A bit of a late start this week, but a thought provoking Parsha. I'll get it started.
- While Avram is told by Hashem to leave בית אביך, many meforshim note that in fact, Terach had already begun the Aliya to Canaan at the end of last week's Parsha. If so, what is the legacy of Terach? We all think of him as the idolatrous foil in the Midrashic story of young Avram's scheme to highlight the folly of עבודה זרה, where he claims that the head idol "killed" the other ones. Did he discover Hashem before his death? I once saw (I wish I could quote it, but I don't remember where) the suggestion that sefer bereishit is the story of the children of Terach, which explains the detail of genealogy for the families of Nachor and Lavan, beyond the daughters who married into Avraham's family. Is he the hidden Patriarch of the Torah?
- A few questions that stretch into next week as well:
- What to make of Lot? What an enigmatic character. Is he a good guy? A bad guy? just kind of there?
- In this Parsha we find Avram and Sara traveling to Mitzrayim, and Paro takes Sara captive until he is inflicted by Makot. Next week we find an almost identical story with Avimelech and Plishtim. Why the need for the rerun?
- A short note on that same story, from a Maase avot Siman L'banim, I always thought that Avram and Sara both represented Bnei Yisrael and their eventual captivity in Egypt. This morning I noticed that it seems more like Avram is playing the role of Hashem, with Sara as Bnei Yisrael - Avram is never taken. We are often compared to Hashem's wife, but apparently for some reason in between the foreshadowing here in Lech-Lecha, and the real slavery, the metaphor shifted to "בני בכורי ישראל". Not sure why, but open to ideas.
- Finally, at the end of the Parsha (we're skipping some interesting, important stuff), Hashem tells Avraham about the coming birth of Yitzchak. Avraham responds with laughter. You remember that at the beginning of next week's Parsha, the Malachim tell Sarah about Yitzchak, and when she laughs, Hashem gets upset.
- Why does Hashem get angry at Sarah for laughing but not Avraham?
- Why doesn't Avraham tell Sarah what Hashem had told him?
- Why does Hashem have to tell them altogether? Why couldn't they just figure it out the way everyone else does?
OK, there they are. Looking for some real feedback from you guys this week. And this time, don't just approach me in the hallway - write it up & send it in.
1 comment:
Since I don't have the option of stopping you in the hall I have no other choice but to post my feedback here. :)
I was learning something interesting in my chumash class about the contrast between mitztraim and the plishtim. In class we were exploring Rashi's approach to women and from many of his commentaries its clear that the way he assess the morality of a people is by how they treat the women, and we brought up this contrast. In the case of metzraim avraham assumed they were an evil nation so he had to lie and he does the same thing to the plishtim. The difference is after avimelech confronts him he says something like lo yadati ki yirat elokim bamakom hazeh. Showing that avraham is equating fear of hashem and the act of respecting women. That doesn't entirely answer your question, but it does comment on the difference between the two stories.
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