the same thing every year - socks and underwear from their parents and a bucket of plastic cowboys and indians from an aunt.  The toys they played with were whatever could be found in the ditches in the surrounding hills, discarded by others.  Very cold winters with little heat in their home and hot summers with no air-conditioning.  Working in the fields after school and in the summer. 

You can see that we had a lot of differences to work through, which unfortunately we seemed not to.  It's not that we didn't love each other, we just saw things through different lenses and the truth is our past greatly shapes the lense through which we see the future.  I see things with love and compassion and he sees things through frugality and self-centeredness.  The problem is it has taken 35 years for us to realize that we needed a good blend of the two.  You see, I would give everything we have away if I believed there were a need and probably have us in a tremendous debt at that.  He would pinch every penney till it screamed and proclaim, "they can get a job and help themselves."  We have to balance each other out, but a third person is needed to do this. 

Let me give you a visual image to help.  Have you ever played on a see-saw when you were a child?  If the two people are equally weighted, no problem, right?  What happens if one is heavier than the other?  When we get married, a third person is in the picture, the Spirit comes along side us to give us the help we need.  He stands in the middle of the see-saw and if one of us gets a little heavy-ended (so to speak) he goes along the other side to help that person out to bring the board into balance.  Get the picture? 

The problem in so many marriages is what almost happened in my own.  We feel like we are the one up in the air so much of the time that the "game" isn't fun anymore.  Did you ever play on a see-saw with someone who was a bully and they got on and held you up in the air and wouldn't let you down?  Then you know where I'm going with this.  Your emotions are always up in the air, you walk on eggshells all the time around them, it is always their way or the highway, etc.  You get to a point where you begin to put up walls between you and them.  And then what do you do?  You find a chance, jump off and run away.  Nevermind that the Spirit may get thrown off the board in the process and all the people that have been watching are standing watching him be thrown into the playground dirt, because remember He has been trying to balance out the board all along.  Not such a pretty sight, is it? 

I am saddened to admit that at one point in my marriage I threw him onto the playground dirt.  It is a decision I so deeply regret with everything in me, yet I can not undo that action.  I can say that I picked up the pieces and re-built my marriage with His help and although the emotions did not immediately return they did return eventually and today I can say that I love my husband.  I can not imagine life without him.  I do not want to mislead anyone.  We do not have one of those ooey-gooey cuddly lovey-dovey relationships.  It is a long-term committed marriage.  We each have our role and we love each other.  We know each other's space and respect it and have come to understand each other in a way that is known only to us.  We finish each other's sentences (after 35 years I guess that is expected, ha!).  I have learned to stand up for myself, which only took 33 years and he has learned to respect me for it.  Most of all we have learned that love is a choice, not an emotion. 

Marriage and the picture of it is so important to God.  It was never God's intention that marriage end in divorce, nor do I believe it was God's intention that man have more than one wife.  God created one man and one woman and gave them to each other.  There is no indication that Adam had any other wife.  God certainly never told Adam to take another and in Revelation we do not read the Brides and the Lamb.  It is Bride, singular.  When you begin to look throughout the geneology of Yeshua you can see that God had a definite plan and each time a man chose more than one wife, a problem arose that created a thorn in their flesh for centuries. 

Now my question for you, has the thing we have made of marriage caused our own demise, even within the church?  We take marriage so lightly and divorce so easily and we say we have Biblical grounds, but do we really?  Are we in today's time facing the grave consequences of these choices?  We hear almost no sermons on this topic from pulpits today.  Are pastors afraid of losing most of their congregations if they preach on the subject of divorce?  I know this is a touchy subject and probably many of you have been through a divorce.  I am not throwing stones and I am not judging.  Many of you were not the one who made that choice.  Three of my best friends are divorced and re-married.   All of us live in glass houses and believe me, I have plenty of other skeletons in my closet beside what I have already confessed.  I may go there at a later date, but God is not asking me to go to that closet yet!  Hallelujah!!! 

At this point I will have to delve into the commandments or as I have already taught on this segment, better known as the connections.  Look at Deuteronomy 27 and 28 with me.  The nation of Israel is about to go into the promised land at the helm of Joshua.  God, through the voice of Moses, is giving them instructions for their new life.  Moses has gone over the Torah with the people and he re-iterates the connections with them.  He sets before them the blessings and cursings connected with the Torah.  Blessed are those who observe, to perform all of His commandments and the blessings are spelled out in chapter 28 verses 3-13.  If they do not hearken to the voice of the Lord their God, to observe, to perform all His commandments and all His decrees then He names all the curses which will come upon them and overtake them.  Those curses are listed in chapter 28:16-68!  A much longer list. 

If you read back through the Torah you find that in Chapter 24 there is a passage referring to divorce and an allowance for it, but with great restrictions.  There are many interpretations by the great sages as to what these verses actually mean, but to qualify them completely we must look at the One who knows, the One who wrote the Torah, Yeshua.  He, alone was the Torah made flesh.  Read with me Mark 10:4-12  The Pharisees have approached Yeshua (Jesus) to test him and ask:
"They said, 'Moses made it permitted to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.'  Yeshua answered and said to them,
     On account of the hardness of your heart, he wrote this commandment for you.  But from the beginning of creation,, 'God created them male and female.  Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.'  If so, they are not two any longer but one flesh.  Thus, what god has joined, a person shall not divide.'
In the house, his disciples came back to ask him about this.  He said to them, 'One who sends away his wife and takes another is an adulterer against her.  A woman who leaves her husband and goes to another man is an adulterer."

God did NOT desire or even condone divorce.  His will was for marriage to last a lifetime, because it was His picture of the future marriage of His Son.  What have we done to give the world a skewed vision of the marriage of Christ?  Are we constantly throwing the Spirit into the dirt for all the world to see?  Could we, the Church be living in the curses because we have been so disobedient to the connections (commandments)?  Now, you just wait a minute, you say.  We don't live under those laws any more.  We are New Testament.  We live under grace!  Yes we do!  We live under grace and the Children of Israel did as well.  Really?  Yes, but haven't we, as Gentiles, also been grafted in to the vine?  Then we are not exempt from the connections.  But we are no longer under the Law!  We are no longer under the Law (Torah)?  When did this take place?  At the crucifixion?  At the resurrection?  So, since we are under grace we are free to commit adultery?  And to take God's name in vain?  We are free to dishonor our parents also?  And to lie and steal and covet?  Well, that's news to me!   Is that really what Paul is talking about?  I believe we have misunderstood Paul's teaching on this matter, don't you?  Especially when you understand that each of the 10 Connections (commandments) are simply a heading for a section dealing with the 613 other connections. 

I am willing to bet you have never thought of it in that way before, have you?  Now go back to Deuteronomy 28 with me.  I am going to leave you with it.  My purpose, after all, is to make you think for yourself and to read deeper into the scripture than you have ever read before.  Go to that chapter and read it entirely.  The best reading for your understanding is to read it from the Torah getting the correct interpretation.
For those of you who do not have a Hebrew Torah or Tanach, you can read it online at the following:
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9992/showrashi/true

I have linked it to show Rashi's commentaries underneath the verses.  If you do not wish to see these, you may uncheck the box at the top of the reading and it will take them away.  This website is a wonderful Orthodox Jewish website with a treasure trove of information for you on every subject imaginable.  The verses I want you to really look at is 20 and 21.  Marriage is not the only thing we have taken lightly, but this parashat has given us a good place to start.  Perhaps this will cause us all to take a good long look at all the connections and to rid ourselves of the sin that we have allowed to creep into the Church and our own lives.  Perhaps we, like the children of Israel have decided we can pick and choose which connections to obey and discard.  Hashem (Lord God) says, "to perform all"  not some or any, but all! 

Vayeira

Is That Someone Knocking On My Door?

 

My oldest son and his family:

Jason holding his oldest son, Logan

and Jason's wife Jamie holding their youngest son, Carter

This has been a great weekend, for one it is my birthday and also my oldest son came home for a visit. He is married, lives four hours away and I don't get to see him very often. He and my youngest son were both in the house for a few hours this weekend and it felt so good!!!! How appropriate that this weeks Parashat is titled Vayera meaning "and appeared"! You see, this visitation by my son was only planned on Tuesday and I began preparations on Thursday when I received a definite plan for his arrival.

Our reading is Genesis 18:1 - 22:24. This reading contains the section where Abraham is sitting outside his tent recovering from his circumcision and three visitors appear. The reading tells us that upon seeing the three men, Abraham immediately goes to meet them and welcomes them by bowing down to them. Something about their appearance gave him the indication he was in the presence of someone very special. This visitation was special alright and Abraham didn't really have a clue how special this day would become.

The reading of the first few verses of chapter 18 have always seemed a little confusing to me until I understood it from the Jewish tradition. It seems the Jews teach that the Lord God (Adonai) came to visit Abraham and while God was ministering to him, the three men appeared. When Abraham looked up and saw the men he immediately recognized that there were men with needs to be met and interrupted the Lord God by saying, "My Lord, if I find favor in Your eyes, please pass not away from Your servant." vs 3. In other words, "Lord God, if I find favor in Your eyes, would you please wait right here until I have taken care of these strangers and met their needs? I will return to our business as soon as I have taken care of them."

Many people might think, "how bold of Abraham to tell God to wait a minute," but read on down just a little to verse 17. "And the Lord God said, 'Shall I conceal from Abraham what I do, now that Abraham is surely to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him? For I have loved him, because he commands his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord God, doing charity and justice, in order that the Lord God might then bring upon Abraham that which is spoken of him.'" Wow! How awesome that God, Himself would speak so highly of a mere man! Oh that I could be so worthy, myself. Did you catch where I am going with this? What was credited to Abraham? He commands his children and his household that they keep the way of the Lord and one way they did that was by.....doing charity - hospitality!

Abraham was a man way ahead of his time. It seems that he knew how to connect with God WITHOUT the written instructions. Those written words would not be handed down for about 400+ years and yet the words written in Genesis 18 sound very familiar, do they not? Let's check it out and see. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 6:4 and following. This is the first part of the Shema that is recited by an Orthodox Jew on a daily basis.
"Hear, O Israel: the Lord God is our God, the Lord God is the One and Only. You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your resources. And these matters that I command you today shall be upon your heart. You shall teach them thoroughly to your children and you shall speak of them while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise."
You see, these words were first recorded as being given by the Lord God long after Abraham's life had ended, yet he seemed to already have knowledge of them. It is as if Abraham had been given a glimpse into the future.

In Deuteronomy 8:11-12,14,17 we also find this warning:
"Take care lest you forget the Lord God, your God, by not observing His commandments, His ordinances, and His decrees, which I command you today, lest you eat and be satisfied, and you build good houses and settle....and your heart will become haughty and you will forget the Lord your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt from the house of slavery.......And you may say in your heart, 'My strength and the might of my hand made me all this wealth!'"
In plain English; don't forget that you were once slaves yourselves and that everything you have and will have came, not from your own capabilities, but from the Lord God and His lovingkindness and grace. Pass it on every chance you get.

Now, what about those three men? Who were they and where did they come from? These are the things we know: after they ate they asked about Sarah by name, a prophecy is made, two of them are called angels in Genesis 19:1. But weren't there three men that came to Abraham's door? If so, why did only two go onto Sodom? According to the Talmud, Bava Metzia 86b, the three angels that appeared to Abraham were Michael (Who is like God), Gabriel (Might of God) and Raphael (Healing of God). Michael came to announce the news of the impending pregnancy and birth of Isaac, Gabriel came to carry out the wrath and destruction upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and Raphael came to heal Abraham from his circumcision. After the meeting with Abraham, Raphael's duties were finished and there was no need for him to go any further.

Whoever they were, one thing we know....they were not human like us. The main point is this: never neglect to meet the need of another when it is within your abilities to do so. Make sure that when you do meet the need that you go above and beyond what it takes to meet it.
We are told in Hebrews 13:2
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it."