Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 11 Cheshvan, 5784
Parsha Lekh Lekha: (Genesis 12:1 -17:27) 
Sixth Portion: Genesis 15:7 -17:6

Today’s portion is significantly long and covers a LOT of ground.  Let’s go!

Yesterday, we left off focused on safety.  Remember, verse 7 seems to be a fulcrum for us.  I had originally read verse 7 as a part of yesterday’s portion, but it is ACTUALLY the beginning of today’s.

15:7And He said to him, “I am the Lord, Who brought you forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”

We start today’s portion with Hashem establishing safety for us.  Our safety comes from being reminded that Hashem is the Lord. He is the one who journeys with us every step of the way.

Today’s portion will ALSO focus on time and timing (see commentary from previous years below).

Every moment that has brought us to THIS moment? Hashem has been with us.  He has “brought us forth” from our past to THIS moment. This moment of safety.  And what did Abram do with this moment of safety? Let’s read:

8And he said, “O Lord God, how will I know that I will inherit it?”

I love Abram; don’t you? Hashem has established he is safe. Trustworthy.  And Hashem tells him – “I am going to give this to you.”  And Abram’s response?

How will I know?

And does Hashem respond in anger? No. He immediately says –

9And He said to him, “Take for Me three heifers and three goats and three rams, and a turtle dove and a young bird.”

10And he took for Him all these, and he divided them in the middle, and he placed each part opposite its mate, but he did not divide the birds.

11And the birds of prey descended upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

12Now the sun was ready to set, and a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold, a fright, a great darkness was falling upon him.

13And He said to Abram, “You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for four hundred years.

14And also the nation that they will serve will I judge, and afterwards they will go forth with great possessions.

15But you will come to your forefathers in peace; you will be buried in a good old age.

What I absolutely LOVE about this?  Is Hashem basically says “you know, because you follow my directions.”  And Abram following Hashem’s direction led Abram to a dream. It was a tough dream to fathom – it was going to be ROUGH waters ahead – but Abram will die in peace and in good age.

Isn’t that the goal? To come to death in peace? To be buried in a good old age?  This is the love of Hashem.  It’s not that our lives will be easy or stable.  There will be rough waters. There will be wars won (don’t forget the context here is a great war Hashem helped 318 men win over a powerful army that just beat 5 kings).  But that we can have peace in each moment until our death.

After this, Hashem makes a covenant with Abram.  A binding contract. Abram did NOT have kids at this point, and Hashem tells Abram that he will have seeds to inherit the land in the future.

And what happens next? We meet Sarai’s handmaiden, Hagar. I wrote extensively about this two years ago, and it is worth an additional read.  ESPECIALLY what is going on in our world right now. Because the seed of Hagar (Arabs) and the seed of Sarai (Jews) have major conflicts that date back GENERATIONS.

What I think I keep coming back to is the hubris we feel today that somehow we can “fix” the conflict that has been ongoing for generations.  We can’t “fix” the conflict.  All we can do is heal.  The Torah has been prescriptive so far on this:

• 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

If we each followed these prescriptions, we might draw closer to peace.

The chapter ends with Hashem telling Abram what his covenant is, but before we get there, I want to focus on Hashem making his FIRST promise to Hagar before she gave birth (Genesis 16:10-13):

10And the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your seed, and it will not be counted for abundance.”

11And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you will conceive and bear a son, and you shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your affliction.

12And he will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be upon all, and everyone’s hand upon him, and before all his brothers he will dwell.”

13And she called the name of the Lord, Who had spoken to her, “You are the God of seeing,” because she said, “Have I seen [him] here also after I have seen?”

Again.  The theme of time.  Hashem sees. He is the “God of seeing” because He exists OUTSIDE of time.  Outside of our timeline.  He knows the future because He sees it already.  He knows the free choices we will make.  And He still helps and unfolds things for us in a way that is for our best.

Today’s portion closes with this (Genesis 17:1-6)

1And Abram was ninety-nine years old, and God appeared to Abram, and He said to him, “I am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be perfect.

2And I will place My covenant between Me and between you, and I will multiply you very greatly.”

3And Abram fell upon his face, and God spoke with him, saying,

4″As for Me, behold My covenant is with you, and you shall become the father of a multitude of nations.

5And your name shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

6And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings will emerge from you.

The key here (in my opinion) is this:

Hashem walks with us through great wars. Great turmoil. Rough waters. He brings us to THIS moment.  And THIS moment. And THIS moment. And He knows the next moment before WE do.

And; despite our doubts and struggles (Abram asks Hashem for a sign – “How will I know?”) Hashem continues to remind us – He is with us. Within us. And. Each moment that arrives? We can begin again. Start over.  Be given a NEW name.  A NEW identity.  And HOW he does this is amazing.

To change Abram’s name, Hashem inserts the Hebrew letter Hei from His divine name into the middle of Abram’s name.  Abram goes from “Father of Aram” to “Father of ALL nations” by the insertion of one letter from Hashem’s name.  In a sense, Abram ascends because Hashem is literally in him. Abram only need to look within his NEW name to see Hashem.  He is NOW Abraham.  This is a significant transition.  For more on names, click here to see a great resource from Chabad.

What do our lives look like when Hashem changes our name? Our essence? The truth is (in my opinion) Hashem doesn’t.  The truth is (in my opinion) that Abram was ALWAYS Abraham – he just wasn’t ready to see it. Until he was.

The better question for us is – what do our lives look like when we SEE and ACKNOWLEDGE Hashem within us -in our Neshama? To discover what has ALWAYS been true of us – but we did not have the eyes to see or ears to hear?

This is the promise. This is the change.  This is the awakening.

This is ALSO the prescription from ending up in slavery.  Let’s see where this goes, because so far, Hashem has been giving us a lot of tools to avoid being imprisoned.

What are YOUR thoughts?

Here are my thoughts from the past two years:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for Cheshvan 10, 5783

I’m reflecting on today’s passage and the thoughts I wrote last year. There is a lot here on timing. How often do we want to rush forward and “make it happen” quickly – instead of just letting things unfold the way they are “supposed” to.

There is this sense in us that we are always supposed to be “efforting” in order to receive a blessing. But sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. We can trust those circumstances are for our good.

Todays passage also jumps out at me because of the reference to slavery in Egypt. The Torah is foreshadowing the fulcrum here. That our journey right now is a descent into slavery. Adam was mostly free – just one thing he and Eve couldn’t do- eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But even that was restricting.

Noah, after the flood was also free. But he planted a vineyard.

Abram is free too; but he was making choices that built a prison for himself.

I think one of my takeaways today is how much the physical world is a prison; our souls have chosen to be here; we have chosen to have needs.

It’s been tough to wrap my head around the idea of God needing something. Meir Rubashkin once challenged me (and continues to do so) by discussing the concept that God made the choice to need each and every one of us. That’s how He created us.

And that is why our time on earth here is so important. He designed us with these needs. And Hashem is also responsible for ultimately meeting those needs. We don’t have to effort at it; but we do need to act. That is what the mitzvahs are about. Doing good in the world and blessing others is a part of what Hashem needs us to do. And. If we don’t follow through, it’s ok. He has others who can bless others and can do what Hashem needs to do.

It’s A really interesting thought! What do you think?

Tyler’s Torah thoughts for 9 Cheshvan, 5782:

Today’s portion is a little longer, so bear that in mind;

1. The portion starts out with Hashem telling Abram he was giving him land as an inheritance, and then Abram asking Hashem for a sign.

Which is really interesting considering just before Abram believed that Hashem would make his children as numerous as the skies without asking for a sign.

Why did the promise of children not require a sign, but a promise of land did? I’m chewing on that.

Could it be because of confirmation bias? Abram REALLLY wanted kids of his own. He even complained to Hashem earlier about being childless. When Hashem said Abram would have kids, he wanted to believe that, and so didn’t need any kind of evidence it was true.

On the other hand, Abram really wasn’t pushing for more land. In fact, he had the opportunity for more land with Sodom. When Hashem promised him land as an inheritance – he wanted a sign. Interesting.

So Abram followed Hashem’s directions – and made a sacrifice. Which; to be honest is odd, given that he was literally listening to Hashem’s voice; that wasn’t enough to believe. Abram wanted more.

Then Abram fell into sleep and Hashem gave him a vision that would allude to what was to come for Abram’s descendants.

There is an interesting part here that stood out to me….

2. Hashem tells Abram his descendants will return to the land he was in, because the “Ammorites will not be completely sinful until then.”

This is interesting because It teaches us that Hashem allows things to process naturally. There was a timing that was important here for us to understand. The Jews went into Egypt for 400 years, and left with wealth to come back to the land; which the Ammorites were living in, but weren’t sinful enough to drive out.

As a Jew, there is some hope here that the Torah is very clear that things work out according to Hashem’s timeline and not our own. We can trust this.

If I put myself in the shoes of the Ammorites, there is a sense that my actions impact Hashem. My decision to be “sinful” or not make a difference on Hashem’s plans even as someone technically “not chosen.” There is some cognitive dissonance here because this passage REALLY communicates love and compassion for all; Jew or non-Jew. There is always a chance.

Hashem then struck a covenant with Abram. Telling Abram this was the land being given to Abram.

3. Next, we read about Sarai not having children. Sarai could see the critical point that Abram was to have descendants and took it upon herself to convince Hagar to be with Abram to produce offspring. Abram listened to Sarai and thought this is the way to go.

Sarai gave Hagar to Abram to be his wife. And, Hagar conceived.

When Hagar got pregnant and realized Sarai hadn’t, Hagar began to think of herself higher (and better) than Sarai. Rashi writes “Hagar thought ‘Sarai’s inner character is not the same as what she presents. She appears to be righteous but she is obviously not – the proof being that in all these years she has not merited to become pregnant from Abram, whereas I became pregnant from him right away.”

Again, the theme of timing is brought up. It is a mistake to think fast = better. The timing is always perfect in Hashem’s eyes. Hagar made a big mistake.

Now; what is Also Left out of the story it seems, and the ancient writings share is that Hagar had a miscarriage. She was not pregnant with Ishmael at this time. We know this because later an angel tells Hagar she will conceive and bear a son named Ishmael. So; what happened to this current pregnancy.

The writing suggest Sarai was upset because of how Hagar changed the way she treated her, and Sarai gave Hagar the evil eye, which caused her to miscarry. It’s an interesting thought for sure; but the bottom line is that the Torah does seem to indicate Hagar had a miscarriage.

4. Sarai then goes to Abram because he was in the wrong as well here. She lays out the charge. The writings Indicate one of the issues is Abram didn’t pray for Sarai; only himself (typical selfish Husband. I can completely relate), in addition, when Abram got what he wanted (a pregnancy) he lost interest in his wife. Then, Sarai tells Abram to “let God judge between me and you.”

Abram’s response? He gave Sarai back her handmaiden. Then we get an interesting and difficult to swallow passage:

“Sarai mistreated her (Hagar) and she ran away from her.”

Ick.

Why did Sarai mistreat her? Was it anger? Was it jealousy?

Rabbi Isaac Abravenel in the 15th century writes; “Sarai was not, God forbid, taking revenge and afflicting Hagar for libeling her. Rather Sarai’s actions were intended as a course of character refinement. When something goes out of shape, often the only course of action is to be bend it the other way. Once Sarai saw that Hagar had lost focus and stepped out of line by maligning her mistress, she felt it necessary to employ a ‘tough love’ approach.

5. Hagar did not respond well to this; she ran away. And an angel appeared to Hagar to convince her to go back and subjugate herself to Sarai; and that she would be blessed by doing so. She would have so many descendants they would not be able to be counted. Hagar’s response was to call Hashem “the God of vision”.
6. Because Hagar had said she had seen angels in Abram’s house, she was surprised to encounter angels in the place she ran away to. Because of this; the well where she was is named “Beer-Lahai-Roi” which means the well at which the living angel appeared.”

Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram when he was 86 years old.

7. Fast forward 13 years later to Abram as a 99 year old man. Hashem appears to Abram and tells Abram to come close, worship, and “be perfect.” He tells Abram he will place his covenant between them and multiply Abram.

Now wait. “Be perfect?” Um. How? The Talmud actually refers to this as the act of circumcision. Abram is only “perfect” once he is circumcised.

Rabbi Judah Aryeh Leib Alter of Gur (that name…wow) in the 19th century expanded;

“How does circumcision bring you to ‘perfection?’ Perfection is reached when you diminish yourself and annihilate your ego before God. You very existence ‘flows’ from Hashem, so -paradoxically – it is only by surrendering your ego to Him that you can sustain your existence in the most complete sense.

That is why the precept of circumcision is assigned to this particular organ, where the power of reproduction lies – the most potent of all human powers. Right here, there needs to be an indication that man is inherently deficient and that he is reliant on Hashem in order to be whole.”

I’m chewing on this; honestly, other than “because Hashem said to” or “it’s tradition” I hadn’t heard or considered much more when it comes to circumcision.

The idea that we circumcise boys at the age of 8 days indicates that really we aren’t perfect; and we need Hashem to make us perfect.

And; that women aren’t required to be circumcised might indicate they are a smidge more perfect than men? Just sayin.

8. (Last one). Hashem then renames Abram to Abraham. Because Abraham is the father of a multitude of nations.

Whew. There is a lot here. I will leave you with this spiritual vitamin quote from the Torah I am reading; “Democracy and freedom should not be a cauldron of assimilation, but rather the contrary: they offer the possibility for you to take your place, enjoy your rights, and live according to your faith 100%!”

Would love any and all thoughts! Wishing you a Shabbat shalom as the sun sets this evening!