Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 15 Cheshvan, 5785

Good morning and Shabbat Shalom! The full moon last night was gorgeous!  I hope you got to experience it!

Today, we finish out Va-Yera – and he appeared.  It is the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice the miracle child Isaac. Abraham was on the edge of killing Isaac, and then Hashem appeared.

Abraham was willing to let go of the most precious part of who he was – his role as a dad. And if he had fought with Hashem, maybe he would be no worse for wear. Lived a long life as a dad, and been none the wiser about the opportunity he missed.

And?  He was willing to be vulnerable. To sacrifice it all. He trusted Hashem to provide.

I wrote this as the main lesson from today’s portion, and I feel it is still apropos:

Today’s lesson – we must be vulnerable and ask for the Universe to provide. And. We don’t need to ask because the Universe knows. This is freedom.

What are YOUR thoughts?

Here are my thoughts from last year:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 20 Cheshvan, 5784
Parsha Va-Yera’: (Genesis 18:1-22:24) 
Seventh Portion: Genesis 22:1-22:24

Shabbat Shalom! We close out Va-Yera’ (An He Appeared) with POWER.  I am going to dig into the Torah AND Haftorah portion today because we have a lot of really interesting imagery. 

To summarize the Torah before jumping in:

• Hashem asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac (the miracle child who Hashem provided an egg supernaturally for)
• Hashem provides a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead of the miracle child
• Hashem makes a promise.

To summarize the Haftorah:

• Elisha meets a desperate woman who asks for help and blesses her with abundance beyond what she could carry.
• Elisha meets a woman who has everything but a child and asks for nothing. Instead, she PROVIDES Elisha a place to stay
• Elisha is grateful and asks how he can repay her. She says she doesn’t need anything.
• Elisha discovers through a third party that she wants a son but can’t because her husband is too old
• Elisha brings her to him and tells her she will have a child, she doesn’t believe him
• She has a miracle child!
  • Remember – dad can’t have a son because he’s too old. So – virgin birth?
• The kid grows up and tells his dad his head hurts asks dad to take him to his mom
• Kid gets to his mom AND DIES
• She doesn’t tell her husband, but instead asks him to get someone to go get Elisha.
• He asks why? She tells him “all is well.”
• Elisha sends his servant to meet mom, and he asks how she’s doing. She tells him “all is well.”
• Mom gets to Elisha and pours out her heart to him. Elisha sends his servant to heal the boy. Mom and Elisha go with him, but servant goes into the room first
• Servant does it wrong.
• Elisha and mom go to the house and Elisha does a ritual to bring the boy back to life.

So this is the overall view of the portion and Haftorah today!

Let’s dig in!

1And it came to pass after these things, that God tested Abraham, and He said to him, “Abraham,” and he said, “Here I am.”

2And He said, “Please take your son, your only one, whom you love, yea, Isaac, and go away to the land of Moriah and bring him up there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I will tell you.”

3And Abraham arose early in the morning, and he saddled his donkey, and he took his two young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for a burnt offering, and he arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

4On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

5And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder, and we will prostrate ourselves and return to you.”

6And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, and he placed [it] upon his son Isaac, and he took into his hand the fire and the knife, and they both went together.

7And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and he said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8And Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And they both went together.

Remember, Isaac is a miracle child. Hashem provided the egg, Abraham provided the seed.  And Hashem is asking him to be willing to sacrifice this miracle child.  Talk about letting go of your well (see yesterday’s thought on this)!

Abraham was trusting Hashem would appear. Let’s keep going:

9And they came to the place of which God had spoken to him, and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and he bound Isaac his son and placed him on the altar upon the wood.

10And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife, to slaughter his son.

11And an angel of God called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

12And he said, “Do not stretch forth your hand to the lad, nor do the slightest thing to him, for now I know that you are a God fearing man, and you did not withhold your son, your only one, from Me.”

13And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he saw, and lo! There was a ram, [and] after [that] it was caught in a tree by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Think of how close to the edge Abraham got. He raised the knife. Death was sinking in. And then. Hashem appeared.

How close do we ever get to the edge?

Here is a personal story. For this moment. Yesterday, my oldest daughter and I were scheduled to take a road trip to my hometown four hours away.  The friends we were going to stay with had a family emergency. Last year this group of friends (who have been a SIGNIFCANT part of my healing journey) held our first “Friendsgiving” ever.  Tonight is our second. I almost wasn’t able to go. 

Some friends from the group reached out and offered to put my daughter and I up in a local hotel.  I couldn’t afford this on my own – but they reached out.  The message they sent was “You deserve to be at Friendsgiving.” 

I was in tears. I was struggling in the morning because I thought I was going to need to cancel this trip. And they came through. Because they believed I was deserving to be there.

That is healing. These are people I knew when I was 17 and 18. They knew me at my literal worst. My father had died. My mom had mental health issues she was battling. I felt like a pariah.  And these humans saw my humanity and loved me when I couldn’t even love myself.

This is sacrifice. This is love.  This is freedom. This is liberation.

And it could not have happened had I not been vulnerable. I had to take the first step and ask for help.  I reached out to see if anyone else had a place for us to stay.  And this was the response. 

Hashem provides. Because we deserve to be here. ALL OF US. 

If you feel undeserving – reach out. Hashem provides.  What we need.  But let’s keep going.

14And Abraham named that place, The Lord will see, as it is said to this day: On the mountain, the Lord will be seen.

My home – West Chester, PA.  My school, Westtown Friends. Hashem Provides. Let’s keep going:

15And an angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven.

16And he said, “By Myself have I sworn, says the Lord, that because you have done this thing and you did not withhold your son, your only one,

17That I will surely bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your descendants will inherit the cities of their enemies.

18And through your children shall be blessed all the nations of the world, because you hearkened to My voice.”

19And Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer sheba; and Abraham remained in Beer sheba.

20And it came to pass after these matters, that it was told to Abraham saying: “Behold Milcah, she also bore sons to Nahor your brother.

21Uz, his first born, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel, the father of Aram.

22And Kesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.

23And Bethuel begot Rebecca.” These eight did Milcah bear to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.

24And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, had also given birth to Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.

After all of this – Hashem demonstrates promise and abundance. Promise and abundance. 

Let’s add to our learning:

• The Path of Ascension begins with curiosity and not judgement
• If someone’s curiosity causes doubt and defensiveness, be curious about our own doubt and defensiveness and NOT their motives for curiosity.
• The tree of life is within us. Choose life within with curiosity and not judgment
• Learn to balance the comfort of stumbling, with the challenge of pushing ourselves towards spiritual growth.
• Let go of a stable life. Freedom is accepting “what is” as a blessing. We can’t control what happens. We can only navigate it with bitterness or flow.
• Freedom requires balance – emotions vs intellect, humility vs confidence, thinking as an individual while staying meaningfully connected to others.
• Freedom comes from expansion and not contraction – but contraction is important to the process of expansion
• To live free, we must circumcise the foreskin of past trauma and feel the pain of healing so that our higher selves can appear to us, and we can co-create miraculous NEW life for us and others.
• To be free, we must understand what love requires vs the world around us. 10%.  Just start there. Freedom is seeing the 10% and moving to 11%. Not being trapped by the daunting 90% we feel guilt and shame about.  The 90% is slavery. The 10% is freedom.
• Receive the Universe. Don’t Resist it. This is the path to freedom and liberation.

Today’s lesson – we must be vulnerable and ask for the Universe to provide. And. We don’t need to ask because the Universe knows. This is freedom.

We see in the Haftorah portion this play out:

The first woman asked Elisha for help out of desperation – and abundance was provided.

The second woman didn’t ask and still received a blessing. But then went through losing it, but then got it back.

It’s both/and not either or.

What are your thoughts?