Addict Torah's Mission: To interrogate Torah deeply so as to create space, connection and safety for people with addictive patterns and behaviors that have led them to a crisis of the spirit to tell and shape their stories for the purpose of healing, growth, and a return to their whole selves.
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(ב) ויבא אברהם. מִבְּאֵר שֶׁבַע: (ג) לספוד לשרה ולבכתה. וְנִסְמְכָה מִיתַת שָׂרָה לַעֲקֵדַת יִצְחָק לְפִי שֶׁעַל יְדֵי בְּשׂוֹרַת הָעֲקֵדָה, שֶׁנִּזְדַּמֵּן בְּנָהּ לִשְׁחִיטָה וְכִמְעַט שֶׁלֹּא נִשְׁחַט, פָּרְחָה נִשְׁמָתָהּ מִמֶּנָּה וּמֵתָה:
(2) ויבא אברהם AND ABRAHAM CAME from Beer-Sheba (3) לספוד לשרה ולבכותה TO BEWAIL SARAH AND TO WEEP FOR HER — The narrative of the death of Sarah follows immediately on that of the Binding of Isaac, because through the announcement of the Binding — that her son had been made ready for sacrifice and had almost been sacrificed — she received a great shock (literally, her soul flew from her) and she died (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 32).
Sarah is the true victim of the Akedah, her death is its unexplicated, inexplicable cost...Sarah's vision of her husband and of her life's mission [is destroyed]...She dies of the truth of that hair's breadth that separates death from life...On this view, Sarah dies of radical doubt. She suffers an attack of vertigo and, as the midrash concludes, lo hispika, she has not managed to finish her crying and wailing before she dies.
The death of Sarah was a loss not only for Abraham and his family, but for the whole country. So long as she was alive, all went well in the land. After her death confusion ensued. The weeping, lamenting, and wailing over her going hence was universal, and Abraham, instead of receiving consolation, had to offer consolation to others.
The Sarah who could tell Abraham with such clinical decisiveness: 'Cast out that slave woman and her son...' - demonstrates not only inflexible will but an apparently lucid vision of reality that is hidden from the more entangles emotions of Abraham...[God] tells Abraham not merely to obey Sarah but to accept her vision of things - less confused and multifaceted than his...But this very acuity, the laser beam that disentangles complexity and cuts to the quick, makes Sarah vulnerable when all structures and certainty are undermined...pure thought can no longer help her. Unlike Abraham, whose tendrils of concern involve him with the complex life of those around him...Sarah aspires to an analytical purity that yields her no refuge at the end...Sarah dies of her life; or , to put it in Jung's terms, she cannot meet the challenge of later life, which demands reversals, the confrontation with counterpossibilities...she cannot realign herself to complete...the painfiul prize of a full humanity.
(8) Thereupon, the Holy One, blessed be He, opened the sky and the cloud (surrounding Him) and said: “By myself have I sworn,” saith the Lord (ibid., v. 16). “You have sworn.” Abraham replied, “and now I swear that I shall not descend from this altar until I say what I wish to say.” “Speak,” He answered. “Did You not tell me,” said Abraham, “Count all the stars, if thou be able to count them; so shall thy seed be (Gen. 15:5)?” “Yes,” He replied. “But from whom shall my seed descend?” queried Abraham. “From Isaac,” the Holy One answered. “It was in my heart, yesterday, to remind You that You told me that Isaac was my seed, when You said to me: Take him for a burnt-offering. But I restrained myself and did not challenge You. Therefore, when Isaac’s descendants sin and are being oppressed, recall the binding of Isaac, reckon it as if his ashes were piled upon the altar, and pardon them and release them from their anguish.”
Here it is Abraham who is the alien in the land. This is ironic because one day this land will belong to his descendants, and so they are commanded some fifteen times in the Torah to treat aliens well. That is, the Israelites must be fair to. non-Israelites who live in Israel because once they were the aliens there, and because they were aliens in Egypt: 'You know the alien's soul, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt' (Exod 23:9, author's emphasis).
When the three angels, disguised as travelers, visited Abraham, we went outside to fetch a young goat to slaughter for them. But the kid ran away from him, and he had to chase it through the fields to the entrance of a cave that Abraham had never entered. The kid paused an instant and then disappeared inside the entrance and Abraham followed after it. At first the cave was low, so that Abraham had to bend down, but soon it opened into a beautiful chamber, illuminated by a mysterious light. There was a wonderful scent, like that of balsam. And there, in that chamber, Abraham found the bodies of Adam and Eve,, lying on couches, with candles burning at their head and feet, and their bodies were perfectly preserved. Adam and Eve had chosen that Cave as their place of burial, for it was the closest site to the Garden of Eden, and the scent that pervaded it was that of Eden itself, which drifted from the Garden into that cave. When Abraham emerged, he knew that he had stumbled on a very holy place, and he decided then and there to purchase the cave from Ephron the Hittite, as a burial site for himself and his family. So too did he spare the kid that led him there. And that is the Cave of Machpelah in the city of Hebron...
(1) Abraham was now old, advanced in years, and יהוה had blessed Abraham in all things. (2) And Abraham said to the senior servant of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, “Put your hand under my thigh (3) and I will make you swear by יהוה, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, (4) but will go to the land of my birth [alt translation: 'my land and my birthplace'] and get a wife for my son Isaac.” (5) And the servant said to him, “What if the woman does not consent to follow me to this land, shall I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” (6) Abraham answered him, “On no account must you take my son back there! (7) יהוה, the God of heaven—who took me from my father’s house and from my native land, who promised me on oath, saying, ‘I will assign this land to your offspring’—will send a messenger before you, and you will get a wife for my son from there. (8) And if the woman does not consent to follow you, you shall then be clear of this oath to me; but do not take my son back there.” [Note: these are Abraham's last words in the Torah]
God blessed Abraham in all things (24:1). What does this mean? It means that in addition to wealth and lngth of years, God gave Abraham a daughter...But where did this daughter come from? After all, she was born after the death of Sarah, and before Abraham married Keturah. Some say that this daughter, whose name was Bakol ('In-all-things'), was a child of Hagar...others say that this daughter was actually an angel, who guarded Abraham so closely that everyone believed her to be his daughter...
Even as a request, it is remarkable: the servant himself asks for a miraculous sign from God, and he himself names what that sign should be. No human thus far, including Abraham himself, has gone this far...it is noteworthy that it is one of a chain of steps that humans are taking toward increasing control of miracle in the Tanak.
This plea of Eliezer, Abraham's servant poses a problem. There is surely a self-contradiction in him praying to God to engineer a coincidence...is it conceivable for one who believed in Divine Providence to accept the existence of such a thing as 'chance' and even go so far as to request the Almighty Himself to prepare such a situation?
The servant speaks to God with a directness borne of necessity. Filled with a sense of the uncertainty of his task, aware of his own limitations, he turns to the Source of Life and shares his fear...We too, are daily sent on missions that test our limits, which force us into territory we have not previously explored, and for which the stakes may be very high indeed...With as great an emotional burden as that faced by Abraham's servant, with no less need to cry out and to absorb the comfort of having been heard, many of us have nonetheless cut ourselves off from God's listening ear. Do we worry that speaking to God is superstitious? That God does not answer prayer? That God doesn't hear prayer? That there is no God? Yet discomfort with spontaneous prayer does a disservice to our sacred tradition, to our deepest needs, and to our relationship with God. Prayer is not philosophy; it need to justify itself at t he bench of reason, consistency, or sophistication. Prayer is what the Talmud calls 'the labor of the heart.' It is answerable to the heart alone.
(42) “I came today to the spring, and I said: ‘O יהוה, God of my master Abraham’s [house], if You would indeed grant success to the errand on which I am engaged! (43) As I stand by the spring of water, let the young woman who comes out to draw and to whom I say, “Please, let me drink a little water from your jar,” (44) and who answers, “You may drink, and I will also draw for your camels”—let her be the wife whom יהוה has decreed for my master’s son.’ (45) I had scarcely finished praying in my heart, when Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder, and went down to the spring and drew. And I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ (46) She quickly lowered her jar and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels.
Eliezer noticed, too, how the water rose up to her of its own accord from the bottom of the well, so that she needed not to exert herself to draw it.
From a recognition of the large-scale historic miracles man is led to acknowledge the hidden ones which constitute the foundation of the whole Torah. For no man has any portion in the law of Moses our teacher until he is convinced that all our affairs and chance occurrences and the routine workings of the universe both in the private and public field are miracles and are not to be attributed merely to nature.
(סב) וְיִצְחָק֙ בָּ֣א מִבּ֔וֹא בְּאֵ֥ר לַחַ֖י רֹאִ֑י וְה֥וּא יוֹשֵׁ֖ב בְּאֶ֥רֶץ הַנֶּֽגֶב׃ (סג) וַיֵּצֵ֥א יִצְחָ֛ק לָשׂ֥וּחַ בַּשָּׂדֶ֖ה לִפְנ֣וֹת עָ֑רֶב וַיִּשָּׂ֤א עֵינָיו֙ וַיַּ֔רְא וְהִנֵּ֥ה גְמַלִּ֖ים בָּאִֽים׃ (סד) וַתִּשָּׂ֤א רִבְקָה֙ אֶת־עֵינֶ֔יהָ וַתֵּ֖רֶא אֶת־יִצְחָ֑ק וַתִּפֹּ֖ל מֵעַ֥ל הַגָּמָֽל׃ (סה) וַתֹּ֣אמֶר אֶל־הָעֶ֗בֶד מִֽי־הָאִ֤ישׁ הַלָּזֶה֙ הַהֹלֵ֤ךְ בַּשָּׂדֶה֙ לִקְרָאתֵ֔נוּ וַיֹּ֥אמֶר הָעֶ֖בֶד ה֣וּא אֲדֹנִ֑י וַתִּקַּ֥ח הַצָּעִ֖יף וַתִּתְכָּֽס׃ (סו) וַיְסַפֵּ֥ר הָעֶ֖בֶד לְיִצְחָ֑ק אֵ֥ת כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִ֖ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשָֽׂה׃ (סז) וַיְבִאֶ֣הָ יִצְחָ֗ק הָאֹ֙הֱלָה֙ שָׂרָ֣ה אִמּ֔וֹ וַיִּקַּ֧ח אֶת־רִבְקָ֛ה וַתְּהִי־ל֥וֹ לְאִשָּׁ֖ה וַיֶּאֱהָבֶ֑הָ וַיִּנָּחֵ֥ם יִצְחָ֖ק אַחֲרֵ֥י אִמּֽוֹ׃ {פ}
(62) Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi, for he was settled in the region of the Negeb. (63) And Isaac went out walking in the field toward evening and, looking up, he saw camels approaching. (64) Raising her eyes, Rebekah saw Isaac. She alighted from the camel [alt translation: fell off her camel] (65) and said to the servant, “Who is that man walking in the field toward us?” And the servant said, “That is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. (66) The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. (67) Isaac then brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebekah as his wife. Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother’s death.
[Isaac] was in the posture of praying when Rebekah first laid eyes upon him...She saw he was not an ordinary individual. She noticed the unusual beauty of Isaac, and also that an angel accompanied him.
The journey to Haran took but a few hours, at evening of the same day he reached there, because the earth hastened to meet him in a wonderful way...Eliezer's return to Canaan was a wonderful as his going to Haran had been. A seventeen days' journey he accomplished in three hours. He left Haran at noon, and he arrived at Hebron at three o'clock in the afternoon, the time for the Minhah Prayer, which had been introduced by Isaac.
Three years Isaac mourned for his mother. Every time he entered her tent, and saw it in darkness [dimmed], he would tear his hair. But when he married Rebecca, and brought her into the tent, the light returned to its place. 'And Isaac brought her into the ohel [the tent]': ohel means 'light,' as it is said, 'Til the moon will no longer shine' [Job 25:5]. He was comforted and saw it as through his mother were still in existence. That is why it says: 'Isaac was comforted after his mother.'
Isaac, Sarah's son, goes out from Be'er-lahai-roi, the place that is associated with Hagar, the stranger. Our grief makes us a stranger to life and we dwell in isolation and alienation until we are ready to love again. This preparation for love is described in Isaac's meeting with Rebecca. As a prelude to that meeting, Isaac goes out into the field to meditate. The word here for meditation is la-su'ach, which refers to the practice of 'conversation' with God. The field, a place of spacious natural beauty, is the setting. Here we engage iin holy conversation, pouring out our grief, anger, and despair, listening deeply for God's voice...The spaciousness that Isaac achieves in meditation allows him to lift his eyes and behold beauty and the possibility of love. In loving again we are comforted.
Keturah. The most ignored significant person in the Torah. Rashi follows an old rabbinic idea that she is Hagar...Notably, the Midianites are among the children of Abraham and Keturah, and the influence of the Midianite priest Jethro on Moses, his son-in-law, is understood to be substantial. And the line of Levites who are descended from Moses thus - alone among the Israelites - derive from Abraham through both Sarah and Keturah [Keturah/Hagar].
(7) This was the total span of Abraham’s life: one hundred and seventy-five years. (8) And Abraham breathed his last, dying at a good ripe age, old and contented; and he was gathered to his kin. (9) His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, (10) the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites; there Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife. (11) After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac settled near Beer-lahai-roi.
A vision came to Abraham on the day of his death. The voice of the Lord came to him and said, 'Open your eyes, and see your reward."...At that instant Abraham was suddenly transformed into a happy child, and he saw a great many happy children coming toward him. Abraham played with them and ran with them to hear the wonderful songs of the angels. They walked among sweet-smelling trees and rested under the Tree of Life..."
Isaac's life is different from his father Abraham and his son Jacob's. Unlike them: he never leaves the promised land. [He never goes to Egypt.] He never fights. He has only one wife. His name is not changed. He is pictured going to meditate. He lives the longest. There are fewer stories about him. He is a relatively passive figure, acted on by his father and his wife and his son. Why he is different? Presumably because he has once lain on an altar as a sacrifice to God. Even though the sacrifice is not consummated, his life is now consecrated, and his life is distinct after this. The actions that parents take regarding their children impact on their children's lives [and their grandchildren's lives] ever after.
Where did Ishmael, gone all these years, suddenly come from? Maybe, the text is hinting to us, Isaac brought him back. This is the gift he gave his father in his old age. Not finding him a wife, but reuniting him with his other son, his firstborn son, whom he had not seen for decades. If that is so, Isaac wasn't putting aside his mother's honor - he was putting aside his own. He, who had the place of privilege in the family lineage, brought back the older brother who was once seen as a threat to his birthright. And why? for his father's happiness, certainly...But also, perhaps, Isaac did it for himself. He had been raised an only child. But he had a brother, somewhere out there in the wilderness, estranged. And now, his mother was gone. His father would soon be gone. It was Isaac who would be alone in the world. Where was Isaac's family? At Be'er Lachai Ro'i.