{"id":65686,"date":"2019-11-14T10:36:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T08:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=65686"},"modified":"2022-02-28T17:52:31","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T15:52:31","slug":"parashat-vayera-transmission-to-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/parashat-vayera-transmission-to-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Parashat Vayera: Transmission To The Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[399,368],"acf":{"old_id":"65686","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"1070","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"To instruct our children and posterity to do what is just and right","content":"

The portion of Vayera culminates in the final test of Abraham, as it is written \u201cand God tested Abraham\u201d (22:1).\u00a0But what is God testing? Abraham\u2019s willingness to risk all, his beloved son, the only one of Sarah? Or his ability to follow the God’s voice, wherever it may lead?\u00a0 I think that the focus is not on Abraham himself, but in how he has passed his values on, demonstrated in Isaac’s response.\u00a0Has Abraham educated Isaac so that Isaac\u2019s faith in God is as strong as Abraham\u2019s? God even says in 18:19, \u201cFor I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is just and right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the first test of Abraham was his willingness to leave the home of his father to journey to the land God would show him, the first test of Isaac is to give up his life if necessary at the command of God.\u00a0 As we see from the ram that is substituted for Isaac, his life is not a precondition for the covenant, but his willingness to be a sacrifice is. It is Isaac\u2019s complete embrace of his father\u2019s ideals that ensures the covenant.\u00a0Genesis Rabbah 56:8 speaks of Isaac\u2019s desire to be bound so that he will not move at the last minute, binding his ultimate commitment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the binding is over, the test is not.\u00a0Rabbi Ari Kahn writes in Explorations Expanded: Sefer Bereishit <\/em>that \u201cthe real test for Yitzchak was coming down the mountain, re-joining the rest of the world, relating to God through the attribute of chesed<\/em> (lovingkindness).\u201d Though Isaac was willing to be bound, his personal sacrifice was great. Many midrashim attribute the blindness he experienced at the end of his life to the tears of the angels or of Abraham that fell in his eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We next meet Isaac when he is \u201cmeditating in the fields\u201d (24: 63) about to meet his wife, the only wife he will ever have, Rebecca.\u00a0“Meditate” here is commonly understood as prayer, but I imagine Isaac thinking about how he will continue to pass his tests and carry out the message of kindness as well as build a family with his wife, albeit after a twenty-year period of infertility.\u00a0Isaac is the only one of the patriarchs who explicitly prays to God that his wife be given a child (25:21).\u00a0Isaac accepts his father\u2019s values, proves his commitment, and prays to God for a child to pass them along to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Talmud lists three characteristics of the Jewish people: being merciful, being able to be ashamed and doing acts of kindness (Yevamot 79a).\u00a0The prooftext for \u201cacts of kindness\u201d is from the command to Abraham in Genesis 18:19.\u00a0It is the acts of chesed<\/em> of Isaac and his descendants that ensure the transmission of the values of the house of Abraham.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is my last piece on the Torah portion for 929, and I hope that others too can leave sites of trauma that they like Isaac have experienced and continue to act with chesed<\/em>, and the other characteristics of the Jewish people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":55455,"id":55455,"title":"jud8-parenting","filename":"jud8-parenting.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud8-parenting.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/to-kill-a-mocking-king\/jud8-parenting\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud8-parenting","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55454,"date":"2019-05-14 10:25:33","modified":"2022-03-08 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