Listening to his mother's advice, Yaacov runs away, being afraid that his brother Esav, out of resentment and jealousy, will kill him. A straight reading of the Torah tells us that he left Beer Sheva and on his way to
Maybe this teaches us that we have the choice of redefining the meaning of events and decisions, if the original reason doesn't fit our values.
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Shabbat Shalom to all,
Last week we read about Avraham sending Hagar and Yishmael away, upon Sarah's request.
After the Akedah, Yitzhak disappeared and didn’t live with his parents.
Rashi, quoting a Midrash reads in the words "Beer LaHay Roei" an allusion to the place where we last met Hagar and Yishmael and says that after his mother Sarah died, he brought Hagar back to his father, which is identified with Keturah; we'll also read that Yitzhak and Yishmael are burying their common father together.
Does that teach us that after each episode of hatred and rivalry, people are (or should be) able to overcome fear, to reestablish harmony and peaceful coexistence after repairing injustice?
Dear Family and Friends,
Lot's wife (no name is mentioned) looked backwards after the destruction of Sedom, the Evil City, and petrified ; her daughters, surviving that trauma with Lot, their father, looked towards the future, but, believing they were the only survivors in the world (they never left Sedom and probably didn’t know something else existed…) made him drink, and alike Noach, he became drunk (maybe this was – and sometimes still – a way people react to traumata) ; they had intercourse with him while he was drunk and asleep and gave birth to Amon and Moav. Our Tradition tells us a lot about Amon and Moav, namely that David, and the Messiah are descendants of Ruth, the Moabite.
Maybe this teaches us that sometimes looking towards the future involves very unusual decisions and behavior (are they other options in such circumstances?), but also that in order to be part of the process of redemption some personal transformation is required.
.Shabbat Shalom to all,
