Abraham and Sarah are determined that their son Isaac will have a good shidduch. A life’s partner will give him stability and complete him.
Not every marriage is a success but in almost every case a person who has gone through a marital breakdown wants another marriage, which is a sign that marriage is a great boon even if one attempt at it has not worked.
There are still many parents who ask a matchmaker to find out something about the lineage and values of a potential partner. To rely on or to be a good shadchan is a wonderful blessing.
Abraham’s self-description was “settler and sojourner” (ger v’toshav: Gen. 23:4).
Today the phrase “the settlers” resonates in anti-Israel sloganism. Jews who live anywhere in Israel are tarred with the “settler” brush, even those who live in big cities like Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. Hijacking the word “settler”, the critics imply that Israelis are usurpers.
Other words too are hijacked; terrorists are called freedom fighters, murderers are called desperate underdogs.
To go back to the “settlers”, we find that human beings as a whole are described by God in the Tanach as “strangers and settlers with Me”, indicating that God is the only being who has proprietary rights and a permanent presence on earth whilst human beings inhabit the earth as tenants (look at Psalm 90 for evidence).
One of the great Jewish gedolim was visited by someone who was surprised to see that the gadol lived in one sparsely furnished room. The visitor said, “It looks like you don’t really live here!” “No, I don’t,” was the reply, “I’m only a visitor in the Almighty’s world”.
Visitors are endowed with a blessing from On High. Settlers are not usurpers; they are visitors in God’s world.
To be a settler is a compliment, a challenge, a privilege, a blessing – not a sneaky means of besmirchment.
The binding of Isaac, by A LosenkoThe Akedah – the Binding of Isaac – is a 15-verse self-contained story with three main characters, God, Abraham, and Isaac.
The narrative is called the Binding of Isaac but it is prefaced by God applying a test not to Isaac but to Abraham. In some way Isaac has a bearing on the story but we are not certain why.
The traditional view is that the story is a test of Abraham’s faith, which somehow involves Isaac but we don’t know how.
Sigmund Freud suggests that it is not the patriarch’s faith in general which is on the agenda. Instead, says Freud, it is a test of Abraham’s attitude to his son. Does the father love his son – or hate him?
If we say Abraham deep down hates Isaac and is glad to see him killed, we can tentatively explain that their relationship is a sort of Oedipus complex.
If on the other hand we say that the father loves his son, the explanation could be that God wants to test how far Abraham is prepared to go for the sake of Isaac.
Some scholars think the point of the story is that Isaac has to die in order for Abraham to prove his love, and there are Midrashim that speak about Isaac’s death.
Most Jewish commentators, however, disagree and say that Isaac does not die and does not have to. Abraham can prove himself by the way he loves his son.
Like all Jewish parents, Abraham and Sarah wanted offspring.
It doesn’t always happen that a couple have children. In that case their immortality is cultural rather than biological.
Cultural continuity comes whether you have children or not, provided you work out your ideas and ideals and dedicate yourself to them. This self-dedication is generally the keynote of the eulogies that are given when you die.
You never find a sentence like “He had … number of cars, … houses, … dollars in the bank”. A eulogy speaks of what kind of person you were.
If you had material possessions the eulogy asks whether you made your money ethically and how you used it for the benefit of the community.
A characteristic of the Patriarch Abraham was hachnasat or’chim, hospitality to wayfarers. The rabbis say that observing this ethical commandment is so highly prized that even God is impressed (Talmud Shabbat 127a).
The Torah tells us that Abraham sat at the entrance of his tent to welcome wayfarers. When the Torah says “the entrance”, our tradition says that there were actually four entrances so that anyone who came by could find a way in without having to walk round and round until he found the door.
And not even this was all that was organised for visitors’ convenience. Abraham did not sit passively at the entrance of his tent to await his visitors but he took the initiative. Seeing travellers in the distance he got up and ran to meet them.
Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple zt”l passed away in January 2024. As an archive of the Rabbi’s written contributions across his many fields of interest, this site is a tribute to the man and his work. See the About section for more information on his life. Y’hi zichro baruch.
OzTorah is a weekly email service and website exploring the timeless teachings of Jewish tradition from a contemporary Australian and global perspective. The site includes insights into the parashah, an Ask the Rabbi forum, and articles on various Jewish and interfaith issues.
The content on this site may be distributed and reprinted, as long as acknowledgement is given to Rabbi Raymond Apple and the URL is included intact. https://oztorah.com.
Abraham and Sarah are determined that their son Isaac will have a good shidduch. A life’s partner will give him stability and complete him.
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