{"id":10977,"date":"2025-11-10T21:15:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T21:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=10977"},"modified":"2025-11-10T21:15:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T21:15:18","slug":"vayera-5786","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=10977","title":{"rendered":"Vayera (5786)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u00a0Drash Cards for VaYera \u00a0(5786)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>by Marc Mangel<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This is the kind of Torah portion that Cecil B. DeMill\/Jerry Bruckheimer\/British Steve McQueen would love. There is so much here (follow closely as it is read), I decided to drash on something not from our Aliyah, but rather the name of the parsha, which comes from the very first word \u201cappeared\u201d. [The final negotiations between God and Abraham about the destruction of Sedom and Gomorah; Fleeing that destruction and Lot\u2019s wife turning to a pillar of salt (which you maybe can still see on the way to the Dead Sea); Lot\u2019s daugthers seducing him; Abraham and Sarah going to Gerar where he again plays\u00a0 the \u201cshe is my sister\u201d move, and Avimelech being more righteous than Abraham. The birth of Isaac, which you will remember from first day Rosh Hashanah.]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u2022 Three visitors appeared to Abraham. The commentators are not sure who they were, (Talmud, Rashi): They were\u00a0 three angels in the guise of men; (Rashi): Abraham perceived them as human throughout their visit; (Nachmanides, Rebenu Bachya, Ohr-Ha Chayim): Abraham immediately recognized that they were angels; (Zohar, Yefeh Toar): Abraham initially thought them to be human but when the birth of Isaac was prophesized, he realized that they were angels; (Bechor Shor, Ralbag): Abraham recognized that they were human prophets who came as men.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 In verse 2 we read \u201cHe lifted his eyes and SAW\u201d and that \u201cHe SAW and ran toward them\u201d. Here commentators agree that the same word \u201cV-yar\u201d appearing twice is to be interpreted the physical act of seeing the three visitors (saw) is followed by understanding (saw) what their appearance means.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The physical vision told Abraham that the visitors were human beings; intellectual vision told him that they were angels. Regardless \u2013 Abraham behaves the same way: he is hospitable and welcoming to his guests.\u00a0 If they were angels then the meal Abraham prepared for them is an offering to God. If they were men then the meal represented an act of hospitality in keeping with Abraham\u2019s character and that is why Abraham asked them to say grace \u2013 to thank God.<\/li>\n<li>We are all the children of Abraham, so all of us can aspire to welcoming every soul we encounter.<\/li>\n<li>In 2006 we spent a fall sabbatical in Tasmania \u2013 Van Dieman\u2019s land &#8212; that used to house transported convicts once Britain lost the American colonies and transportation started in the late 1700s. When we were there, Hobart had about 150 Jews in a city of 55,000 \u00a0\u00a0To be Jewish in Tasmania was to barely be noticed.The synagogue in Hobart is the oldest continuously operating synagogue in Australia \u2013 services have been held there since 1845. When we visited, the synagogue was shared by a group of Orthodox Jews (who rarely had a minyan) who davened every Shabbat and a group of Progressive (Reform) Jews who davened once a month (before the Orthodox, who daven to Baruch She-Amar at home).<\/li>\n<li>The reception we received in Hobart would have made Abraham proud of his descendants who live there. We arrived and told people that we were Jewish. Everyone \u2013 secular to Progressive to Orthodox \u2013 made us welcome and showed us hospitality keeping with Abraham\u2019s character.<\/li>\n<li>Thus, we davenned Shabat Shuvah, Sukkot and the other Shabbatot with the Orthodox and spent Yom Kippur with the Progressive congregation (the Orthodox went to the rarely used Chabad house in Launceston).<\/li>\n<li>At the Progressive service on Yom Kippur, Susan chanted Yona from the central, elevated bima on the ground floor. On Shabbat Sukkot, she was the only one who could lead Hallel, and did so from the women\u2019s gallery.<\/li>\n<li>What we saw in Hobart \u2013 and which is taught to us today by the behavior of Abraham in Parsha Vareya \u2013 is that we should show great hospitality to everyone whom we meet.<\/li>\n<li>This a behavior we can all aim to achieve.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Drash Cards for VaYera \u00a0(5786) by Marc Mangel This is the kind of Torah portion that Cecil B. DeMill\/Jerry Bruckheimer\/British Steve McQueen would love. There is so much here (follow closely as it is read), I decided to drash on something not from our Aliyah, but rather the name of the parsha, which comes from &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=10977\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":51,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10977","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10978,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10977\/revisions\/10978"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}