As this week’s parasha Vayera opens, we find Avraham recovering from his brit milah, resting in front of his tent on a hot day, when three travelers approach. Perhaps surprisingly, Avraham jumps at the opportunity to serve the travelers as his guests. Of all times, wouldn’t it have been excusable to take a break? To rest? To recuperate, and allow the travelers to pass, or at least provide minimal hospitality?
Avraham had a readily available excuse to do these things, and yet the parasha describes the lengths to which Avraham went to serve the travelers. One lesson that we can take from this is that when we are faced with responsibilities, even at a time that is inconvenient and challenging, we should strive to meet and excel in fulfilling those responsibilities.
I find this particularly apt to the situation in which we find ourselves during the lockdown. It is certainly tempting to take this as an opportunity to postpone many normal responsibilities. At Emek Beracha, we’re fighting this temptation by continuing to find new ways to serve the community.
In the past month, we’ve launched a new kiddush-to-go program that delivers Shabbat packages to members on a rotating basis; we’re continuing the children’s take-home activity sets; and Rabbi Grossman began a class that meets for a concise, insightful 10 minutes, five days a week. We also continue to seek a balance between resuming in-person services and minimizing the risk of spreading COVID in groups. In short, we are striving to meet all of our members’ needs, and we encourage you to reach out if there’s something more that we can do for you.
In Vayera, when Avraham pleads with Hakadosh Baruchhu to spare Sodom from destruction, we also read the Torah’s first articulation of a quintessential Jewish experience: the negotiation. While we continue to provide more services through Emek Beracha, we also must request more of our members. Many people have signed up and are paying dues for 5781 membership; if you haven’t yet, please do so here . Members have also responded to the shul’s new programming by volunteering in various ways, for example, by delivering the kiddush-to-go packages; if you haven’t volunteered, please consider doing so.
Emek Beracha’s success depends on the community’s contributions and engagement. In the coming weeks, we will ask much of our members. At the onset of the COVID lockdown, Emek Beracha leadership decided to withhold fundraising requests while people adjusted to the peak of the uncertainty. We recognize that many of our members are still facing uncertainty. At the same time, the shul also needs additional support from members to finish the year in a financially healthy position.
One member recently shared this article describing the exceptional position in which shuls across the country find themselves as services have been curtailed. If you are in a position to contribute more than what the shul asks for, please don’t hesitate to contribute more; if you are unable to contribute as much as the shul asks for, please don’t hesitate to contribute what you can. We are truly living in exceptional times. With everyone’s support, our community and Emek Beracha will continue to grow and thrive.
Derasha
The Mishna in Avot tells us that Avraham passed 10 tests but it does not name them. Rashi, the Rambam and Rabenu Yona had various lists with some real differences. But they all agree on one criterion: They all hold that the tests involved more than acute difficulties like the tribulations that beset most people. For example, nobody counts the sudden death of his wife Sara following the binding of Yitzchok. Avraham’s stalwart faith could withstand those types of misfortune. Nor do they list tests which burnished his strengths: Taking care of guests while aching from the pain of a Bris is not a test, for the will to reach out despite obstacles was natural for him.
Instead, the tests were focused challenges to Avraham’s natural and instinctive virtues and to his ability to connect with Hashem. For example, as soon as he reaches the land of Kanaan, he is forced to leave because of a famine. He has walked up and down the land, and is now ready to fill it up with those who are willing to follow him. Instead, he has to leave and accept an indefinite postponement of his mission.
Later, he must distort the truth in order to protect himself and his family from depraved hosts in Egypt or G’rar. He is not just Sara’s husband but also her uncle. In that way, he is not utterly lying when he calls her a sister. (He calls his nephew Lot a brother.) But it’s a distortion which goes against his nature.
Then he must, it seems, mutilate himself and his household in a way that will strike his neighbors as barbaric. He has been dedicated for decades to reaching out. Now he will do something that will alienate the surrounding society.
Finally, he will show that he is willing to sacrifice his son. He has preached against human sacrifice, and he waited a century for this son.
In short, the tests bring Avraham Avinu up against the inexplicable. In overcoming these tests, he showed that he did not follow Hashem only because it made sense. This is the reason that the word for "test" (Nisayon) comes from the same root as "miracle" (Nes). Both require a nullification of the normal rational rules. It is also the same root as the word "flag," because ultimately this is what Avraham is demonstrating to the world.
This is the faith of a parent (an Av), of someone who does not see the full development of things but is willing to start out anyway. This level of attachment to Hashem goes beyond that of anyone who will follow. As Hashem will say toward the beginning of Shemot (Vaera), Moshe Rabenu does not seem capable of this level.
But it is the level to which we strive. And the capacity to strive for this is an endowment from Avraham. When explaining why He must reveal to Avraham his plan to destroy the city of S’dom, Hashem cites his deep bond to Avraham: “I have known [Avraham],” He says, which expresses great affection. He says that He is confident that Avraham has tried to give this over to his children: “For he commands his children and his household after him; they will keep the way of Hashem to do charity and justice...”
Hashem does not directly cite the tests as the reason for this “command.” He seems to be invoking a rather common achievement: The proper education of his children in a way that will resonate for generations to come. This is no small feat, of course. Even in a society thick with Jewish schools, it is not automatic that one will find one’s descendants eager to follow one’s ways. But the education Avraham Avinu offered to his descendents was more than good schooling. What is exemplary about it is that it was offered in light of the tests throughout his life. This is a personal example of such self sacrifice and faith that his descendants found it not just inspiring but inescapable. That is why it is called his “command” of his children. When one sees someone act in these ways, one cannot but feel bound by their direction.
Trying times do not always bring out the best in us. We request each morning that Hashem not bring us to trials (Nisayon) and that he not demean us (Bizayon). The two are juxtaposed because, unfortunately, for many of us, a test brings us to indignity. Many have felt a trying time for the country in the last week. It is our charge to follow Avraham, whose ability to forge ahead in the face of the inexplicable ennobled him, and inspired his descendents to strive for nobility in spite of any test.
Zmanim - Updated
Congregation Emek Beracha 4102 El Camino Real Palo Alto, CA 94306
