Tag Archives: Vayera (Parasha)

Superheroes in Judaism, the First Multiverse

This week’s parasha, Vayera, begins with Abraham sitting outside his tent just days after circumcising himself at the age of 99. We would expect him to be weak and frail at this moment, yet he is spry and full of energy. The Torah tells us that it was a very hot day (Genesis 18:1), and the Sages explain (as cited by Rashi on the verse) that God deliberately made it hot so that Abraham should not have any visitors bother him during his recovery. Yet, Abraham was more pained by the lack of visitors than he was from the circumcision! So, God sent him three angelic guests.

‘Abraham and the Three Angels’ by James Tissot

Abraham immediately sprung into action, bringing water for his guests to wash their feet, and cooking up a feast. Abraham served his guests “cream and milk and the calf that he had made, and he placed [them] before them, and he was standing over them under the tree, and they ate.” (Genesis 18:8) As discussed in the past, the Sages were puzzled at the fact that Abraham served both dairy and meat at the same meal. Although he lived before the official giving of the Torah, and therefore was not bound by Torah law, nonetheless we would expect him to observe the eternal Torah anyway. Jewish tradition holds that the Patriarchs also observed the Torah through an oral tradition and through their direct prophetic knowledge from God.

One solution to the problem comes from another tradition that Abraham had received the secret wisdom of Creation, and was actually the originator of Sefer Yetzirah, the “Book of Formation”. He knew how to use mystical powers to create things out of thin air. Hence, when the Torah says “the calf that he had made [asher asah]” it means that he literally made the calf! Since he had made this hunk of meat, it was never a living animal, and possessed no soul, so it was totally pareve, and he could serve it with “cream and milk”. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 65b) tells us that Rav Chanina and Rav Oshaia would study Yetzirah and similarly create a calf out of thin air which they then consumed.

Meanwhile, in last week’s parasha we saw how Abraham took on the united armies of four powerful kings. The Torah tells us that he fought them off with just 318 of his men (Genesis 14:14). If this wasn’t enough of a miracle, the Sages say (as cited by Rashi on the verse) that Abraham really didn’t have 318 men. Rather, 318 is the gematria of “Eliezer” (אליעזר), Abraham’s devoted servant. It was just Abraham and Eliezer taking on an entire army! How could they do this? The Talmud (Sanhedrin 109a) says that when Abraham would throw dust and straw it would transform into swords and arrows in mid-air. That’s quite the superpower!

Judaism is full of such feats of superpower, whether it’s Jacob pushing off a well-stone on his own (Genesis 29:1-10)—when normally it required a team of shepherds—or Samson crushing a thousand Philistines with a jawbone (Judges 15), or figures like Eliezer and Eliyahu employing kefitzat haderekh, “leaping” or “teleporting” across vast distances (see Sanhedrin 95a-b and Kiddushin 40a). It therefore isn’t surprising that the modern “pantheon” of superheroes was crafted almost entirely by Jewish writers and artists. Continue reading

In Search of a Definitive List of Abraham’s Ten Tests

In this week’s parasha, Vayera, we read one of the Torah’s most famous narratives, the Akedah, or “Binding of Isaac”. The passage begins by stating that God sought to test Abraham. Although this is the first time the Torah uses such language, Jewish tradition maintains that God tested Abraham a total of ten times (Avot 5:3). What those ten tests were is not exactly clear. There are multiple different lists of the tests, and they don’t all agree with each other. What follows is an attempt to put together a definitive list of Abraham’s ten major life challenges.

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The Soul of Abraham

In this week’s parasha we get a true glimpse into the character and soul of Abraham. The Kabbalists teach that Abraham stems from the sefirah of chessed – kindness. (The sefirot, or sefirah in the singular, are the ten central energies present in Creation, with which God formed the entire Universe. They are said to imbue all things, and directly parallel the Ten Commandments, the Ten Plagues of Egypt, and essentially all other “tens” in the Torah. All things emanate from the sefirot, including the spiritual anatomy of each individual.)

The parasha begins by telling us that Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent on a very hot day, and God appeared to him. As always, the question that must be asked is: why the details? The Torah could have simply said that God appeared to Abraham. Why does it mention that the day was very hot and that Abraham was sitting at the opening of his tent?

The commentaries explain that this was the third day since Abraham was circumcised (which is how the last parasha concluded), and the third day is the most painful. God wished to make it a little easier on Abraham, so He made it a very hot day, forcing people to stay home. As we know, Abraham constantly entertained guests, setting up his tent at a busy intersection to meet as many people as possible. On this day, the guests were not showing up. This is why Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent, hoping for a visitor. The Sages explain that for Abraham the pain of not having guests was even greater than the pain of the circumcision!

Suddenly, Abraham spots a trio of travelers in the distance. Despite his recent circumcision, he immediately jumps up and runs after them, begging them to take a rest at his home. Little does he know that these are angels sent by God, bringing him the news of the coming birth of Isaac. Abraham immediately springs into action, giving his visitors a place to relax, and water to wash their feet, then hurrying to make food. He asks his wife Sarah to bake various breads and cakes, while he goes off to prepare a calf. For just three visitors, Abraham took an entire calf, which would have a couple of hundred pounds of meat. Meanwhile, he asked Sarah to use three se’im of flour. A se’ah is a Biblical unit of volume that equals nearly seven and a half litres. This means that Sarah took about twenty two litres of flour – almost a hundred cups!

It is beyond evident that Abraham embodied generosity and kindness. We continue to see these traits throughout the parasha. The very next scene shows Abraham “bargaining” with God in an attempt to prevent the destruction of Sodom. Though Abraham knew very well how evil Sodom was, he hoped that there was a better way than simply eliminating them; perhaps they can be brought to repentance? Once again we see why Abraham merited to be the very first Jew and patriarch: his passion to make the world a better place. Not to destroy, but to build. Not to combat the darkness, but to bring in more light.