This week’s parsha is called VaYerah which means, “To appear.”  Our parsha begins with haShem (god) appearing to Avraham in the form of three men.  As soon as Avraham sees them, he runs to ask them to stay and wash their feet and rest.  He then rushes to have a meal prepared for them.  Avraham and Sarah are told that she will give birth to a son in a year’s time.  Sarah laughs in disbelief.  The men/haShem go out and look at the city of Sdom (Sodom) and Avraham goes with them to escort them.

HaShem decides to tell Avraham of his plans to destroy Sdom and Avraham challenges haShem’s decision and haggles (negotiates) with haShem to not destroy the city if there are ten righteous  people in the city.

Two of the men/angels (the word for angel in Hebrew is mal’ach and also means a messenger.  Hence, in Judaism, an angel is anyone/thing who acts as a messenger.  So, each and everyone of us has probably been an angel at one time or another) are met by Lot (Avraham’s nephew) shortly after arriving in Sdom and he insists they be his guests.  The people of Sdom find out and surround Lot’s house demanding him to give them his guests.  At this point the angels reveal their purpose to Lot and send him and his wife and his daughters packing away from Sdom and then they destroy it.

After Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt, Lot takes his two daughters up into the mountains where, thinking they are the last people alive (the flood wasn’t that long ago), Lot’s daughters get him drunk in order to seduce him in order to have children and preserve the family line.  The result is a child named Moab (meaning, “From father”) and Ben-Ami (meaning, “Son of my father”) which produces the nation of Moab and the Ammonites respectively.

Meanwhile, Avraham and Sarah travel south where they do the sister trick to Avimelech, the king of Grar (see last week’s parsha when they go to Egypt for details).  This time the result is a little different, Avimelech asks Avraham why he called Sarah his sister, and Avraham prays for Avimelech so the women of his household can again have children.  Avimelech also allows Avraham and Sarah to stay in his kingdom.

Next we read of the birth of Yitzhak (Isaac) and how Sarah sees Yishmael laughing (the Hebrew word is m’tzachayk which is a conjugation of the verb that is Yitzhak’s name), and she tells Avraham to send Hagar and Yishmael packing because Hagar’s son will not inherit with her son.  Avraham isn’t too happy with this, but haShem tells him to listen to his wife and that Yishmael will become a nation as well.  So, Avraham sends the mother and the son away.

When she runs out of water, she puts Yishmael under a shrub and goes a short distance away because she doesn’t want to see her son die.  Her crying is heard by haShem who talks to her and tells her to pick him up for he is to be a great nation.  HaShem then opens her eyes to a well and she fills her water skin and give her son a drink.  Yishmael grows up and becomes an archer in the wilderness and his mother finds him a wife from Egypt.

Avimelech then pays Avraham a visit and the two of them make an oath, and Avraham continues to live where he is for some time.

It is after all of these events that haShem tests Avraham by telling him to take Yitzhak and make him an offering on one of the mountains in the land of Moreeyah.  So Avraham gets up early in the morning and goes and takes Yitzhak on a three day journey to the mountain, and then up the mountain where he makes an altar, places the wood, and ties Yitzhak and puts him on the altar and reaches out his hand to take the knife.

It is at this moment that an angel of haShem calls out to Avraham not to hurt Yitzhak, because god now knows that Avraham will not withhold his son from god.

Avraham looks up and sees a ram stuck in the bramble and offers that instead.  The two of them come down from the mountain, after god has again assured Avraham his children will be like the stars in the heavens and all the nations will bless themselves through his offspring.

The parsha ends with Avraham returning to B’ayr Sheva and learning that Milkah the wife of his brother Nachar has given birth and we get a list of the offspring including a granddaughter named Rivkah.

There are two and a half things I want to talk about here.  I’ll start with the half because it is really a continuation of something I said last week.

If you recall, last week I pointed out that the Torah seems to be saying that the masculine should always listen to the feminine.  In this week’s parsha, god really hammers the message home when Avraham is not happy with Sarah telling him to send Hagar and Yishmael away, and god has to tell Avraham to listen to Sarah even when he doesn’t like what she says and what she says seems so wrong.

Yes, in the Jewish world, the woman is the one who is to be listened to.

Now that I have that out of the way, I think I will jump to the beginning of our parsha and look at something that happens there.

We started out with Avraham sitting at the entrance of his tent and he lifts up his eyes and sees three men standing there.  He runs after them and calls for them to come back and receive his hospitality.  Specifically, in verse Breisheit (Genesis) 18:5 we read:  And I [Avraham] will take a piece of bread and satisfy your hearts, after you will pass because on thus you passed over your servant , and they said yes we will do as you spoke.

In this verse we see that they have already passed by Avraham while he wasn’t paying attention.

When he finally noticed them, he could have just said, “Oh well, an opportunity to help some travelers has passed me by.”

Instead we find him saying, “Hey wait.  Come back,” and he running after them.

The result is that they tell him he will have the son he always wanted.

You know, it is easy to grab an opportunity when you are ready and expecting it when it shows up.  Not much reward can be found in those opportunities.

But what happens when opportunity seems to have passed us by?  What happens when we look up and it seems to be too late?  It is real easy to say, “Oh well, I missed that one.”

What god is telling us here is that we don’t need to say that, to give up.

As a matter of fact, I see the Torah telling us the very opposite:  just when it appears we woke up a little late and we see opportunity has passed us by, we should run after it.  It is really a test to see how much we really want the opportunity.  If we want it bad enough, we will pursue it and persuade it to come back to us.   It is these kinds of opportunities that provide the greatest rewards!  Why do I say that?  Because Avraham was rewarded with what he wanted the most – a son from Sarah.

Before I go I want to speculate on one other thing that happens in our parsha.  It has to do with the binding of Yitzhak near the end of the parsha.

Now, I know it says that god was testing Avraham.  Why does the Torah have to tell us this?

The only answer I can think of is that there is something else going on and that other thing might make us miss the fact that this is also a test for Avraham.  The question I am begging is:  what else is going on?

Ok, I will wait until somebody asks…. there, you in the back, thanks for asking the question.   I am so glad you did; it is an excellent question.

What else is going on with the binding of Yitzhak?

To understand what I am about to say, I first need to give a little bit of background information.  Our family tradition believes that a person’s name (or anything’s name) is that person/thing’s essence.

Now Yitzhak’s name means laughter.  The question is what kind of laughter?

Well, we see this word used in a couple of places.  The first is by Sarah who laughs in disbelief when she is told she will give birth at 90.  The second place we see the word used is in regards to Yishmael.   Sarah sees Yishmael laughing (or perhaps pretending to be Yitzhak) and this is enough for Sarah to want to send him away.  The commentaries say that Yishmael was laughing because he was making fun of Yitzhak and this is what got Sarah upset.
What we see is that the essence of Yitzhak as a negative form or derisive form of laughter.   This is the essence of who Yitzhak was.

Later, in verse 21:6, we see this word used as happy laughter by Sarah at the time of Yitzhak’s birth.

I think she is trying to change the meaning of the word so that Yitzhak’s essence will be changed.   I think she is not able to completely change the essence or Yitzhak himself for he is already born.   Yitzhak himself has to do it.  And in order to do it, he has to give himself, surrender himself totally to god.

Before I explain how he does this, I want to explain one word that we are about to see.  The Hebrew word Olah means to go up, and it also means an offering that is completely burned on the altar.

“What is the connection between these two ideas?” I hears somebody ask.

The connection is that all of the sacrifice goes up in flames to haShem.  None of it stays behind.

This is what has to happen to Yitzhak.  He must be willing to totally allow himself to be consumed with serving haShem in order to change the essence of his name.  This, in turn, will not only change his essence, but the essence of every other person who was ever, or will ever be named Yitzhak.  Pretty heavy stuff.

So, how can Yitzhak do this?

By becoming an Olah offering.

This is why god tells Avraham to make Yitzhak and Olah, a burnt offering to haShem.

Now, why do I say that Yitzhak went along with this?

Well, if you sneak a look at the beginning of the next parsha, we find that it starts off with Sarah’s death at the age of 127.  While the Torah does not connect her death to the binding of Yitzhak, some commentators do, and that would make Yitzhak 37 and Avraham 137 when Avraham bound Yitzhak and put him on the altar.

I personally have a tough time believing that Avraham could have bound Yitzhak without hurting him (a sacrifice must not have a blemish) when Yitzhak is a robust 37 and Avraham an old 137, unless Yitzhak acquiesced to the proceedings.

I have also heard that for a sacrifice to be kosher, it must be calm when it is killed.  Again this must mean that Yitzhak knew and accepted what has happening.

And why was Yitzhak calm and ok with being an olah?  Because he knew that it was the only way to change his essence, and hence the essence of the name Yitzhak for all future generations, from a negative type of laughter, to a laughter that was joyous in complete service to haShem.

Our loving god, saw that the intention of both Avraham and Yitzhak was so complete on their purpose, that they completed the transformation without Yitzhak having to die, and this is why the angel called out to Avraham to not hurt Yitzhak and this is why a ram was there to be used in Yitzhak’s place.

I hope this makes sense and that it helps in your understanding of both the Torah and the world around us.

If you want to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.