Vayerah: Testing

When did life become a series of tests? Did that attitude wait until school, or was the struggle for parental approval, from the earliest non verbal ( infantile) times, its beginning? The trials continue, the ( harsh) grading system has been internalized. I do not see it ending while I am alive. I am told that my life will be followed by a final, cumulative, exam. I hope I get an A. 

Vayerah (the chapter title could be read as "Revelation") has many tests. The (angelic) wayfarers come to Abraham. He prepares an expensive, sumptuous feast for them. They announce that 90 year old, post menopausal Sarah will bear son. Is that a joke? Sarah laughs, and she is confronted for her (perfectly justified)  doubt. The (predicted, provoked, scripted) laugh shows a lack of faith in the powers of Gd.  Gd had just told Abraham: 

וְקָרָ֥אתָ אֶת־שְׁמ֖וֹ יִצְחָ֑ק

and you shall name him Isaac; *Isaac Heb. Yiṣḥaq, from ṣaḥaq, “laugh.”

The Great Tester knows, in advance, that there are some tests that will be failed. 

The laugh indicates an element of surprise. Had Sarah known Gd's previous  promise of a son, named Yitzchok (translation: he will cause laughter)  to Abraham, she would not have laughed.  The announcement of the wayfarer would have lacked the novelty needed to induce laughter. Was this laughter the testimony of Abraham's failure to communicate this important message to Sarah?

I see this visit by the angelic travelers as home visit by Divine Social Services. A child will come into this complex  home. Hagar was mistreated when she was pregnant. Can these people handle the complexity of the new child? Maybe the test revealed the communication issue and helped to correct it, somewhat. 

The news about the probable destruction of the five towns, led by Sodom and Amorah, led to Abraham's  plea through bargaining. How many righteous people are required to save a city  from destruction?  Abraham gets the number down to ten. The absence of a criterion for righteousness and the unique nature of this destruction deflects the questions that arise from subsequent history ( Warsaw, Crakow, Hiroshima, Nagasaki). Sometimes we do not know the passing grade. 

This conversation, ostensibly to rescue the wicked cities from destruction, is a test of Abraham's concern for strangers.  It stands in contrast with Abraham's willingness to compromise his wife's integrity  by having her pose has his sister, leading to her  seizure by the Avimelach, the local regent. It contrasts with Abraham's willingness to send Hagar and Ishmael into the desert to preserve the  status of Isaac. It contrasts with Abraham's attempt to cut his son's throat on a (misunderstood) Divine instruction. 

[“I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.”

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Consider the author of these words]

The stories in the parsha tell of  tests for Abraham. They are also revelations of the grand Divine plan, and maybe an insight into how it works. When Avimelach dreams that  Sarah is married to Abraham (maybe he suspected that), he says to Gd: 

הֲג֥וֹי גַּם־צַדִּ֖יק תַּהֲרֹֽג׃

“O lord, will You slay people even though innocent?

He was referring to the devastation of Sodom. A lesson had been broadcast. All people now questioned their actions. Were they passing the test? Were they good enough to save their city? Were they good enough to be personally saved? This contemplation says that the stories in this parsha are instructive to all people at all times. 

But the messages are ambiguous, messy. Should Abraham have offered his son because of a Divine instruction? 

The life-threatening experience seems to be required for founding a nation. Ishmael and Lot had theirs, could Isaac become a link in the chain without one?   The binding of Isaac is introduced by 

וְהָ֣אֱ נִסָּ֖ה אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם 

 And it came to pass after these things, that Gd did test Avraham,

In this sentence Gd is called HaElokim, "The Great Powers."  This name for Gd  implies uniqueness. When Joseph conceals his Hebrewness from his brothers, this is the title he uses. Its usage here implies a universal message, aimed primarily at outsiders. This story will be Isaac's validation.   The subsequent passage, naming the descendants of Milcah and Nachor, Abraham’s brother, culminates in Rivkah, the future wife of Isaac.  This juxtaposition reinforces the near-death experience as an element of nation founding.

The binding of Isaac is a testament to Abraham's (consistent) world-view : defer to the will of Gd.  Abraham does not understand the world well enough to contradict the decision of the Creator, the entity that destroyed Sodom and gave him an heir at age 100. He follows (his understanding of) the instructions.  He binds Issac and prepares to bring down the knife.  Ultimately, there was a solution: a ram caught by its horns. Never abandon the hope for a solution.  That is a most  important message of the story for me. It is an important part of why I exist: My parents did not abandon hope.

 

 

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