Tol'dot

Genesis 25:19−28:9

D'var Torah By: Charles A. Kroloff for ReformJudaism.com

The Book of Genesis is full of unethical behavior or, at the least, highly questionable actions by our matriarchs and patriarchs. Abraham let Sarah be physically available to Pharaoh, indicating that she was his sister. He then proceeded to come within a knife's breath of sacrificing his son Isaac at Mount Moriah. Sarah dispatched Hagar and Ishmael from the security of her tent into the unforgiving wilderness. Isaac dissembled before Abimelech, obfuscating his relationship to Rebekah. Jacob and his father Isaac engage in a biblical game of "Can you guess who I am?" as the blessing for the first born goes to the younger brother.

And then there is Rebekah. Let's review her role in the unfolding drama of the Hebrew family. Isaac grows old and hungers for a tasty dish of game from the hand of Esau, the hunter. Overhearing this request, Rebekah quickly cooks up a scrumptious meal and instructs Jacob to deliver the goods in order to receive the blessing intended for Esau. When Esau learns that his brother has usurped his position, he threatens to kill him. Rebekah, never one to remain passive, dispatches Jacob to stay with her brother Laban in order to protect her son's life.

Rebekah is the most remarkable manager in biblical literature. From the moment Abraham's servant Eliezer meets her at the well seeking a wife for Isaac to this episode where she schemes and tricks her family to ensure that Jacob, rather than Esau, becomes patriarch, she manipulates the characters like an all-knowing director on the stage of life. This is some family - weak characters and strong ones, tricky folks, shadowy plots, and plenty of dysfunction!

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Chayei Sarah

Genesis 23:1−25:18

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

Different circumstances demand different paradigms of thought and action, and the Jewish people have advanced through history by fulfilling the action demanded by the moment. Even God's promised blessings only are achieved through human agency. Our patriarchs and matriarchs showed a sophisticated variety of approaches to ensuring the transmission of the Jewish story. Taking any one episode from their narratives out of context robs us of the benefit of their worldly wisdom, creativity, and commitment.

Two episodes in Chayei Sarah illustrate this lesson. The first is Abraham's acquisition of the Cave of Machpelah as a burial site for Sarah. Upon Sarah's death, Abraham mourned and then set about to make arrangements for her to have a final resting place. He approached the Hittites, residents of the land, with humble nobility: "I am a foreigner living for a time among you; sell me a gravesite among you, that I may bury my dead here" (Genesis 23:4). Having already proved himself a powerful military leader, Abraham surely could have taken the land by force. After all, God already had promised that it would belong to him and his children. Instead, Abraham chose a path of respect and peace, insisting that he pay a fair market price. Ephron the Hittite negotiated with Abraham according to a pattern known from ancient Near Eastern sources.1 It was in Abraham's interest to purchase the land contractually in good faith; land given to him on a whim could just as easily be taken away, but a legal exchange endures.

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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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