Genesis Chayai Sarah 2015

Chayai Sarah

On Inclusivity...a fast thought

 There’s an unsaid bond between mother and son that moves on a level distinct from trinkets of gold and vows between men and servants. It crashes through the boundaries of life and death and forges a love (once abstract)  with a reality that colors  time, countries, lands,  and  oceans. It defies loneliness and guilt. It laughs in the face of petty argument and raises a flag of loyalty that frightens away even the most blind among us. This bond does not need words. It can’t find itself within words. It’s a bond of breath, of  vision, of protection,  of rhythm, of  knowledge. Think of Isaac.  And Sarah. Their connection is theirs and belongs to the visions of  evening, of memory,  mourning, and laughter.

There’s a said bond between man and wife.  It depends on limitations and some concealment. It’s as if the unsaid has become said but slightly. Isaac and Rebekah depend partly on the words and partly on the abstract. Their connection must move through the gray area of one world and the next. 

There’s a said bond between man and servant. In fact, it’s a twice-said bond, so revealed it is.  The bond between man and servant is of this earth, practical,  and taken to spiritual places through the act of a solid vow.  Think of Abraham and his servant.

There’s an even more solid bond between man and his animals. He feeds them and gives them water, cares for them with straw, food, shelter.  The animals on the other hand give themselves. Think of the servant with his camels.

The bond between human and  God is at the very funnel of the words we speak, right at the cross roads between earth and heaven,  beyond time and in time, beyond words and in words, beyond earth and in the earth.  This bond is rhythmically   within our breath and woven  within our cells. It’s an already answered call from the Divine.

What we learn in Torah is the balanced importance of each of these bonds. There isn’t one that brings us closer to holiness no matter gender, nationality, family relationship or even the presence of life or death.  In fact each one of these bonds is crucial in this week’s parashah.  And there are more in this parashah that I haven’t even mentioned. Without one though, the tapestry of Torah would unravel.

This is why placing God beyond  gender (for example)  is so important. Inclusivity is central to Judaism not only when it comes to our singular beings  but to the unique and interesting bonds we  form however they manifest on this earth.  These bonds  are central to Jewish myth. Each  holds an absolute significance no matter the seeming smallness of the unmentioned or the mundane. Not one is like another. Together...they are the  absolute  foundation of Torah.