Torah Thoughts Va Yetze

Torah Thoughts
Genesis 28:10 – 32:3   Parshat Va-yetze
December 6, 2008   9 Kislev, 5769

Remember the V-8 commercials? When the guy in the ad would slap his head and say, “Wow, I cudda had a V-8.” This week’s Torah portion always reminds me of that commercial. Jacob, on his escape route, running away from a tricked father and way-too-angry brother, camps out for a night. He has a weird dream in which he sees angels going up and down a ladder. He hears a blessing from G!d, and when he wakes up from his dream, he slaps his head (well, I see him as doing that, the text doesn’t say so) and he says: “G!d was in this place and I, i didn’t know it.”  (See Rabbi Lawrence Kushner’s book with the same words as the title for an explanation of the double “i”. )

Lots of us have had that kind of experience. We think a place or an experience is going to be just the usual kind of thing, and then all of a sudden we realize after it is over that it was special, awesome, strange, amazing. We most often see the places where G!d has been. We read and talk about our desire to see God, to respond to some of the awesome nature of our existence, thinking that somehow “seeing is believing”. Many of us ask for and await “a sign” of G!d in our lives, some remarkable, unexplainable feat to convince of us beyond any doubt of G!d’s existence.

Even Moses, our most famous teacher and prophet, asks G!d to allow him to “behold G!d’s Presence”. It’s an odd request from a guy who has been sitting on a mountain for 40 days taking dictation from that very God. But G!d’s answer is even stranger: G!d will allow Moses to see G!d’s Presence, but not G!d’s face, only the back of God, whatever that might be.

Moses is shown that he cannot see G!d directly. He can only see G!d’s Presence in the past tense, where G!d has been. So too, with us. We also are allowed to see G!d in the past tense – where G!d’s Presence has touched us personally and has touched the world. When we are filled with awe and wonder at the world, when we find the places where G!d has been, we are as close as we can be to G!d. That’s what Jacob experiences in this week’s Torah portion.

In another Biblical “wow” moment, Elijah the prophet told of how he experienced the Presence of G!d: The Holy One passed by. There was a great and mighty wind, splitting mountains and shattering rock by the power of G!d; but the Holy One was not in the wind. After the wind – an earthquake; but G!d was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, fire; but the Holy One was not in the fire. And after the fire, a thin voice of silence.”

G!d is not only in the big deals, the high places, the “special effects”, but rather is present in the voices of silence, touching hearts, shaping souls. According to Rabbi David Wolpe, “G!d does not reach down to remove tumors. But G!d grants courage, helps us to hope, strengthens our souls, and stiffens our spine. G!d helps community cohere. In the stillness and isolation of illness, we can hear G!d’s voice of silence speak to us, and through us.”

We can see G!d’s Presence in our own lives most often and clearly when we look back and see acts of loving kindness, which are reflections of G!d. As human beings, as reflections of G!d’s image, we can see G!d in the work of our hands and the ways human beings reflect G!d’s Presence.

We do G!d’s work with our own hands. We are the vehicles through which G!d’s Presence is experienced on earth, even if it’s in a still small voice, even if it’s just from the back, just in hindsight, even if it’s in weird dreams that will be interpreted and reinterpreted forever.

Jacob has this amazing moment when he realizes that the place where he went to sleep was a holy place, not because of the particular rocks there, but because this was a place where he saw God, where he experienced the holy. Think back in your life. Are there places where G!d has been, and you didn’t know it? Are we the guy in the commercial, realizing, after the fact, that we were in the Presence of G!d?

May we all be blessed with awareness of G!d’s Presence in our lives, in the amazing moments, and in the small, incredible insights we have when we hear the thin voice of silence.  May the works of our hands be pleasing to G!d, as they reflect G!d’s Presence.


Rabbi H. Rafael Goldstein, BCC
Spiritual Life Coach
Dynamics of Hope Consultants
www.dynamicsofhope.com
ravrafael@earthlink.net
602-459-1819

Torah Thoughts – Ha-yei Sarah

Torah Thoughts
Genesis 23:1- 25:18   Ha-yay Sarah
November 22, 2008     25 Heshvan 5769

This week’s Torah portion begins with the sadness of the death of our matriarch Sarah. Following almost immediately the story of the Akedah, the Binding of Isaac, one has to feel for Abraham’s pain in losing his beloved wife, especially after the near-tragedy of sacrificing his son. He was so alone, and so sad. The Torah says he wept and mourned for his wife. Isaac is not around, for reasons that are not all that clear. Abraham focuses on doing what he can, burying his dead. He spends a lot of time negotiating the purchase of the first piece of land associated with the Jewish people and the land of Israel, the Cave of the Mahpelah, which is in Hebron.

Abraham goes from mourning to the purchase of real estate, to making sure that Isaac is married to an appropriate woman from the “old country”. The text digresses from Abraham’s life to that of the arranged marriage of Isaac and Rebecca, a wedding we are not sure Abraham attended. (After the Akedah, Isaac and Abraham never had another conversation recorded in the Bible.) We know Abraham is involved in Isaac’s life, but we don’t get to see their interaction.

Abraham seems so old in this Torah portion. It even says so in Gen 24:1 “Abraham was now old, advanced in years”. When he purchased the Cave of the Mahpelah, surely he expected to be buried rather soon next to the woman whom he loved who has predeceased him, but not by much!  Sarah died at 127 years of age. Abraham was 137 years old when she died. In arranging for his son’s marriage, Abraham seems to have taken care of all the essentials of his own life, getting his house in order, and seems ready to die.

Then there’s an incredible notation in the story. Abraham remarried! He had five additional children with his new wife, Keturah. Abraham lived another 38 years after Sarah’s death. Even though Isaac inherited his entire estate, the sons of Abraham’s “concubines” inherited gifts, and were sent to the east, to be away from Isaac. My question: What concubines? Keturah was a wife, not a concubine, so that means that Abraham was involved with even more women! (It’s plural!) At his age!!!

No one challenges the idea that Sarah was the love of Abraham’s life; that they were “b’shert” (fated) to be together. But after she died, Abraham somehow managed to go on, to rebuild his life, to prosper, to even find happiness after Sarah was no longer alive. The Torah says that when Abraham died, he died at “a good old age, old and satisfied”. And all too often we miss this important message in the Torah: even in loss, we go on, we rebuild, we continue, we grow.

All of us suffer all kinds of loss throughout our lives. Loss is inevitable. We lose people we love, jobs and homes, friends and pets, fortunes and challenges. But we can’t stay frozen in our losses. Life goes on, and we have to adjust to living without the person or people we love, without the homes we grew up in or where our children grew, without the companions with whom we shared our lives. It’s hard for all of us. Loss happens.

It was not easy for Abraham either. But it is the only thing we can do in our loss – to move forward, to remember, to keep the memory alive even as we live beyond the experiences we shared. The Torah demands that we “choose life”. That’s what Abraham does in this Torah portion – he continues to live as fully as he can, as long as he can, experiencing both the sorrows and joys of his life, dying in fullness of years and fullness of life.

We learn from our losses. These are the hardest lessons of life – not a schooling any of us welcomes. But our losses teach us that we can endure, that we really are strong, that there is meaning and even hope in learning to adjust to loss. Loss teaches us to cherish what we have all the more, as long as we have it, and as long as we can remember what we no longer can touch.

As we struggle with our own personal losses, may we also be inspired by the hope and courage affirmed by Abraham in this week’s Torah portion. May the Source of Strength, who helped Abraham through his sadness, also help us to find the better times, the good, the fullness, the blessings, in our own lives.

Torah Thoughts Vayera

Torah Thoughts
Parshat Vayera Genesis 17:27 – 22:24
November 15, 2008       18 Heshvan 5769

This week’s Torah portion, Vayera, begins with Abraham having just circumcised himself at age 99. Talk about an incredible amount of faith! I can’t even begin to project how this experience worked for Abraham. But I’d be sure that anyone who had done such a thing to himself would be at home, in bed, trying to recuperate, at least physically. How one recovers emotionally or psychologically is difficult for me to determine, but one thing is clear – Abraham is not in need of any kind off spiritual healing. His self-inflicted wound, a marking Jewish men continue to carry on our bodies, is a sign of a covenant, brit, with that which can lead to healing.

Instead of lying in bed to recover, Abraham is sitting at the entrance of his tent. Some of us can understand that need – to get right out of bed after we have been ill or have had surgery. Sometimes, the sooner we return to some sense of normalcy, the faster the pace of our recovery seems to be. So there is Abraham, getting back out there, ready, willing, even if not quite able, to start doing some mitzvot, bringing his life back to normal.

The text then tells us something amazing: G!d appears before Abraham as he’s sitting at the entrance of his tent. The rabbis point out that this means that G!d visits the sick. G!d is engaged in bikkur holim, and this is one of the bases for our practice of visiting the sick. The text just says G!d appeared. And then, all of a sudden, Abraham looks up and sees three men standing in front of him.   Abraham ran to greet them and said, ‘Please come in! I’ll bring some water, and you can wash up and rest…’ Abraham hurried to Sarah’s tent and said, ‘Quickly make three cakes.’ Abraham ran to his cattle, selected a choice one, and gave it to his son who rushed to prepare it…” (Genesis 18:1-8)

Abraham treats the guests royally and serves the finest foods, he involves his family in the mitzvah, and he’s zealous in making it all happen. He seems to have completely forgotten the ordeal he has put his own body through, and he’s back in charge, giving orders, making the guests comfortable. We usually tell people to rest after surgery. Take some time to heal.  But that’s not what Abraham is doing.

Something about the whole sequence of events is very strange: at the beginning of the story, G!d appears to Abraham, and the next thing you know, Abraham leaves to attend to three strangers. What happened to his conversation with G!d? Imagine you’re in the middle of speaking to the new President of the United States. Would you ever say, “Hold on a second, there are some strangers walking by. (Not even at the door, just walking down the street!)  I’ll get back to you later”? So what made Abraham think putting G!d on hold was the right thing to do?

The answer is that there is an experience even greater than talking to G!d. And that is to be like G!d. Our primary goal, in all that we do, is to be like G!d. According to Rabbi Harold Schulweis, (sermon for Yom Kippur 2002) “The purpose of prayer is not the adulation of G!d, but the imitation of G!d, not the admiration of G!d, but the emulation of G!d’s ways. G!d is the ideal, the model to be emulated by me in my life horizontally, between me and you, and my family and friends, brother, sister, son, and daughter.”

The rabbis spelled out the moral correlation, “As G!d is merciful, you should be merciful.  As G!d is compassionate, you should be compassionate. As G!d forgives, you should forgive. As G!d visits the sick, you should visit the sick.”

How do you experience G!d? You experience G!d’s love when you love. You experience G!d’s forgiveness when you forgive. When we act like G!d, do that which we want G!d to do, we experience G!d. Human beings are created in the image of G!d which means we are supposed to see ourselves emulating G!d’s work in all that we do, bringing G!d into the experiences we have, and the ways we touch others’ lives, to do the things G!d would want, and to know that people come first, no matter what.

So that was what Abraham was doing: he broke off his conversation with G!d in order to be more like G!d, to do what G!d would want for other people, who come first. What a radical notion!  Taking care of people was even more important to Abraham than chatting with G!d! And G!d blessed him for getting his priorities straight.

Abraham set a good example for all of us:  not to just talk to or with G!d, but to do G!d’s work, with our own hands. Abraham goes out of his way to demonstrate that what G!d desires most is for us to be more like G!d. When he was still recovering from surgery, Abraham managed to find healing in being G!d’s active partner, emulating G!d, representing G!d’s Presence.

May we all be blessed with the wisdom and courage to see clearly what is most important, like our ancestor Abraham, fulfilling the words of our prophet Micah: to do justice, love mercy and to walk humbly with G!d.