In parashat vayera’s second act, Abraham learns of the impending destruction of Sodom and confronts God, asking, “Will You sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”. Abraham then asks God to spare the city if fifty righteous human beings can be found there. God consents, and keeps consenting, even as Abraham slowly bargains from fifty to forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, then ten. Once Abraham reaches ten, God departs, and Abraham returns home.Throughout the exchange, the text contains several cues to Abraham’s humility. He refers to himself as “dust and ashes”. He begs God, “Please don’t be angry with me for speaking once more.” However, these cues, as well as the humor of the dialogue they help fashion, do not conceal Abraham’s audacity throughout the passage. Abraham even questions God’s benevolence, inquiring, “Shouldn’t the Judge of the entire Earth behave justly?”.Abraham’s behavior appears to contradict the message of the [...]

Parashat vayera ends with the puzzling tale of the akedah, the binding of Isaac. After God commands him to sacrifice his son, Abraham journeys to Mount Moriah to comply. However, when a Divine messenger interrupts Abraham and orders him to stop, Abraham sacrifices a ram in the place of his son, cementing the akedah as a tale in opposition to child sacrifice, similar to the law of Deuteronomy, which condemns human sacrifice as an abhorrence. However, one familiar with the Book of Judges cannot read the Binding of Isaac without recalling the tale of Jephthah, who vows to sacrifice the first thing to greet him at home in exchange for victory over the Ammonites. Unfortunately, his daughter, rather than an animal, is the first to greet him following his victory. Jephthah laments their poor fortune, but both he and his daughter agree that a pledge to God must be fulfilled. Therefore, she asks her [...]

This week’s Torah portion, vayera, begins with God appearing to Abraham as he sits at the entrance of his tent. However, in the very next verse, Abraham discovers three strangers standing across from him, suggesting that the Divine presence becomes manifest through our fellow humans. By rushing to greet these strangers with love and kindness (Abraham and his wife Sarah provide respite and a meal for the travelers before allowing them proceed) Abraham invites the Divine into his household. The Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas argues that God exists in the faces of our fellow human beings. When we look upon the face of another without expectation or desire, we peer into the infinite, discovering God within. Their pain, their pride, their joy, and their grief—all visible upon the face—connect us directly to the Divine. By responding so quickly and so compassionately to the three travelers, Abraham reminds us that we, too, [...]

Today is Veterans Day, established  by Congress in 1954 to pay tribute to members of the United States Armed services, but, Veterans Day did not begin as a means of honoring those who prepare to wage the nation’s wars.First inaugurated as Armistice Day on November 11, 1918, at the conclusion of World War I, the day served as a celebration of peace. By ending, “the war to end all wars,” many Americans believed that we were forever finished with war and that we had finally achieved what Jewish tradition calls shalom—an enduring assurance of safety, health, and happiness borne from living in a world when, “nation shall not take up sword against nation, nor shall they again study war.” (Isaiah 2:4)Too quickly, European Jews discovered how wrong the Americans were.Almost twenty years after the first Armistice Day, on the evening of November 9, the Jews of Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland [...]