Adas Israel - Mason City, IA

Torah Thoughts 26 October 2018

Welcome to our weekly look at the Torah Portion of the week. We are in Genesis and the portion is called Vayera (Gen. 18:1 - 22:24). The word "Vayera" means "and he appeared"in Hebrew. Each Torah Portion has a name usually taken from the first few words in the "parsha" or portion. In this case, "Hashem (G-d) appeared to him (Abraham) on the plains..."  

Then comes the well known story of Abraham seeing three men coming to his tent. In reality they were three angels. Abraham interrupts his conversation with G-d (can you imagine?) to make welcome the three strangers. A couple of things are going on. Three days earlier Abraham, at his advanced age, circumcises himself in a forever sign between the Jews and G-d. Three days...and now he is playing host to three strangers.

One of the angels then informs Abraham that his wife, Sarah, will have a child in a years time. When Sarah learns of this it is said that she "laughed". But the key is that she laughed "inwardly". 

And it gets more interesting:

G-d then said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh? Is there anything that is beyond God?" Abraham reprimanded Sarah, but "Sarah denied, saying 'I did not laugh' for she was frightened." Abraham then said to her, "No, you laughed indeed" (Gen. 18:12-14).

Have we caught Sarah in a lie?

The Rabbi of Gur says that it is impossible to think that Sarah lied. The Midrash tells us that Sarah was totally free of sin (Bereishis Rabbah 58:1). He, therefore, interprets the verse as saying not that Sarah denied, but that Sarah was in denial.

Her disbelief that she could carry a child was "inward" -- deep in the recesses of her subconscious. Sarah was not even aware of this thought. Only G-d Who knows a person's innermost thoughts and feelings, was aware of it. When Abraham reprimanded her for this thought, Sarah could not even imagine that she could have harbored disbelief of G-d's omnipotence. Her reverence of G-d was so great that a thought such as this was beyond her.

The lesson here is that even if we are unaware of denial we can protect ourselves from being blind to reality. How? By listening to teachers and sincere friends who are objective and can see that which we cannot see.

May you have a blessed Shabbat! 

 

 

Torah Thoughts 19 October 2018

Welcome back to our weekly look at the Torah Portion for the week. Jews, around the globe mark each Shabbat (Sabbath) with a reading from the Torah or the first five "books" of the Bible. Each year we read each chapter from Bereishis (Genesis) to Devarim (Deuteronomy) and once complete go back to the beginning and start over. Torah study is that important. But, do we learn new things? Yes, indeed. 

This week's Torah Portion is from Bereishis (Genesis) 12 - 17 it is called Lech Lecha or "go for yourself" the 6th Hebrew word in this portion.

Here we read that G-d commands Abram (later Abraham) to "Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you." This, then is the start of an amazing journey of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. But, G-d is not done because he follows up his commandment with a promise, "And, I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you."

Pretty heady stuff!

Abram goes and finding a famine he travels to Egypt asking his wife Sarai (later to become Sarah) to tell people she is his sister. Why? Well, the folks in Egypt were fond of killing husbands so they could marry the wife. 

Pharoah kicks Abram out of Egypt having not been successful in hooking up with Sarai. They settle in Hebron while Abram's nephew goes to Sodom. Abram recuses Lot.

Then Abram enters into a covenant with the Almighty (all covenants with the Almighty are eternal, never to be abrogated or replaced by new covenants), Avram is told that his descendants will be enslaved for 400 years and that his descendants (via Isaac, "... through Isaac will offspring be considered yours" Gen. 21:8.  Isaac, not Ishmael!) will be given the land "from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates."

So much going on!

Now something to think about:

The Torah states, "And he (Avraham) trusted in G-d, and G-d reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Gen. 15:6)

Why was Avraham's trust in G-d considered to be righteousness? If G-d spoke to any of us, would we not have an unshakable faith? We do not have faith that there is a moon or that two plus two equals four. That which we see or understand does not require an act of faith.

The answer was given by Rabbi Mordechai of Lechovitz, who cited the Talmud that on a person's Judgment Day he will be asked, "Did you transact in faith?"  This is usually understood as asking whether one transacted business honestly.

But there is a deeper meaning says Rabbi Mordechai: When a person transacts in business, he negotiates and tries in every way to maximize his profit. He does not settle for a meager gain. This is what one will be asked on Judgment Day: "Did you transact in faith?" i.e., did you do everything possible to maximize your faith, or did you just accept whatever you were given?

What do we do to maximize our faith?  That will be part of the discussion this week at Shul.

SERVICE Schedule

We will meet on Friday the 19th at 7:15pm for services and then on Shabbat (Saturday) at 10am for our Midrash or study session. Everyone is welcome to attend either or both.

See you in Shul! 

Torah Thoughts 12 October 2018

This Shabbat we study from the Torah the section about Noah. (Noach/Gen. 6:9 - 11:32) It is such a dramatic tale of a righteous man
living in an evil time. The stunning reality of this story is that it took Noah 120 years to build the ark and every detail was transferred by G-d to Noah.

Now, think about that for a moment. If it took that long for Noah to build the ark wouldn't it have been possible that several people would have been moved to really THINK about their life and the evil that was in their midst. But no...the people taunted Noah. Asked him what build a boat on a hill. And when Noah warned about the flood they laughed and called him a foo. Yet...he persisted.

This story also speaks to the patience of G-d. The building of the ark took 120 years. Why? Could it have been because G-d was being patient with the people and yearning for them to return to a life of goodness. He didn't just snap and destroy the world. He waited for people to "come back". To return. To do Teshuva...return to the path of goodness from the path of destruction.

How many paths are put in front of us each day? We can choose the path of good or of evil. We are given that free will and in the end the path that we choose will bring us blessing or curse. It's not up to G-d it is up to each of us.

The Torah Portion this week ends with a very interesting story. Noah, after 365 days on the ark, leaves it and plants a vineyard. He gets drunk then there is that weird story of an incident in the tent after which Noah curses his grandson Canaan. What was that all about?  Could it be that the next story tells why? The Torah Portion concludes with the story of the Tower of Babel and that evil lived on and we then turn to the genealogy of the pathway to Abraham.

Enjoy your study!

SERVICE SCHEDULE:

Adas Israel will hold our Erv Shabbat Service on Friday the 19th of October starting at 7:15pm. We will then gather for the Midrash (Study Session) on Shabbat (Saturday) the 20th at 10:00am. Everyone is welcome. If you want to study for the text. It is Parsha Lech Lecha (Gen 12 - 17)

See you in Shul!