A Dash of Drash – 25 October 2007           Keren Hannah Pryor

“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your Torah” (Psalm 119:18).

Va’yera    “And He Appeared”

Genesis 18:1 – 22:24

This auspicious parasha opens with the dramatic phrase: “and the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre…” (18:1). Abraham had likely pitched his encampment under the oaks for the shade they provided. The trees were also an indication of a source of water. They would signal this vital fact to those traveling through the desert terrain. It was Abraham’s custom to look out for sojourners and to offer them sustenance. Hospitality (hach’nasat orchim) is an honored tradition established by Abraham and Sarah for their descendents.

Although Abraham is recovering from his circumcision, he is seated “in the door of his tent in the heat of the day” and watching out for weary travelers who would need food, shelter and rest. The text informs us that “he lifted up his eyes and looked” (va yissa einav va’yara) (18:2). This ‘lifting of the eyes’ indicates a conscious, deliberate looking. He wasn’t gazing lazily into the distance. Then, the LORD appeared – va’yera. Note the similarity to the verb va’yara (looked) – each from the root yod-reish-heh, to see.

This focus on the eyes and seeing appears significantly throughout the parasha. Here, as a result of his active looking, Abraham sees the LORD. God appears to Abraham seven times throughout his life. On this occasion, the Rabbis propose that He visited Abraham during his indisposition – a result of his recent circumcision. This forms the basis of the Jewish mitzvah (good deed) of visiting the sick. As Rashi[i] records:

Said R. Chama bar Chanina: It was the third day since Abraham had been circumcised and the Holy One blessed be He came to inquire regarding his health.

The Ramban[ii] elaborates that the LORD appeared as a reward for his obedience in undergoing the circumcision: “This revelation constituted the reward for previous obedience to let them [Abraham, Ishmael, and all the men of his household] know that God had favorably accepted their deeds” (Genesis 17:26-27). This is underscored by the Chazal [iii]:

“If to him who builds an altar in My name I reveal Myself and bless him (Exodus 20:21), how much more so unto Abraham who circumcised himself for My name!” (Avot Derabbi Nathan)

Looking, They See Not

There is a remarkable parallel in Abraham’s encounter with the angels in chapter 18 and Lot’s encounter recorded in the following chapter. We read that the two angels arrived in Sodom in the evening. Certain facts are evident: the LORD was not with them, it was a city not the desert, and Lot was sitting in the gate. Rabbi Hertz describes: “The gate is the passage beneath the city wall, where people [usually the elders of the city] congregate to converse, transact business, or have their disputes adjudicated.”[iv]

Lot sees the visitors, va’yara, but the conscious seeing, the ‘lifting of the eyes’ is missing. To give him his due, once he recognizes the strangers Lot rises to greet them and, in the tradition of his cousin Abraham, offers them his hospitality.  He too “made them a feast” (19:3).

The shocking incident involving the men of Sodom then occurs, which highlights the reasons that warrant God’s destruction of this and the surrounding cities – rampant homosexuality and violent hatred of strangers. Incomprehensibly, but possibly in desperation to protect his guests, Lot offers the mob his two virgin daughters and says, “…do ye to them as is good in your eyes” (19:8). The angels save the situation by inflicting a temporary blindness upon the men attacking the house, leaving them in confusion and unable to find the door. Their eyes, which could not see “good”, were blinded. This affliction clearly mirrors the spiritual blindness and complacency of the Sodomites. Although it seems that Lot tried to preserve Abrahamic values, they were not transmitted to his children. His older daughters married men of Sodom, who in the arrogance of their selfish, hedonistic lifestyle mock and sneer at Lot when he attempts to warn them of the coming destruction.

There are other examples to consider in the parasha of seeing…or not: the mysterious fate of Lot’s wife when she lingers and vacillates and turns to look back, after being warned by the angels not to do so[v] (19:17); and the situation of Hagar and Ishmael who are banished from the safety of Abraham’s camp into the wilderness of Paran as a result of their mockery of Sarah and Isaac. In the latter account, when the bread and water provided by a caring Abraham are depleted, Hagar leaves the boy in the shade of a shrub and moves away, unable to watch him die. They both wail in their distress, and the LORD hears the cries of the boy and He opens Hagar’s eyes. “Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water” (21:19). The well had been there all along, but she had not seen it until enabled by God.

The Akedah on the Mount of God

The Akedah – the binding of Isaac – is a central theme of Judaism, as described by Abravanel[vi]: “[The Akedah is] the whole horn [strength] and merit of Israel before their Father in Heaven and ever on our lips in daily prayer”. [vii]

Abraham undergoes the exceptional test of sacrificing his “only, beloved son Isaac” to God as a burnt offering. At the last moment, his hand with the raised blade is stayed by a voice from heaven and we are told,

Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son (22:13).

In his relief and gratitude Abraham names the mount “Adonai Yireh” (22:14). This is usually translated, “The LORD will provide.” However, yireh is from the same root yod-reish-heh, to see, and a more literal translation is rendered by the Jewish Publication Society: “In the mount where the LORD is seen.” The King James Version renders: “In the mount where the LORD will be seen.” Surely, to those who lift up their eyes, He was, is and will be seen!

This is the mount chosen by God, where His Name will be placed forever, where His house, the Beit haMikdash, the Holy Temple will stand, and where His eternal throne will be established in the last day. Standing in that very place, Yeshua recalled that Abraham had lifted his eyes from there and rejoiced at the revelation of the One who was to come, the Lamb God would provide for the salvation of all mankind.

He [Abraham] saw [my day] and was glad” (John 8:56). Indeed, as a reward for his radical and faithful obedience, God blesses Abraham on that mount and says: In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice (22:18).

Haftarah   2 Kings 4:1-37

When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the LORD.

Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm.

Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes (4:32-35).

Brit Chadasha    James 2:14-24

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" – and he was called a friend of God.

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone (2:21-24).

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[i] Rashi – Considered one of the greatest commentators on the Torah and Talmud. Eleventh century. France.

[ii] Ramban –Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, aka Nachmanides, Talmudic scholar, a master of halakha (practical religious rulings) and ethics. Thirteenth century. Spain.

[iii] Chazal – Jewish Sages of earlier centuries; an acronym chet-zayin-lamed for Chachamim zikhronam  levracha, meaning: ‘The wise of blessed memory.’

[iv] Rabbi Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Second Edition, Soncino Press

[v] Lev Shestov, Russian-Jewish author of ‘Athens and Jerusalem’ holds that Greek thought is radically “reflective” rather that passionate, its face turned toward death rather than life. He writes: “Philosophy has always meant and wished to mean reflection…looking backward…[which] by its very nature, excludes the possibility and even the thought of struggle. ‘Looking backward’ paralyzes man” (90).

Referenced by Aviviah Zornberg in The Beginning of Desire, Reflections on Genesis (162).

[vi] Abravanel – (or Abarbanel) Don Isaac (1437-1508), Lisbon, Portugal – Venice, Italy. As well as a Bible commentator, he was Finance Minister to the kings of Portugal, Spain and Naples. He nevertheless suffered expulsion in 1492 during the Spanish Inquisition.

[vii] Quoted by Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Bereshit / Genesis, p.201