Parashat Vayera
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Parashat Vayera begins with the visit of 3 geezers to Abraham. He Welcomes them with generous hospitality, and they promise that Sarah will soon pop out a son. When the men depart for the city of Sodom, God appears to A to the Braham and informs our favourite beardy weirdy that the cities of sodom and gomorrah are about to be destroyed.
Abraham says no G you can’t destroy innocents alongside the guilty let me 50 nice sodomites and gomorrhites. A little bit of haggling takes place and Abe manages to argue his way down to finding 10 innocents in S+G. He can’t find them! Meanwhile 2 gentleman angels visit Sodom. They are in some serious danger but are offered hospitality by Lot (Abe’s nephew) before the Sodomites get their hands on them. The gentleman angels tell Lot to leave he does but his wife looks back whilst its being destroyed and she is turned into a pillar of salt.
Abe travels to the Negev where the king of Gerar wants Sarah for his wife. Abe tells kingy she is his sister but God comes to kingy and reveals her true marital status Kingy returns Sarah to Abe with a big bounty. As Abe’s visitors said Sarah bore a child and called him Isaac. After a few years Sarah gets Abe to send away Ishmael and Hagar (Abrahams son and Sarah’s Maid) away saying that only Isaac should inherit stuff. Abe agrees because God says he will make a great nation from him which would become the Arab one.
Skip on a few years and G asks A to sacrifice I on mount Moriah in order to test his Faith. I is saved at the last minute when G tells A he was only joking. G praises A’s loyalty and tells him to sacrifice a ram in his place.
ooooooooooooooooohhhhhh!!!!
What a parashah
Today we are going to look at two themes
1.The importance of hospitals/ity
2.The consequences of social injustice
Lets have a wee look at them.
The importance of hospitality
Twice in this parashah guests are welcomed into homes. They were the travellers visiting Abraham and the gentlemen angels who were helped by Lot. These are perfect examples to highlight the importance of and the different types of hospitality.
It is written that although Lot saved the angels from the Sodomites he did not offer them food or drink or the opportunity to remove their shoes but they were in grave danger and he put himself in danger by helping them. Abraham offers them great service but they were not in danger and neither was he.
So who does the better deed, what’s better bending over backwards to help people regardless or helping those in danger but not making them feel welcome. I think there are two answers. In the short term it obviously better to help those in immediate danger, however long term Abe’s example of constant kindness to strangers has more impact on people.
The consequences of social injustice
The people of Lot were known to be mean. Not only were they mean it was law to be a mean.
They said “Since gold and silver flow from our land, why should we allow strangers to visit in our borders, eat our food, use our resources and share what is ours? They will only take what we have, and there will be less for us. Let’s keep them from entering, and let’s drive out those who get in as soon as possible- especially the poor or the sick ones”
This is why God wanted to kick ass. God doesn’t seem to have as much of an inclination to kick ass against social injustice these days so what are the consequences of social injustice. Are there consequences these days? Who is there to quash injustice?
These are both difficult questions to answer on the eve of the 5th annual Jerusalem pride march and a week in which there have been anti-gay riots protesting the march. For more information look at www.haaretz.com
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