Vayeira

Genesis 18:1–22:24

Reading between the Lines

D'var Torah By: David Segal for ReformJudaism.com

Few of our sacred stories are as famous—or as provocative—as the Akeidah, the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22). Each year when we read it publicly at the High Holidays, I try to imagine how it comes across to those Jews who come to services only at that season. If your only Jewish religious experience consisted of hearing the story of a fanatical father who took his son up a mountain to slaughter him, would you come back for more?

But taking Torah at face value is not the Jewish way. We are Yisrael, the people who wrestle with God and with our sacred text. The Bible's redactors could have excised this problematic story of the near sacrifice of a beloved son, but they left it in. The question for us as readers is, why? What can we learn from it?

The Rabbis of our tradition teach us that a close reading of text can reveal meanings hidden beneath the surface. When they read the Akeidah, they identify an apparent theological issue. At the climax of the tale, the angel commands Abraham, "Do not lay your hand on the lad" (Genesis 22:12). Rashi brings a midrash to highlight the problem:

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Lech L'cha

Genesis 12:1−17:27

The Eternal said to Abram, "Go forth from your land, your birthplace, your father's house, to the land that I will show you." - Genesis 12:1

D'var Torah By: David Segal for ReformJudaism.com

Choosing to Be Chosen

Once, I was invited to address a local middle school class as they began a unit on the history of world religions. The teacher asked me to summarize Judaism in about 10 minutes. At least I had more time than Hillel when he explained the Torah "on one foot."1 But where was I to begin? I decided to start with Abraham, the first Jew.

I didn't have time then to analyze the complexities of Abraham's legacy and the questions raised by his call from God. Why did God choose him? Why did God make a covenant with a family rather than, say, anyone willing to behave in a certain way? Addressing these questions gets to the very heart of what it means to be Jewish.

The Torah gives us little indication about the reasoning behind God's choice of Abraham. We read simply, "The Eternal One said to Abram, 'Go forth from your land, your birthplace, your father's house, to the land that I will show you'" (Genesis 12:1). Midrashic tradition has offered various back stories to show Abraham's worthiness retroactively. In one midrash, "Abraham learned Torah all by himself" (Midrash T'hillim 1:13); in another, a three-year old Abraham comes to monotheism through his own intellectual insight (Beit HaMidrash 2:118-196). Then there's the famous story of Abraham smashing the idols in his father's shop (B'reishit Rabbah 38:13). These traditions seek to portray Abraham as a heroic monotheist, ahead of his time in devotion to the one God.

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Rosh Chodesh 2, Noah

Genesis 6:9−11:32


D'var Torah By: David Segal for ReformJudaism.com

• This is Noah's chronicle. Noah was a righteous man; in his generation, he was above reproach: Noah walked with God. - Genesis 6:9

The world's first "skyscraper" was built after the great Flood. All of humanity, unified by a single language, decided to build "a tower that reaches the sky" (Genesis 11:4), known today as the Tower of Babel. I've always taken this story as an act of defiance and hubris; God reacted by dispersing the people and confusing their speech.

A midrash depicts the height of the people's arrogance: " 'Come,' they said, 'let us make a tower, place an image on its top, and put a sword in its hand, and it will seem that it is waging war against [God]' " (B'reishit Rabbah 38:6). If there was any ambiguity in the Torah, the midrash has removed it. These people were asking for God's retaliation!

Hubris wasn't their only transgression. Careful readers will note that the "Babel builders" (as one of my bar mitzvah students likes to call them) disobeyed a direct command of God from earlier in the parashah. After the Flood, God blessed Noah and commanded him and his offspring: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1). Rather than filling the earth, these people settled in one valley. Rather than being fruitful, they devoted themselves single-mindedly to a self-aggrandizing construction project.

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B'reishit

Genesis 1:1−6:8

Deconstructing Adam

D'var Torah By: David Segal for ReformJudaism.com

Biblical literalism is on the rise. You can see it in the growth of Bible-based mega-churches where the "word of God" is preached as inerrant truth. But any serious reader of the Bible knows it contains contradictions, ellipses, and vague commands that require interpretation to be understood, let alone followed.

The most apparent challenge to biblical literalism occurs at the beginning of the Bible. The first two chapters of Genesis tell two starkly different stories of the Creation of the world and of humanity.

In the first story, humanity is created "in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27), with no mention of the physical body's creation. In the second story, man is created from dust, and God breathes life into his nostrils (Genesis 2:7). Similarly, the first Creation story culminates with humans created together, "male and female" (Genesis 1:27). In the second, Adam is created first, followed by the fish, birds, and beasts; only then does God derive the woman from Adam's rib. While the first account mentions only the word Elohim to refer to God, the second uses the Tetragrammaton (the Hebrew letters, yud-hei-vav-hei) as well as Elohim.

Most dramatically, God commands the humans in the first story to "fill the earth and tame it" (Genesis 1:28). In contrast, in the second story God places the humans in the Garden of Eden and commands them to "work it and keep it" or, more poetically, "to till and tend it" (Genesis 2:15).

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Chol HaMo-eid Sukkot

Exodus 33:12–34:26

D'var Torah By: Roberta Louis Goodman for ReformJudaism.com

One of the privileges and responsibilities that I have as a congregational professional is serving on the faculty of the Union for Reform Judaism's summer camps. My roles include providing support to counselors and campers, helping out with services, tutoring bar/bat mitzvah students, and assisting with the study theme. Imagine my surprise when three summers ago, my first serving in the unit at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute (OSRUI) that focuses on the arts for students in the seventh through tenth grades-that our topic was Kohelet, the Book of Ecclesiastes. My immediate reaction was: "It's so dark. This is summer camp where they are supposed to have fun! What are they going to get out of the ramblings of an older person reviewing and lamenting on life?"

Three summers later, the staff members-and even some of the campers-are still talking about the session. The mere mention of the word Kohelet evokes a nod, a knowing utterance, of something that was deep yet accessible, provocative yet distressing, memorable and powerful.

Traditions about when Kohelet is read during Sukkot vary based on one's location, roots, and/or the actual days of the week of Sukkot. I seize upon any opportunity that I have to share and explore Kohelet further, hence this d'var Torah.

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Yom Kippur

Deuteronomy 29:9–14, 30:11–20 (Morning) and Leviticus 19:1-4, 9-18, 32-37 (Afternoon)

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Stephen Karol for ReformJudaism.com

Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. - Deuteronomy 30:11

I was a student in my father's ninth grade religious-school class. What I remember the most all these years later is learning Torah from him and, most important, the practical ethical lessons we can apply to our lives from our most sacred text. In particular, studying the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-26), which includes the Torah reading for Yom Kippur afternoon (Leviticus 19:1-4, 9-18, 32-37), has had a lifelong influence on me.

The Holiness Code is a great selection for that day because it tells us that when many people are so focused on the ritual of coming to pray on one day to the exclusion of others, it is their behavior that truly makes them holy. This includes our praying and attending services, but it also includes our ethics. It applies to everyone-not just rabbis and cantors and "regular" service attendees.

The eleventh-century commentator Rashi wrote on Leviticus 19:2: ". . . this section was proclaimed in full assembly ('all the congregation of the children of Israel') because most of the fundamental teachings of the Torah are dependent on it" (see Sifra; Vayikra Rabbah 24:5). And Rabbi Levi points out "because the Ten Commandments are included in this section (therefore, it was proclaimed to the full assembly)" (Vayikra Rabbah 24:5). Rabbi Levi specifically mentions the repetition of commandments regarding recognizing the Eternal as our God, not worshiping other gods, not swearing falsely, observing Shabbat, respecting parents, not taking the life of another or standing idly by, not committing adultery, not stealing, and not being a talebearer (similar to "false witness'"). Finally, he matches up not coveting with loving "your neighbor as you love yourself." In The Torah: A Women's Commentary,1 Tamara Cohn Eskenazi stated: "Connections . . . define the holy community: the connection to parents whom one must honor, to the poor and the disadvantaged whom one must protect, to the neighbor and stranger whom one must love, and of course to God" (p. 716).

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Shabbat Shuva; Ha-azinu

Deuteronomy 32:1-52

By Rabbi Amy R. Perlin in ReformJudaism.org

Haazinu: Don’t Forget to Remember

We will gather on Yom Kippur to recite Yizkor, our prayer of memory for our loved ones who have died. The Jewish value of "memory" pervades our lives, our sacred story, and this time in our Jewish calendar year. Many of us were raised on the phrase "Never forget." We have spent our lives being taught that a Jew is obligated to remember those who came before us, from our ancestors in the Torah, to the martyrs of our history, to the loved ones who made our lives possible.

And so we read in our portion this week:
"Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of ages past;" (Deuteronomy 32:7).

But, the opposite of remembering, forgetting, is also a part of our Jewish legacy. Though we are commanded to remember, we fail and forget. As Moses speaks his final words at the end of Deuteronomy, he reminds his listeners that we do not always remember the God who gave us the Torah, the Guardian who guided us through our journey in the wilderness.

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