Friday, November 21, 2003
Sparks From Israel
Dvar Torah - Vayera
In the Parsha Vaerya Avraham is visited by three men, who looked like idol worshipers, but were really angels. They tell him Sarah will give birth a year later (at age 90), and Sarah laughs, even though she sees with her eyes an open miracle. Rashi explains that at the moment they arrived her body became young again like a 20-year old woman. Still after witnessing this open miracle she says to herself how can an old man like Avraham give birth to a son, and who are these men, that I should believe them? Later Sarah is reprimanded by Hashem and by her husband for laughing out of disbelief. Ramban comments that Sarah should have disregarded the looks of these men and said ‘may it be so’.
I have heard many rabbis discuss this episode and conclude with the moral lesson that we should never scoff at the bearer of blessings but rather we should say ‘amen’. This may be a nice drasha for children, but do these events really mean?
As I sat on a bus on the way to Yerushalayim, I thought about these mysterious verses and tried to unravel the mystery hidden inside. Then it came to me, as I looked at the countryside unfolding before my eyes. As I gazed upon the skyline, and the cities, and the farms and the orchards that are once again fertile and full of life I was looking at an open miracle; like a 90 year old woman becoming 20 again. Now I understood the reprimand to Sarah. And I saw within it a reprimand to the secular Jews as well as the religious Jews.
How could a Jew witness the rebirth of Israel and see with his own eyes the ingathering of the exiles, the building up of the land, the protection of the clouds of glory, and yet not believe that there is a G-d and prophecy and Moshiach. How is it possible to see such open miracles and at the same time see the religion as old, outdated and disconnected from this?
On the other hand, how could religious Jews scoff at angels? The Zionists were considered idol worshippers just like our story and Sarah laughed. She scoffed at these idol worshippers and didn’t really believe in her heart what she saw with her own eyes. She believed in the promise that G-d had made to Avraham, but could not see what was happening in front of her.
If Hashem decided to bring the return to Zion from secular Zionists who demonstrated a love of the land, the religious world should have said ‘may it be so’ and gave them a blessing instead of scoffing. They could have had much more influence in the forming of the nation and could have saved many lives had they also encouraged Aliyah long before the war. To this day there are those who scoff at the Zionists while living in glatt kosher America waiting for a prophecy that is unfolding without them. It is this lack of faith within the heart of the faithful, and the lack of wonder from those who see open miracles that is laughable.
And so the birth of Isaac, whose name means ‘laughter’, is the product of this scoffing. Itzchak who is the ‘sacrifice’ and we who scoff at one side of a two sided story and wonder why we always suffer?
Dvar Torah - Vayera
In the Parsha Vaerya Avraham is visited by three men, who looked like idol worshipers, but were really angels. They tell him Sarah will give birth a year later (at age 90), and Sarah laughs, even though she sees with her eyes an open miracle. Rashi explains that at the moment they arrived her body became young again like a 20-year old woman. Still after witnessing this open miracle she says to herself how can an old man like Avraham give birth to a son, and who are these men, that I should believe them? Later Sarah is reprimanded by Hashem and by her husband for laughing out of disbelief. Ramban comments that Sarah should have disregarded the looks of these men and said ‘may it be so’.
I have heard many rabbis discuss this episode and conclude with the moral lesson that we should never scoff at the bearer of blessings but rather we should say ‘amen’. This may be a nice drasha for children, but do these events really mean?
As I sat on a bus on the way to Yerushalayim, I thought about these mysterious verses and tried to unravel the mystery hidden inside. Then it came to me, as I looked at the countryside unfolding before my eyes. As I gazed upon the skyline, and the cities, and the farms and the orchards that are once again fertile and full of life I was looking at an open miracle; like a 90 year old woman becoming 20 again. Now I understood the reprimand to Sarah. And I saw within it a reprimand to the secular Jews as well as the religious Jews.
How could a Jew witness the rebirth of Israel and see with his own eyes the ingathering of the exiles, the building up of the land, the protection of the clouds of glory, and yet not believe that there is a G-d and prophecy and Moshiach. How is it possible to see such open miracles and at the same time see the religion as old, outdated and disconnected from this?
On the other hand, how could religious Jews scoff at angels? The Zionists were considered idol worshippers just like our story and Sarah laughed. She scoffed at these idol worshippers and didn’t really believe in her heart what she saw with her own eyes. She believed in the promise that G-d had made to Avraham, but could not see what was happening in front of her.
If Hashem decided to bring the return to Zion from secular Zionists who demonstrated a love of the land, the religious world should have said ‘may it be so’ and gave them a blessing instead of scoffing. They could have had much more influence in the forming of the nation and could have saved many lives had they also encouraged Aliyah long before the war. To this day there are those who scoff at the Zionists while living in glatt kosher America waiting for a prophecy that is unfolding without them. It is this lack of faith within the heart of the faithful, and the lack of wonder from those who see open miracles that is laughable.
And so the birth of Isaac, whose name means ‘laughter’, is the product of this scoffing. Itzchak who is the ‘sacrifice’ and we who scoff at one side of a two sided story and wonder why we always suffer?
