Vayera: Revelation

Vayera: Revelation

This week's parsha says that Gd appeared.    We understand something, to some level,  by virtue of seeing.  In the parsha we are told about the revelation to forefather Abraham.  We do not get to see the interaction, we just get the story and the opportunity to derive some understanding.  

The idea that Gd appears to some (special) people at certain ( special) times is a revelation, something I would not have known without being told.  The situations that lead to such visit(ation)s is not defined, but we can surmise that the courage to start the tradition of circumcision, by performing the act on himself at the age of 99 was part of the prerequisites.  The need to encourage Abraham and Sarah to try to have a baby may have been the motivation.   

The Sodom issue is presented as a confidence, a shared secret, that brings Abraham and Gd closer by revealing an aspect of their natures. Gd will continue to administer justice through catastrophe, Sodom and the the other 4 towns will be destroyed for their evil ways.  Abraham shows his courageous compassion by negotiating for clemency on the basis of the residual just.  Once Lot is evacuated, the city is bombed. The smoke is visible, at least as far away as Philistia. 

Abraham and Sarah   continue their quest for a place in the land .  They come to Philistia,  Abraham fearing for is life, hides his marriage to Sarah, claiming that she is his sister.  Like the Pharoah,  Avimelech, the Philistine   king, learns that Sarah is actually Abraham's wife.  Avimelech  is offended.  He saw the smoke of Sodom.  After that, he would not dare take another man's wife.  Abraham may have underestimated the power of the message in the destruction of Sodom .  And maybe not.

After the birth of Isaac, Gd tells Abraham to heed the words of Sarah and banish Ishmael ( the first filicide attempt?).  This is the Gd of extraordinary demands, counter-intuitive advice.  Abraham had intended exile, but the story unfolds to a near death episode from the lack of water and rescue from the Divine. 

The parsha ends with the dramatic binding of Isaac.  Now the demand of heaven seems outrageous. To sacrifice the beloved, remaining  son.  This is a demonstration of the inscrutability of a Divine command.  It cannot possibly mean what it sounds like.  And it does not. 

Can I rely on Divine  intervention to arrange a good outcome if I follow instructions that I do not understand?  Do I have a choice?