Genesis Cycle Five Vayera

 Vayera

Being Jewish

Vayera begs for attention. It’s the parashah that many Jews may study and find an excuse right there not to be Jewish.

Here Avraham, our patriarch, bargains with God to save the lives of the people of Sodom and Gemorrah…but does not bargain with God about the sacrifice of his son Yitzhak. Avraham also passes his wife Sarah off as his sister one more time and allows for the expulsion of both his  son Ishmael and Hagar, Sarah’s servant, the mother of Ishmael.

These days if we analyze Avraham’s actions from a literal or even a philosophical/psychological perspective he demonstrates major personal neuroses. Understandably, there are many teachings written attempting to understand or apologize for him. He is after all, the father of the Jewish people.  What does it say about us if we accept such notorious decisions as killing one’s son for God or for anyone, whoring out one’s wife and throwing one’s son and lover into near-death circumstances? The very conflicts raised by this parashah create lengthy discussions that can be seen as yes, Jewish. But if we are determined to only see our sacred writings from literal or psycho-philosophical angles we always have to return warily to the very fact of the story itself. Yes it does happen. Yes, Avraham is praised for all of this. And yes (in Torah and Talmud) he walks before God and is the glowing example of righteousness.

The irony as well is that this all happens immediately after he circumcises himself. Here, he has done his part in satisfying the b’rit with God. He has symbolically approached God through circumcision and he has also entered into a contract in a dream-like state concerning the parts of the animals…. but on a human level,  in that all important place of inter-action with his family and those he loves, he seems to be distancing himself. Given a p’shat interpretation he is distancing himself. There’s no way around it.

So, we are now given a choice. How do we want to see our heritage? Our people? The founding of our people? Our foundational stories that help to determine our ethical codes today?  And here’s another question. Given the shocking actions themselves, and given the fact that these are sacred writings, wouldn’t we be wise to attempt to close the gap between the psychological/philosophical interpretation and the obvious spiritual holy intention (whether these are writings by God, through His prophets or by man)? It doesn’t help to say for example, yes I’m Jewish and Avraham is our father and I would never do what he does. This would go against the rabbinic culture and if anything, force us into nothing less than spiritual hypocrisy.  It doesn’t even help to say that the reason why it’s written is so that we won’t do as he does. Abraham is not the anti-hero. He isn’t there in Torah to act-out in human ways so we can point our finger and learn from him by not being like him. In fact, the Talmudic rabbis never cease to praise him.  Avraham is not there to give us a cause to rebel. In fact, as the Talmudic rabbis say, there is nothing more devastating than chaos. He is not there to offer up psychological discussions on father-son relationships though tangentially this can be a powerful by-product of the event. If you want psychology, some scholars have said, read Freud and Jung. Torah is not a replacement for psychology 101.  Not to over-emphasize the point, but as Freud might say when it comes to Avraham, a cigar is sometimes just a cigar. Avraham is not there to offer up historical analyses. As scholars have said, if you want history find a history book.

So then, let’s move on. How do we reach to understand this action?

Rabbi Johanan says on the authority of R Jose b Zimra in Sanhedrin 89b that it is Satan who moves Avraham to sacrifice his son. This is backed up by R. Simeon b. Abba. Basically what they are saying is that in the beginning of this section of Torah (Gen 32:1 )  the phrase achar hadevarim ha-elah  meaning after these words refers to words spoken by Satan himself that propel Avraham.

Why do the Talmudic rabbis need to bring up Satan here?

What’s important to recognize is that the rabbis cannot validate this action on the p’shat level. So they raise it to a level of midrashic fantasy (the evil eye, the evil inclination) to show how Avraham can still be righteous. The Talmudic rabbis are bringing us beyond the rational. They often do. But here it is rather extreme. Therefore, once again, they are validating a certain type of analysis and understanding of Torah. In short, we don’t have to reach to understand the almost-sacrifice of Yitzhak simply through the black-print of story. It’s all right to read between the lines…and to bring that which is necessary to infuse spiritual and conscious meaning to the situation before us.

Taking this hint from our teachers therefore, we can even get beyond story. And the reason we want to do this, to repeat, is because there isn’t any rational explanation no matter how much we shake it up, re-mold it, re-analyze it, serve it up in this generation or serve it up in the next. Bob Dylan rants against it in his music as well as other respected singer song-writer prophets.  Rabbis continually try to make sense of it. Finally if the p’shat is King in this situation, spiritual logic will ironically (and hopefully) never be made available. Because whoring one’s wife, setting-up one’s lover and illegitimate son and sacrificing one’s legitimate son…these are all ethical outrages. Try as we may, we will not find an opening to it logically.

And as much as I love the Talmudic rabbis, bringing in Satan doesn’t help much these days either.

But bringing in Satan does one thing. It gets us beyond the obsession with rational-explanation.

So, now I will end this teaching with the explanation from the Zohar: The rabbis of the Zohar believe that darkness did actually come to Avraham but through God and for a reason. Avraham was pure chesed. Chesed, loving-kindness, is beautiful but without a container it simply spills and dissipates. So there was a necessity to create a human manifestation of gevurah (Yitzhak).  Yet, the Zohar says that God was looking for more than gevurah, the type of boundary that emanates judgment. Avraham, from afar, could actually see Yaakov, the son of Yitzhak, his grandson. Yaakov would be the merge of both Avraham (chesed) and Yitzhak (gevurah)…the merge of water and fire…that necessary human manifestation of tiferet, balance.  The Akeda happens on the same mountain where Yaakov has his dream and where the first temple is built.  Therefore the Akeda in mystical circles is the method by which we today have managed to not only receive the spirit of beauty and balance but to apply it to this world in the action of dream, prophecy, reception, transmission, compassion, prayer and love.

If we dare offer up our mundane reality and obsession with the rational in the mighty fire on Mt Moriah therefore not only will we have a cleaner and clearer understanding of what it means to be Jewish and of ourselves as spiritual beings…we will be closer to God through the human lesson learned…that of balance beauty and love…and we will even get a reward for doing so. We will get to hold onto our humanity, our egos, our logic and our loved ones. The ram is right there in the thicket.