{"id":239,"date":"2013-11-13T04:25:19","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T04:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=239"},"modified":"2013-11-13T04:25:19","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T04:25:19","slug":"lech-lecha-5770-2009","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=239","title":{"rendered":"Lech Lecha 5770 (2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Drash for Lech Lecha 5770<\/strong><\/p>\n

by March Mangel<\/p>\n

It is always tempting for this parsha \u2013 which literally means \u201cgo to yourself\u201d\u00a0 — to drash on the first few words.\u00a0 However, since we are reading the last third this year, I selected two things from that part.<\/p>\n

At the start of Chapter 16.\u00a0 Sarai is barren, blames God, and gives Hagar to Abraham as a wife. Hagar conceives and then Sarai becomes angry and in Ch 16 verse 6 we read \u201cAnd Sarai afflicted her, so she fled from her\u201d.\u00a0 Hagar flees into the dessert and an finds her, counsels her, and she returns to Abraham\u2019s house to give birth to Ishamel. What do we learn from this mini-drama?<\/p>\n

Ramban says \u201cSarah our mother sinned in dealing harshly with her handmaid and Abraham too by allowing her to do so.\u00a0 God heard her affliction and gave her a son who was destined to bring suffering on Abraham and Sarah\u201d.\u00a0 Radak agrees.<\/p>\n

About these comments, Nechama Leibowitz writes \u201cour commentators find no excuses to condone Sarah\u2019s behaviour, look for no psychological explanations in extenuation of her deeds.\u00a0 No appraisal of Sarah\u2019s character could condone the sin.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continues\u00a0 \u201cPerhaps the Torah wishes to teach us that before we undertake a mission that will tax all our moral and spiritual powers we should ask first whether we can maintain those standards to the bitter end.\u00a0 Otherwise we are liable to descend from the pinnacle of altruisum and selflessness into much deeper depths than would ordinarily have been the case\u201d<\/p>\n

She concludes \u201cHad Sarah not wished to suppress her instincts and overcome every vestige of jealousy for her rival, had she not dared to scale these unusual heights of selflessness, she would not have fallen victim to the sin of \u201cSarai dealth harshly with her\u201d and there may not have been born that individual whose descendants have proved a source of trouble to Israel this very day. Who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n

Second, I offer the following reader\u2019s guide for what is to come.\u00a0 In Chapter 17 verse 19 we read \u201cGod said \u2018Indeed you wife Sarah will bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac\u201d.\u00a0 That is, God is so intensely involved with the life of Abraham that God tells Abraham how to name his child.\u00a0 It is clear that one thing God learned dealing with the generation of Noah is that God must be deeply involved and interacting with people\u00a0for the results to be the ones desired.\u00a0 Our free while is a double-edged sword for God.<\/p>\n

And as we continue into Exodus, observe how much work God has to do in the development of Moses as a leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Drash for Lech Lecha 5770 by March Mangel It is always tempting for this parsha \u2013 which literally means \u201cgo to yourself\u201d\u00a0 — to drash on the first few words.\u00a0 However, since we are reading the last third this year, I selected two things from that part. At the start of Chapter 16.\u00a0 Sarai … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":53,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-239","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239","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=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239\/revisions\/240"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}