Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Abraham sitting by his tent on a hot day, when suddenly Hashem appears to him. He looks up and sees three mysterious guests (later described as angels), so he rushes off to prepare a meal for them. One of the guests announces that the old and barren Sarah will give birth to a son! Sarah laughs, hinting at the name of their future son, Yitzhak, Isaac, which means “will laugh.” It is revealed to Abraham that the wicked city of Sodom is to be destroyed, but he pleads with Hashem to relent and not punish the innocent along with the guilty. Hashem agrees not to destroy the city if ten innocent people are found, but they are not.
Two of the three angels arrive in the doomed city, and Abraham’s nephew Lot invites them in and attempts to protect them from a violent mob. The angels reveal their destructive mission, instructing Lot and his family to flee and not look back. But, as they flee, Lot’s wife does look back and turns into a pillar of salt. While taking shelter in a cave, Lot’s two daughters (believing that they and their father are the only ones left alive in the world) get their father drunk and become impregnated by him. The two sons born from this incestuous incident become the progenitors of the nations of Moab and Ammon. Avraham moves to Gerar, where the Philistine king Abimelech takes Sarah—who is once again presented as Abraham’s sister—to his palace. In a dream, God warns Abimelech that he will die unless he returns the woman to her husband. Abimelech confronts Avraham, who once again explains that he feared he would be killed over the beautiful Sarah. Sarah miraculously becomes pregnant and gives birth to Yitzhak, Isaac. Avraham is one hundred years old and Sarah is ninety when Yitzhak is born and circumcised at the age of eight days. Yishmael torments Sarah, so Sarah banishes Hagar and Yishmael from their home to wander in the desert, and Yishmael nearly dies of dehydration. Hashem hears the cry of the dying lad, shows his mother a well and they are saved. Meanwhile, Abimelech makes a treaty with Avraham at B’er Shava, and Avraham gives him seven sheep as a sign of their truce. Hashem tests Avraham’s devotion by commanding him to sacrifice Yitzhak, Isaac, on Mount Moriah (traditionally believed to be the site of the Temple Mount). Yitzhak is bound and placed on the altar, and Avraham raises the knife to slaughter his son. A voice from heaven calls to stop him; a ram, caught in the undergrowth by its horns, is offered in Yitzhak’s place.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יְהֹ–וָ֔ה בְּאֵלֹנֵ֖י מַמְרֵ֑א וְה֛וּא יֹשֵׁ֥ב פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם׃ The Divine appeared to him in the plains of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day… - Bereisheet (Genesis) 18:1
A friend of mine once said to me, “I don’t understand this idea about being in the ‘present moment.’ What if I don’t like what is happening in the present moment? Why would I want to ‘be in the moment’ if the moment is terrible?”
The famous hasidic rabbi brothers, Zushya and Elimelekh, were the sons of an unusually hospitable couple, who ran a village inn. One day, a band of beggars came to the doorstep of their inn. The couple received them warmly, served them food and drink, and prepared them a place to sleep. Seeing that their guests wanted to bathe, they went down to the bathhouse and heated water for them. Among the beggars was a pauper whose entire body was covered with repulsive sores, and none of the other vagrants were willing to help him wash. The innkeeper’s wife had compassion and helped him, whereupon he turned to her and said: “In return for your kindness, let me bestow upon you my blessing – that you will bear sons who will be like me.” Dismay came over her – sons like him? But within seconds, this man and all his companions along with their wagon vanished before her very eyes. Years later, when her sons grew up, it then dawned on her: she had been put through a test, in order to bestow upon her the gift of saintly sons. When Reb Shneur Zalman of Liadi once recounted this story, one of his listeners asked him: “Who was that leper?” But the rebbe gave not a word of reply. The middah of hospitality is not about only welcoming guests who appeal to us. To truly embody hospitality, we must be free from ulterior motive; then we can embody the middah for its own sake. Similarly, the point of welcoming the present moment isn’t that we like that content of the moment, it is that the practice of being a welcoming presence has the power to liberate us from the preferring self, also called, ego. וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יְהֹ–וָ֔ה...כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם׃ The Divine appeared to him…as the heat of the day.” The usual translation says that God appeared to Avraham “in the heat of the day.” But, the Hebrew doesn’t actually say that: “In the heat of the day” would be: בְּחֹם הַיּֽוֹם – B’khom hayom. But here the Hebrew says, כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם – K’khom hayom”- AS the heat of the day. Read literally, the pasuk is saying that the Divine appeared to him as the discomfort of the heat! Furthermore, the word הַיּוֹם hayom which means “the day” can also simply mean “today” – that is, this moment. In other words, yes – the present moment sometimes appears as discomfort, as ugliness, as pain. But the crucial thing to remember is: everything that arises in your experience is a gateway to the Divine, if you open to it. וְה֛וּא יֹשֵׁ֥ב פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל …and he was sitting at opening of the tent… The אֹהֶל ohel, the “tent,” is your identity – your individual self, meaning, the preferring self, the ego… פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל כְּחֹ֥ם – the opening of the tent in the heat… The פֶּֽתַח petakh, the “opening,” is the willingness to open to Reality as it presents itself, even when it appears as חֹ֥ם hom, “heat” – that is, as discomfort. In that willingness, in that openness, is the appearance of the Divine. Why? Because in the open space between the “me” and “the world,” there is no distinction between the “outside” and the “inside” – between the inner world of thought and feeling and the outer world you take in through your senses. Everything that happens in your experience – the outer world and the inner world – are part of one experience. And your one experience is nothing but your one consciousness, constantly taking on different forms, yet all the forms, all the experiences, are nothing but the one consciousness. When you really see this, when you realize that all of your experiences are always only One Experience, and that your One Experience is ultimately made out you – meaning, made out of your consciousness – there can be a relaxing of resistance, a relaxing of the “me” that is separate, that’s judges, that prefers, that wants. After all, why would you resist yourself? That just creates inner tension, unnecessary suffering. וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יְהֹוָ֔ה – The Divine appeared to him… Than you can see – there is simply this Reality, ever-present, the Divine appearing as the form of this moment, suffering and ugliness, beauty and wonder, all of it… אֵֽין־אֹ֭מֶר וְאֵ֣ין דְּבָרִ֑ים בְּ֝לִ֗י נִשְׁמָ֥ע קוֹלָֽם׃ There is no speech, there are no words, their voices are not heard. - Tehilim (Psalms) 19:4 There are no thoughts to comprehend, no words to describe this mysterious Reality that is appearing, just now. And yet, here it is; welcome it as it is. This is meditation through the Path of ב Bet, the middah of hospitality, of welcoming the moment...
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