Weekly Reading Insights

Overview of the Weekly Reading

To be read on Shabbat Vayeira, 15 Cheshvan 5771/Nov. 12

Torah: Genesis 18:1-22:24; Haftorah: Kings II 4:1-37 (because of v.22, similar to the angels' promise to Avraham)

Vayeira is the 4th Reading out of 12 in Genesis and it contains 7862 letters, in 2085 words, in 147 verses

Avraham interrupted a conversation with G-d to run and offer three people walking by a rest stop and food. They were angels from G-d, who told him that Sarah would have a son next year, and that G-d was about to wipe out Sodom. Avraham prayed for the people there. The messengers continued to Sodom, and were invited home by Lot. They told Lot to flee with his family, and not to look back. They ran, but his wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. The five cities were destroyed. Lot and his two daughters moved into a cave. Thinking they were sole survivors in the world, the daughters got their father drunk and had his sons. Avraham visited Gerar, announcing that Sarah was his sister. The king Avimelech took her, but G-d told him in a dream that she was already married and that he must return her to her husband. Sarah gave birth to Yitzchak, whom Avraham circumcised when he was eight days old. Avraham sent Hagar and Yishmael away, as Sarah did not want Yitzchak to share his inheritance. G-d promised Hagar that Yishmael would also become a great nation. Avraham and Avimelech made an oath regarding the well which Avraham had dug, and a peace treaty. G-d tested Avraham and told him to bring his son Yitzchak as an offering. At the last moment a voice from heaven stopped him, telling him that he had proved his faith. Avraham offered a ram instead. G-d blessed him that he would have many descendants.

G-d's visit to Abraham in this week's Torah portion reveals to us the degree to which we must practice selflessness. The portion begins, "And G-d showed Himself to Abraham". Rashi says that G-d came to visit the sick, and specifically on the third day after his circumcision, (when the pain is greatest). Rashi concludes by saying that G-d came to ask Abraham how he was. The Taz asks what does Rashi add by saying that G-d asked after Abraham's well-being? He already said that G-d came to visit Abraham in his illness! (Divrei Dovid)

Further, on this same day, and in the midst of G-d's visit, three angels came to Abraham, one of whom was the archangel Michael, whose mission was to heal Abraham. Why did G-d send His angel, if He Himself had already come to visit Abraham? Additionally, our sages have taught that a person who visits his same-aged peer who is ill actually helps to heal him by removing 1/60 of his illness. If this is true of a person visiting his peer, how much more so would we assume it to be true regarding the visit of the Almighty. Actually, this question is the answer to our first question: G-d asked after Abraham's well-being since His purpose in revealing Himself to him was not to heal him but rather just to ask him how he was.

This explains the teaching that we are commanded to act like G-d (Sotah 14). Just as G-d visits the ill, so we have to visit the ill. What is the foundation of this comparison between G-d and people? Obviously, most people are not the same age as the ill person and therefore will not accomplish the partial healing with their visit, while we can assume that G-d will at least do that. However, the lesson is that visiting the sick is a behavior of G-d that we are commanded to emulate, even if we are not able to heal the person by visiting. We can now understand Rashi's seemingly extra statement that G-d's purpose in visiting was to see how Abraham was, because it is the act of inquiring alone, without an assurance of results, that we are meant to learn. Indeed, any act that we do for another Jew should be done selflessly, in emulation of G-d, as kindness for its own sake.
* * *
This Torah portion includes the story of Lot and his daughters (Gen.19:37), from whose children Mashiach is descended. Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev explains that this event between Lot and his daughters had to take place at this time in history, specifically before the birth of Isaac. According to Chassidut, Isaac represents the spiritual sphere of severity (gevura).There is also a correlation between Isaac and the exile, a time where the divine focus is on judgment and discipline, rather than on kindness or compassion. Also, the 400 years of Egyptian exile are tabulated from the time of the birth of Isaac. Lot's daughters had to give birth before Isaac was born because G-d always sends the cure before the illness. Before exile, as exemplified in Isaac, came to the world, the cure had to come, in the form of Amon and Moab, Lot's daughters' children from whom Mashiach is descended.

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For last year's essay by Rabbi Leiter on this week's Reading, see the archive.

FROM THE CHASSIDIC REBBES

"Abraham sat in the tent door in the heat of the day" (Gen. 18:1)

Abraham was watching the road for passers-by to offer them hospitality. The numerical value of the Hebrew word for heat is the same as for the world chaim (life). We should aim that every day should be full of "life," full of Torah and good deeds, so as to make life worthwhile.

(R. Yehoshua of Vishnitz)From "Hasidim in Israel" by Tzvi Rabinowicz (Aronson).

For more than a decade of "From the Chasidic Rebbes" on this Weekly Reading, see our archives

MOSHIACH THIS WEEK

"Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet and recline under the tree. I will bring a piece of bread so that you can gather strength.…He brought some cream and milk, as well as the calf that he had prepared, and placed it all before them, and he stood over them under the tree as they ate." (Gen.18:4-5, 8)

When the three angels came in human form to visit Avraham, he treated them with great kindness. He offered them water, gave them the opportunity to wash, offered them a shady place to sit, bread to eat, and a calf for meat. He even stood over them while they ate. For each act that Avraham did to honor his guests, G-d will reward us, his descendants, in the same way in the days of Mashiach.

* For the water -- "On that day (when Mashiach comes), living waters will come out of Jerusalem." (Zach. 14:8)
* For the washing -- "G-d will have washed away the sins of the daughters of Zion." (Is. 4:4)
* For the shade -- "And the protective cloud will provide shade in the day to protect you." (Is. 4:6)
* For the bread -- "Loaves of bread will grow from the land." (Ps. 72:16)
* For the calf -- "On that day a man will keep alive one calf and two sheep (and they will be blessed so that the person will be provided for". (Is. 7:21)
* For standing by -- "The king (Mashiach) will pass before them and G-d will stand at their head." (Micha 2:13)

[Beraishis Rabbah 48:10 -- from Discover Moshiach in the Weekly Torah Portion, as posted on //Moshiach.org]

For nearly a decade of "Moshiach This Week " on this Weekly Reading, see our archives

From the Kabbalah Commentaries on the Chumash ("5 Books of Moses")

13th century - "RambaN" - Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman

14th century - "Bachya" - Rabbi Bachya ben Asher

16th century - "Alsheich" - Rabbi Moshe Alshech of Tsfat

18th century - "Ohr HaChayim" - Rabbi Chaim Ben Attar

a sample for this week:

Bachya

"G-d's angel called to him from heaven and said… "Do not harm the boy. Do not do anything to him." [Gen. 22-11-12]

The apparently strange phenomenon in this paragraph, i.e. that G-d's is the one who subjects Avraham to the trial whereas the angel prevented him from going through with it, needs to be understood as follows: The "angel" mentioned in our paragraph is not of the category of the nifradim, "disembodied spiritual creatures," but it belonged to what are known as the netiyot, "the emanations of G-d" [a divine voice much closer to G-d's Essence than "mere" angels]. Had the angel who called out to Avraham and instructed him to desist belonged to the category known as nifradim, Avraham would have ignored him, would not have allowed himself to be countermanded by a subordinate of the One who had instructed him in the first place. Moreover, it is quite unthinkable that an angel of the "lower" category nifradim would have been allowed to say to Avraham, "you did not withhold your son from Me." He would have had to say: "from Him."

All of this proves that the voice which the Torah describes as emanating from an "angel of G-d" was of a superior divine level. This "angel" is also known as the "great angel" who manifested himself in Exodus 14:19 when the Torah describes him as traveling in front of the encampment of the Jewish people (performing all kinds of miracles). The words malach ha elohim employed there by the Torah do not mean "angel of the Lord," i.e. the word malach is not a possessive clause, the angel being merely an attribute of G-d. The word elohim in that verse must be understood as an explanation of the word malach. When the Torah describes this divine emanation as malach the meaning is that G-d is "contained, present," within this divine emanation. We encounter something similar in Exodus 23:21 where G-d explains to Moses that the malach who will be accompanying the Jewish people needs to be related to with the utmost reverence as "My name within him". Apparently, the word substituted for this attribute of G-d we called pachad Yitschak, an attribute which brooks no defiance of any sort. When we read in Genesis 48:16 when Yaakov blesses before his death, "the angel who has rescued me, etc. etc. is in the midst of the terrestrial world," which is an allusion to the adnut, the attribute of "mastery" which this "angel" represents. He has authority within the whole terrestrial universe.

Selected with permission from the seven-volume English edition of The Torah Commentary of Rebbeinu Bachya, as translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk. Rabbi Bachya ben Asher [1255-1340] of Saragosa, Spain, was the outstanding pupil of Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet (the "Rashba"), a main disciple of Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (the "Ramban"). Several books have been written about the Kabballah-based portions of R. Bachya's commentary.

For the rest of "The Masters of Kabbala and Chumash" on this Weekly Reading; and on all the other Readings.

A MYSTICAL CHASSIDIC DISCOURSE

Specifically, for an overview of the recommended articles in the columns:
Holy Zohar, Holy Ari, Mystic Classics, Chasidic Masters, Contemporary Kabbalists, and more,
click to Vayeira

According to the Midrash, Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt because she sinned with salt, and thus she was punished. This happened when the angels were invited home by Lot, who wished to fulfill the mitzvah of having guests. When he asked his wife to give them some salt, she answered, "Even this evil custom (of treating guests kindly by giving them salt) you want to do here (in Sodom)?!'

For another taste of recommended Kabbalah articles on a variety of subjects,
click to the our weekly Kabbalah magazine

A wide variety of articles this week, as you can ascertain by perusing the titles.
They include an article translated from a talk by one of this generation's leading Kabbalists.
The lead article discusses a topic that we are frequently consulted about.
The second article contains the explanation for why thousands of people will pour into our holy city of Tzefat this Friday and stay for Shabbat!
Five of the seven articles have varying levels of connection to the weekly Torah reading, which features the first Jewish married couple in history.

There has been a remarkable interest in the subject of Kabbalah of late. Indeed, a New York Times study indicates that mysticism and especially Kabbalah is the number two category of book purchase made at present. Kabbalah centers are springing up all over North America and Europe.