Vayeira: Revealing G‑d
Dear Friend,
Pat your toddler’s head and she kvells. Then her brother pats her head and she kvetches. That same tap on her head can either tell her that Daddy loves her, or that her big brother is on the attack. What’s the difference? It all depends on how she perceives the tap. One sensation, two different responses.
Life gets bumpy at times: a knock on the head here, a bang on the pocket there. However, when we view them through the prism of a good Creator, one who cares deeply, the bumps don’t hurt as much.
Perhaps this can explain why, in last week’s Torah reading, Abraham agreed to just pick up and go to Canaan, and once he got there, to relocate again to Egypt. Then this week, he is willing to go so far as to slaughter his beloved son—just because G‑d told him to. Knowing that the One who sent him there had his best in mind, he did not perceive bashings; he felt loving caresses, and responded in kind.
So when the going gets tough, I remind myself of what Abraham knew, and it gets easier.
Rabbi Dovid Zaklikowski,
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
P.S. At this moment, millions of people (including many of our team members) are weathering the storm of Hurricane Sandy. Let us join together and pray for their safety and wellbeing.
When a hurricane approaches, it doesn’t matter how much money you have or how big your house is, it matters how many batteries and flashlights and non-perishable food are in your closets. A hurricane is a great equalizer . . .
When a hurricane hits, we pray that everyone should be safe and secure, dry and warm. But we also say a blessing.
In the hours before Hurricane Sandy made landfall Monday, an e‑mail went out to several groups of volunteers in the popular Friendship Circle family of programs, which pair teenage volunteers with children with special needs.
Faced with a choice between listening to G‑d, and offering hospitality to human beings, Abraham chose the latter.
The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah have come to epitomize moral depravity and cruelty.
The purpose of work is to provide for one’s family. The purpose of eating is to gain nourishment and live. The purpose of living is to serve G‑d. The purpose of courting is to marry, and the purpose of marriage is to build a home.
Abraham is visited by three angels and is promised a son. The city of Sodom is destroyed, and Lot’s wife turns into a pillar of salt. Sarah gives birth to Isaac at the age of 90, Hagar and Ishmael are banished, and G‑d orders Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.
Like it or not, the reality is that the world is not ready to hear if we are suffering from a psychiatric ailment.
Nine hours had passed, and they weren’t finished. The movers were breaking things left and right. I anxiously looked at the clock. When would this move end?
If one considers the world in which we live, the world at large, as well as the small world, namely man, it becomes evident that there is no uniformity, but many differences, both external as well as internal.
Not only did he lodge at the Efrons’, but when he heard about the sick child, he even requested that the table be set for a meal! Everyone was astonished.
“Master of the Universe!” prayed Choni. “Your children turned to me because I am like a member of Your household. I swear by Your great name that I’m not budging from here until You have compassion on Your children!”
When the Roman emperor Julian ordered the establishment of hostels for transients in every city, he referred to the example of the Jews “in whose midst no stranger goes uncared for.”
I’m a father, and I have no idea how to bring up a Jewish boy. All I know is not to do as my father did. Although that’s generally exactly what I end up doing. I want my son to grow up strong in his Jewishness and confident about his own self.
The education hit home! Although he had discarded most of what he was taught, the habit of hospitality remained. He could not leave the homeless homeless . . .
Creativity is an exercise in paradox.
On the one hand, creativity is the artist’s expression of self.
Yet, on the other hand, the artist must remove himself from his art, with discipline and with skill, so that his creation will appear real, as though it has a life of its own.
Creation of a universe from the void ...
