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In this reading, the midrash from Pirkei Avot isn’t so much about long-lived mountain sheep as it is about our own potential to grow in understanding and insight, finding miracles to be grateful for even under the direst circumstances. In this reading of our verse, and of our midrash on it, the miracle is that Abraham is able to undergo a change of spiritual understanding just in time, and see alternatives just at the moment he is most “caught by the horns” in a horrible situation. Perhaps he was so focused on his dreadful and apparently inescapable task that he couldn’t see what was there, right nearby, in plain sight.Ībraham had to redirect not only his hand–away from his son–but also his perception–away from the idea that God really demanded such an awful sacrifice. So let’s assume that the rabbis of the Mishnah included this ram in their list of specially created objects because they didn’t know how else to explain it, and while they probably didn’t believe that an ordinary ram could survive under those circumstances, they were stuck with a difficult text to resolve and elucidate.īut what if the miracle weren’t in the ram, the miracle was in Abraham? Our verse says Abraham “lifted up his eyes,” and saw something that he hadn’t noticed before–a ram caught in the briars and thickets.
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(No, I’m not suggesting that one should sit around waiting to be sacrificed–this is only a metaphor!) Now, the rabbis who wrote the Mishnah were intelligent people, and somehow I don’t think they were teaching only that this ram sat in the bushes caught by its horns for thousands of years just waiting for its moment to be sacrificed–though that in itself is a powerful metaphor for the patience and humility one might require if one is find one’s true purpose in life. On this list of specially created things was “the ram for Abraham our father.” Pirkei Avot (Sayings of the Ancestors), a section of the Mishnah (rabbinic compilation of legal material) devoted to advice for ethical and reverent living, quotes a list of special, miraculous things that were created on the last day of Creation- i.e., things that can’t be explained in any normal or rational or scientific manner except that somehow God created these things as exceptions to the rules of nature and history. The story of the binding and (almost) sacrifice of Isaac is complex and troubling one possible reading that the Torah seems to support is that God was testing Abraham’s faith, and when he passed by showing his willingness to sacrifice even his son for God, God gave him an alternative, the ram. In FocusĪnd Abraham raised his eyes and saw–behold, a ram!–afterwards, caught in the bushes by its thorns so Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up instead of his son. Finally, Abraham hears the call from God to take Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice at the last minute, Abraham’s hand is stopped by an angel, and a ram is offered instead. Sarah does have a son, Isaac, and she expels Hagar and Ishmael when she thinks they threaten Isaac, but God saves them and makes them a promise that Ishmael too will be a great nation. A crowd in Sodom tries to force Lot to turn over his guests he escapes the destruction with his two daughters, who sleep with their father when they think the whole world is destroyed.Ībraham and Sarah travel to Gerar and Sarah enters the house of the king there. Abraham argues with God for the sake of the righteous ones in those cities, but there aren’t enough good people to save them. God decides to warn Abraham that Sodom and Gommorah, two sinful cities, will be destroyed. Commentary on Parashat Vayera, Genesis 18:1 - 22:24Ĭontinuing the story of Abraham and Sarah, our Torah portion this week opens with Abraham sitting in his tent, recovering from his circumcision, and being visited by three mysterious men, apparently messengers from God, who visit and tell Abraham and Sarah that Sarah will indeed bear a son.