{"id":10980,"date":"2025-11-13T23:28:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=10980"},"modified":"2025-11-13T23:28:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:28:40","slug":"vayera-5785","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=10980","title":{"rendered":"Vayera (5785)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Drash Cards for Vayera (5785)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>by Marc Mangel<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s topic is the Akedah, the binding of Isaac.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How it is classically treated<\/li>\n<li>The commentary of Saba Zussya Zimmerman<\/li>\n<li>The commentary of Shimon Jacobson<\/li>\n<li>Some of my own thoughts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>How it is classically treated<\/u><\/p>\n<p>This is one of Abraham\u2019s great tests, which he passes by absolute obedience to God and apparently willing to sacrifice his son.<\/p>\n<p>But today some people are uncomfortable. From the Conservative Machzor (pg 103)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the most part, rabbinic literature praises Abraham for his faithful obedience to God\u2019s command, though some rabbinic texts indicate ambivalence regarding \u00a0Abraham\u2019s unqualified acquiescence\u2026many post-Holocaust Jewish writers are increasingly reticent even to appear to validate violence in the name of religious faith, and instead suggest that Abraham failed the test, and should have raised a protest against God\u2019s instruction\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read at second day RH in Orthodox and Conservative synagogues<\/p>\n<p>But also read every day in Orthodox prayers before the first Shma of Shachrit, followed by the Ve-ah-Hafta. (I only checked Chabad, Art Scroll, Breslov, Seattle Sephardic Community Siddurim)<\/p>\n<p><u>Commentary of Saba Zussya Zimmerman<\/u><\/p>\n<p>Saba \u00a0Zussya Zimmerman wrote about the Akedah<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, God said to Abraham, &#8220;Kill me a son&#8221;<br \/>\nAbe said, &#8220;Man, you must be puttin&#8217; me on&#8221;<br \/>\nGod said, &#8220;No&#8221;, Abe said, &#8220;What?&#8221;<br \/>\nGod said, &#8220;You can do what you want Abe, but<br \/>\nThe next time you see me comin&#8217; you better run&#8221;<br \/>\nAbe said, &#8220;Where do you want this killin&#8217; done?&#8221;<br \/>\nGod said \u201cOut on Highway 61\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Penned by Bob Dylan (Bob Zimmerman \/Bobbie Zimmerman) growing up in an Orthodox congregation in Hibbing, MN where he surely went to the school (it was the 1940s and 50s)<\/p>\n<p><u>A hint from Shimon Jacobson<\/u><\/p>\n<p>Shimon Jacobson \u2013runs the Meaningful Life Center in Brooklyn and wrote a wonderful book called <em>Towards a Meaningful Life<\/em> &#8212; gives a hint to the way Dylan framed the interaction between Abraham and God: that Abraham \u2013 the embodiment of Chesed \u2013 knows that God is good and kind, so cannot imagine \u00a0that what appears to be a demand for a human sacrifice is what this is all about.<\/p>\n<p>To follow the hint, we go back to the very first phrase of the akedah story:<\/p>\n<p>\u05d5\u05d9\u05d4\u05d9 \u05d0\u05d7\u05e8 \u05d4\u05d3\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd \u05d4\u05d0\u05dc\u05d4. \u2013\u2013 \u201cIt was after these words\/things\/events\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What these words\/things\/events that happened previously according to the chronology in the Torah?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Immediately before this, Abraham took Hagar and Ishmael into the desert, and Hagar presumed that he would die of thirst. When God told Abraham to Sarah to take Hagar and Ishmael into the desert, God also said \u201cDo not be distress about the boy and your bondwoman\u2026I will also make the son of the bondwoman into a nation, for he is also your offspring\u201d (Ch 21:12-13).<\/li>\n<li>Immediately preceding the birth of Isaac, Abraham and Sarah are in Philistia where he tells her to pretend that they are brother and sister and Avimelech brings her into his harem. Then this happens (read Avimelech story verses 3-6)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And the Torah goes on to recount other kindness \u2013 rather than death \u2013 that God shows to Avimelech.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>-Before that happened, God decides to tell Abraham about the destruction of Sedom and Gommorah, and Abraham asks \u201cWould you in your anger obliterate the righteous along with the wicked\u201d (Ch 18, v 23), followed by the negotiation from 50 [would not destroy], 40 [ditto], 30 [ditto], 20 [ditto], and 10 [ditto] righteous people (Ch 18, v 28-32).\u00a0 We tend to remember the destruction of the cities but not the extents of kindness to which God went to avoid it.<\/p>\n<p><u>Some of my own thoughts<\/u><\/p>\n<p>Abraham has every evidence that this God he has discovered is one of kindness.\u00a0 But Abraham is also surrounded by cultures whose gods demand human sacrifice.\u00a0 What if the Akedah is actual a test of God by Abraham. That is, if this a God who wants human sacrifice, Abraham is ready to say \u2018forget it\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>In the Shma we confirm the unity of God.\u00a0 In the V\u2019ahafta we remind ourselves to feel love of God essentially all the time.\u00a0 How can we implement that?<\/p>\n<p>Remember from Beresheit \u201cSo God created humankind in Gods own image, in the of God they were created, male and female\u201d \u2013 in a profound way we are all equal in dignity and ultimate worth, for we are all in God\u2019s image.<\/p>\n<p>I ask you to imagine a world in which every person professing to be a religious descendant of Abraham \u2013 Jews, Christians, and Moslems \u2013 woke up each day and said \u201cThe way I am going to show my love of God today is by recognizing that every person I encounter is in God\u2019s image and I am going to behave accordingly\u201d.\u00a0 The Messiah would be here already.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drash Cards for Vayera (5785) by Marc Mangel Today\u2019s topic is the Akedah, the binding of Isaac. How it is classically treated The commentary of Saba Zussya Zimmerman The commentary of Shimon Jacobson Some of my own thoughts How it is classically treated This is one of Abraham\u2019s great tests, which he passes by absolute &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=10980\">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-10980","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10980","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=10980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10981,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10980\/revisions\/10981"}],"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=10980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}