Vayera

In the Torah portion “Vayera" we learn something very amazing.  We learn how Abraham had just been circumcized and how G-d had come to see Abraham on the third day after his circumcision because it is on that day that the pain is most severe. Abraham spies out three strangers and he tells G-d, "G-d, if please I find favor in Your eyes do not pass from your servant." In other words, Abraham says’, to G-d, wait a minute.  I see three strangers over there and I have to go help them. Don't go away.  I'll be right back." This is indeed amazing, but we know that in Judaism we cannot get close to G-d unless we are first moral.  G-d had purposefully made the day hot hoping that Abraham would stay inside because this would make his cure come quicker, but, instead, Abraham looked at the situation from the opposite point of view.  He said, "What happens if someone went outside in this hot weather? He would surely suffer from sunstroke or die from thirst." So Abraham told G-d, "Wait a minute.  I see out there three strangers.  They could be in danger of their life." We know that Pekuach Nefesh, that saving a life pushes aside all-mother considerations, even getting close to G-d.  We know that on Yom Kippur we are supposed to break Yom Kippur if we can save a life, etc., so we know that moral considerations must come even before our trying to get close to G-d.

The rabbis say that Abraham was the first Jew, that Abraham made this discovery of what it means to be a Jew at an early age.  In the Gemorah Nodoreem it says that Abraham was three years old.  However, in the Medrash it says that he was either 40 or 48, and the Rambam Maimonides, when he decides the issue in the Mishkan Torah, decides the issue that Abraham was 48 years old when he recognized G-d and what that concept meant.  All the commentators are up in arms saying how is it that the Rambam has chosen a Medrash over a clear Gemorah? The Gemorah says that Abraham was only 3 years old.  Of course, the Kesev Mishnah answers that here we are really talking about two different things, that Abraham when he was 3 years old recognized the fact that there was only one G-d in the world but when he was 48 years old that is when he recognized that you can only serve this G-d if you are first moral.  You cannot get close to this G-d unless you are first moral.  In the ancient world there were really many people who believed in the concept of only one G-d.  Abraham was not really unique in believing in that concept.  Even from the Torah, itself, we learn that Shaim and Aver had a yeshiva in which they promulgated the view of one G-d.  We learn in last week's Sedra about Malkeetzedek, and Malkeetzedek, too, believed in the one G-d, but what differentiated Abraham from his predecessors, and of course we know that many Greek philosophers later on also believed in one G-d, was that Abraham also believed that you could not approach G-d unless you were first moral.  When we learn about Malkeetzedek Malkeetzedek says that G-d is the G-d of the heavens, but when Abraham replies to him he says G-d is not only G-d of the heavens but also the G-d of the earth.  We cannot have any relationship with G-d, we cannot get close to G-d unless we are first moral.  The ancient pagans believed that the Jewish people were atheists.  The reason they believed we were atheists was because we did not have any idols that we worshipped.  The whole concept of an idol is not as foolish as it may seem, because the ancients believed that you could capture spirits.  You could have spirits incarnate in a certain enclosure and then you could have power over those spirits and it would give you great power to do different things, like today we read about these genie legends, and this, of course, is why many people believed that at certain times of the year certain spirits were incarnate in certain animals and you could not touch these certain animals.  We Jews felt that this was all foolishness, and we all felt that this had no purpose and meaning in the world at all.  Of course, we do know that we can create objects which can destroy us, which can have great power, like a battery and a battery can electrocute us, but we do not believe that we got close to G-d by doing all sorts of ritual acts alone or by creating all sorts of habitats for the gods to incarnate in.  So the ancients thought that the Jewish people were atheists because, first of all, they did not worship and idol, and, second of all, because the Jewish people did not put their prime emphasis on getting close to the gods.  In the ancient world morality and religion were completely separate, but Abraham said that a person could not be religious unless he was first moral.  Throughout Jewish history there have been two distinct types of heresy.  The first type of heresy was the heresy that says that all you have to do it get close to G-d; you do not have to be moral.  You daven, you put tephillin on, you keep Pesach, and it is enough.  You do not have to be moral at all.  That, of course, we know is not true.  That's why Abraham was so worried to get a successor. He first thought that his successor would be Lot, but Lot was a man who even though he looked like Abraham and even though he kept many of the rituals of Judaism he was a gonif, a thief.  In fact, when his shepherds needed grass to graze on he told them to take the sheep to the Canaanite grass even though it did not belong to him.  He said, "Well, in a few hundred years Abraham is going to get it anyway, so it is okay." Later on when he was given a choice when he separated from Abraham he decided to go to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, even though they were evil places, even though he knew these places would be bad for his children, but he could make a lot of money there.  When the angels came to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah the rabbis say it was Pesach and he had matzahs there, but he was so interested in preserving his own reputation as a person who protected guests that came to his house for business purposes that he was even willing to surrender his daughters to the mob.  That is how far he had gone.  To him religion and morality had nothing one to do with the other.  He could get close to G-d and feel G-d's power and encouragement even if he was immoral.  Abraham, of course, knew that that was not so.

The second heresy is the opposite heresy, that all religion is is morality and nothing more, but we know that that is not so.  It is from religion that we get the courage and the strength to overcome our problems, and when we do not have religion we do not have meaning in life.  We do not feel that there is a purpose in life and then we cannot summon the courage and strength to overcome life's problems and we fall prey to alcoholism and drug abuse, etc.  These are things that Jews never in the past were ever prey to, but now you find Jewish alcoholics, Jewish drug addicts, Jewish wife beaters, Jewish child abusers, things that were never found in the Jewish community before.  Now they are found in our community because people feel empty inside.  That is, of course, why Eliezer could not succeed Abraham because Eliezer was just a servant of Abraham.  He did not have any connection to G-d.  It is true he followed Abraham's morality and to him religion was only morality.  Unfortunately, in our day this is the way many Jews feel.  Therefore, they lack the special courage and strength which religion gives them to overcome all their problems and to bring out the best within themselves.

Then there was Ishmael, and Abraham thought that Yishmael would succeed him, but Yishmael, although he believed in what Abraham believed in and although he believed that you had to be moral first before you could approach G-d, he was a wild man.  He did not have any self-discipline.  He could not control himself. Therefore, eventually he was kicked out of the camp, although he was brought back later on and became Baal Teshuva when he was able to control himself, so Yitzchak was the heir to Abraham.

In this week's Torah portion we learn about the Akedah, which is a terrible trial for Abraham.  Why wasn't this a trial for Yitzchak? After all, Yitzchak was no youngster^ according to tradition; he was 37 years old, but this was a trial for Abraham because here Abraham was going against every single thing that he had preached for 130 years.  We learn, “Go to the land of Mareeah and offer himup there as an offering." It actually means to elevate him there.  Abraham misunderstood what G-d was talking about here.  Here this was a great test.  In this week's Torah portion we learn that there was besides these two unique things that Abraham promulgated to the world, the belief in one G-d and the belief that you only serve G-d if you are moral, in this week's Torah portion we also learn that even G-d cannot tell you to act immoral.  We do not believe with Kirkergard that religion is the suspension of the ethical.  It is not.  G-d cannot ask you to do things that are unethical.  That, of course, is one of the themes of this Torah portion, too, when Abraham says, "The judge of all the world will not do justice when Abraham fights for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah?" Therefore, at the very end it is not even G-d Who tells Abraham to stop.  It is Amalach who tells Abraham, an angel who tells Abraham to desist from sacrificing his son.  Some people say that Amalach is the Torah.  Even G-d cannot ask us to violate the laws of the Torah.  It is impossible.  We must be moral before we can be religious, and G-d cannot even suspend the laws of morality.  It is very important that we all recognize this fact.  It is very important that we all recognize that we need religion,but that religion cannot be without morality, that morality is the very basis of religion.  If we all understand this then truly we can have a wonderful religious life.  We also cannot just stop with morality, otherwise we will be empty inside. It is all our hope and prayer that all of us will realize this so that we will all lead good and decent and fulfilling lives.

I am reminded of the story they tell about a man who was earning $200 a week. He got his paycheck at the end of the week and it was $350.  He decided not to say anything, but the next week he got a check for only $150.  This time he was a little perturbed and he went up to his boss and said, "How come I only got $150 this week?" The boss looked at him arid said, "How come you did not say anything last week when you got more money?" The guy looked at his boss and said, "Well, one mistake I can overlook but not two." Unfortunately, there are many people who act this way.  He was a true disciple of Lot.  He was only interested in money and not morality, not in leading an upright life.  However, if we lead an upright life, if we are moral then certainly and truly we can take the next step and get close to G-d and have a fulfilling and meaningful life, too.  Let us all pray that we will all have such a life so that the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.