TorahMama: Vayeira

When God tells Abraham that Sarah will bear a child soon, the text says that Sarah laughed “within herself.”

Ah, what a way to begin parenthood, with laughter. Tradition tells that Sarah and Abraham struggled with infertility, and we know how difficult the entrance into parenthood can be for so many of us. But to begin with laughter? To lead with humor…to be able to find the funny side, the joke, the laugh-til-you-cry of it all….truly is a gift. I like to imagine Abraham and Sarah as carrying that laughter through their lives, holding onto the joy that Isaac brought to them and lifting that up.

We know that their lives weren’t perfect, and of course we know that there were struggles. But I do like to imagine that Sarah’s laughter carried them through some of it, that her ability to find even God’s words just a little bit funny helped her to use her biting wit to help her cope with some of the difficulty of her life. Sometimes you just gotta laugh….

TorahMama is a new attempt to blog weekly on the Torah portion of the week. (I had considered starting a new blog but decided to just keep moving along on this one...)

Negotiating with God

This week's portion is
very very full of stuff.
A lot to speak of!

God told Abe, "it's time!"
"Those cities are really bad."
(Sodom, Gomorrah)

"It's time to wreck them,
destroy their outrage and sin.
I'll sweep them away."

"Um, God? Are you sure?"
Abe had the guts to argue.
"They've innocents there!"

A bargain was struck
as Abe negotiated,
"Let's see who is good!"

"Are there fifty good?
forty? thirty? twenty-ish?
Are there ten good folks?"

God said, "okay, yes,
if there are 10 good people
I'll spare the cities."

Jewish tradition teaches that one of the reasons Abraham is considered "the first Jew" and given the blessings of God rather than Noah is because of this interaction. Noah doesn't argue when God threatens to destroy the world, he basically just does as he is told. Abraham, on the other hand, has the chutzpah to negotiate and argue with God on behalf of the innocent.

A lesson for all of us to fight for the voiceless....

See more Haiku Friday here.

Shabbat Shalom y'all!