Dear Friends;
I hope you’ll enjoy the following Parasha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;
” Parsha in a Nutshell ”
G-d reveals Himself to Avraham three days after his
circumcision at age 99; but Avraham rushes off to prepare a meal for three
guests who appear in the desert heat. One of the three guests — who are angels
disguised as men — announces that, in exactly one year, the barren Sarah will
give birth to a son. Sarah laughs.
Avraham pleads with G-d to spare the wicked city of Sodom, but did not succeed. Two of the angels arrive in the doomed city to overturn the place, and to save Lot and his family. Lot’s wife turns into a pillar of salt when she disobeyed the command not to look back at
the burning city as they flee.
While taking shelter in a cave, Lot’s two daughters get their father drunk, lie with him, and become pregnant. The two sons born from this incident father the nations of Moab and Amon.
Avraham moves to Gerar, where the Philistine king Avimelech takes Sarah — who is, once
again, presented as Avraham’s sister — to his palace. In a dream, G-d warns
Avimelech that he will die unless he returns the woman to her husband.
G-d remembers His promise to Sarah and gives her and Avraham a son, who
is named Isaac (meaning “will laugh”). Isaac is circumcised at the age of eight
days; Abraham is 100 years old, and Sarah 90, at their son’s birth.
Hagar and Ishmael are banished from Avraham’s home and wander in the desert; G-d hears the cry of the dying lad and saves his life by showing his mother a well.
G-d tests Avraham’s devotion by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac on the
Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The Parsha concludes with Avraham receiving
the news of the birth of a daughter, Rebecca, to his nephew Bethuel.
” Dvar Torah ”
In this week’s parsha, we read about the famous story of “Akeidat Yitzchak”, the binding
of Isaac. We all know the story by now: Hashem wanted to test Avraham’s faith.
So one day, G-d tells Avraham to take his only son, the one he loves, Isaac and
bring him to the top of a mountain and sacrifice him to G-d Almighty.
Immediately, without any hesitation, the next morning, he takes him up the
mountain, binds him down, lifts the knife up and was ready to slaughter his son.
At that point, an angel of G-d tells him to stop and not to harm his son, for
now Hashem knows that he truly believes in him.
Wow, what a story! Every time I read about Akeidat Yitzchak, I get the goosebumps. What a great person Avraham was. Who can kill his own son, specially the one and only son from his true love?! How can someone go against his own principles and logic? Avraham was
preaching others his entire life about how wrong it is to bring human sacrifice
for idols and gods, and now he had to do it himself! Not even once he questioned
G-d for this commandment! He only did it because he believed in G-d
wholeheartedly. The act of Akeidat Yitzchak was so great that we still benefit
from it to this very day. In our prayers on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, when we
ask Hashem for forgiveness, we ask Him to remember what Avraham did and we use
the Akeida as a defense mechanism for our sins. Because what our forefather
Avraham did, no one else would have had the strength to do it!
Yes, we all acknowledge the greatness of Avraham , but what about Isaac? All of our
sages praise Avraham for passing his final and his most difficult test, but we
hardly see them praising Isaac. According to our Chachamim, Isaac was 37 years
old at the time. He wasn’t a child anymore to not know what he was doing. He lay
down on the alter and allowed his father to bind him down and raise the knife to
kill him. He was a full grown man who went through the Akeida also accepting
G-d’s decision. So why doesn’t he get any of the credit for his act of bravery?!
Although killing your son can be more difficult than killing yourself, but
killing yourself when you are still young and you have your whole life ahead of
you is not a simple act either! So, where can we find some praises for Isaac
also?
After searching for a while, I came across an explanation given by
Rabbi Frand quoting Chasam Sofer, another scholar. He says that Isaac also went
through a test and in a sense, his test was even greater than his father’s test.
Avraham heard it directly from G-d Himself, that he had to sacrifice Isaac. But
who told Isaac that he was to be a sacrifice? Isaac heard it from his father,
Avraham! Isaac must have considered it awfully strange that G-d, who values
life, wants a human sacrifice. Such ritual was against all the values and
believes that his father had thought him in the past, but he never questioned
his father. He had full trust and faith in him. Keep in mind that Avraham was
quite old at the time – 137 years old to be exact, and Isaac had all the rights
to question his father’s decision. ” Are you sure father that you heard G-d
telling you to sacrifice me? Maybe you are imagining it? Maybe you just had a
dream? Don’t you want to ask him one more time to make sure?” Isaac could have
asked all these questions from his father. But he didn’t question him once,
because the respect that he had for his father didn’t allow him to doubt his
decision! And this was the greatness of Isaac that stands out and makes him one
of our forefathers. Avraham obeyed G-d’s word; but Isaac obeyed his father’s!
Giving the same respect to your father as you give to G-d Almighty deserves all
the praises in the world!
Yes my friends, the Torah once again, demonstrates the importance of respecting parents. How often do we criticize our father when we don’t agree with what he says? How often do we disregard our parents advice because we think they are too old or too old fashioned?
Respecting parents is not only about standing up for them and kissing their
hands, but its also about listening to their advices and respecting their views
too! The Chachamim go as far as to say that if it’s day time and your parent
says its night, we are not allowed to disagree with them! If Isaac was ready to
give up his life for the sake of respecting his father’s decision, then why
can’t we just listen to what they say?!
As the parents get older, they tend to be more demanding and test our patience. Although this test is not as difficult as the Akeida, but still, is not an easy test. Could there be a point
that we are allowed to lose our patience with our parents? The answer is
obviously not! Whatever they do or whatever they say, we can never be
disrespectful towards them. On the contrary, when they get older, we have to be
more respectful to their demands. After all, they are the ones who brought us
into this world and they deserve the full respect until the day they say
goodbye!
Shabath Shalom & Regards;
Martin
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