When Grandpa Abe Went To War

List of Big Bible moments

1.    Moses smashes the 10 commandments when he sees the golden calf being worshipped.

2.    Elijah the prophet is taken up in a chariot of fire

3.    All Israel comes to Devorah the Judge for justice where she holds court her special tree.

4.    Jacob wrestles with a stranger in the dark by the river, demanding a blessing

5.    Miriam leads the people in song after the splitting of the Reed Sea.

6.    Solomon finishes building  the Temple and holds an 8 day festival.

7.    David brings the ark up to Jerusalem.

8.    Moses carves a second set of tablets for the 10 commandments

9.    Moses blesses and ordains Joshua to be the next leader.

10.  The plague of hail strikes Egypt.

 

BERESHEET/GENESIS 14: WHEN GRANDPA ABE WENT TO WAR

[The invading kings coming south] seized all the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions, and went their way.  They also took Loht, the son of Avram’s brother, and his possessions, and departed; for he had settled in Sodom.  A fugitive brought the news to Avram the Ivri, (who was dwelling among the terebinth trees of Mamre the Amorite, kinsman of Eshkol and Aner, these being Avram’s allies). When Avram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he mustered his chanichim*, born into his household, numbering three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

*”retainers,”  members of his camp,  employees or servants capable of bearing arms.

He and his servants split up at night, and defeated them; and he pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.  He brought back all the possessions; he also brought back his relative Loht and his possessions, and the female captives and everyone else. 

GOOGLE MAPS?  LET'S SEE! 

When he [Avram] returned from defeating Khadar’la-omer and the kings with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet Avram in the Valley of Shaveh, which is the Valley of the King.   And [at the same time] King Melchi-Zedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of El Elyon/God Most High.  He blessed him [Avram], saying, “Blessed be Avram of God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.  And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your foes into your hand.” And [Avram] gave him a tenth of everything [he had captured].

Then the king of Sodom said to Avram, “Give me the people, and you take the stuff for yourself.”  But Avram said to the king of Sodom, “I swear to Adonai,  El Elyon/God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth:   I will not take so much as a shoelace or a sandal strap of what is yours; you shall not say, ‘It is I who made Avram rich.’ For me, nothing but what my servants have used up; as for the share of the men who went with me—Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre—let them take their share.”

1) Why does  Avram (soon to be Abraham) want to make sure nobody will say the King of Sodom made Avram rich? Is it something the king says, believes or does? Or is it something else? (Hint: what happens to the city of Sodom?)

 

 

 

2)   Give an explanation for Avram’s donations to the King of Shalem, because a tenth of what you capture in battle is a good sized chunk.   

 

 

 

3)  If Avram can pull 318 chanicnhim (retainers or soldiers) from his camp,  just how many people does he and Sarai  have working for them?    

 

4)Why does Avram, who lives south in Mamre, east of the Salt Sea, peruse his enemies past where he finds them at Dan, to the other (northern) side of Damascus (see map)?

 

5)Where did Avram learn millitary tactics like a night attack?  Make a short midrash-  tell us your theory or story.  possibility .

 

 

6) Are any elements of the story in this parsha still an issue today,  such as kidnapping, war, or political alliances?  If so, which ones? Or is this story too old to have any connection to our lives today?

 

 

What’s Bothering Rashi  in Parshat Lech Lecha?

Rashi,  known in his time as Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (1040-1105 CE),  is known as the greatest of Jewish commentators, both for his commentary on Torah and on almost the entire 2,711 pages of the Talmud Bavli.  Rashi was a wine maker or merchant as well as a Rosh Yeshiva who lived in Troyes, France, in the heart of Champagne wine growing region.   Unlike so many others,  Rashi’s community was not wiped out by Crusaders. Students from all over  France and Germany to study Torah with him.

 

What question, conflict, problem or issue is bothering Rashi such that he makes his comment?   Rashi is giving us an answer- so what is his question?

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GENESIS 17: (THE LAST CHAPTER IN LECH LECHA)

And God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sa’rai, you shall not call her Sarai, but her name shall be Sa’rah. I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she shall give rise to nations; rulers of peoples shall issue from her.” Abraham bowed with his face to the ground  and laughed, as he said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man a hundred years old, or can Sarah bear a child at ninety?”

And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live by Your favor!” God said, “Nevertheless, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Yitzhak; and I will maintain My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring to come.  As for Ishmael, I have heeded you. I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and exceedingly numerous. He shall be the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation. But My covenant I will maintain with Yitzhak, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.”

לא תקרא את שמה שרי YOU SHALL SHALL NOT CALL HER NAME SARAI which means “my princess”— a princess to me and not to others — BUT SARAH, in a more general sense, SHALL BE HER NAME: she shall be princess over all (Talmud, Berakhot 13a).

1) What’s bothering Rashi about Sarah’s name?

 

 

 

וברבתי אותה AND I WILL BLESS HER — And in what did the blessing consist? In that she resumed her youthfulness, as it is said, (Genesis 18:12) “shall I have the pleasure of youth again?” (Midrash, Genesis Rabbah 47:2)

2) What’s bothering Rashi about God blessing Sarah?

 

 

אם שרה הבת תשעים שנה OR SHALL SARAH, WHO IS NINETY YEARS OLD be worthy to bear a son? Although the previous generations used to have children at the age of five hundred years, yet in Abraham’s days the length of life had already become shorter and a diminishment of strength had come upon people. Go and learn this from the ten generations from Noah to Abraham who begot their children at the then early age of sixty or seventy.

3) What’s bothering Rashi about Sarah? 

 

 

 

 

קראת את שמו יצחק AND YOU SHALL NAME HIM YITZHAK  — with reference to his laughter. Some say the name has reference to the ten (י) trials, the ninety (צ) years of Sarah’s age, the eight (ח) days of the circumcision and the hundred (ק) years of Abraham’s age (Genesis Rabbah 53:7).

4) What’s bothering Rashi about Yitzhak’s name?

 

What makes a righteous person?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdSxjSP86u4

טו  וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים, אֶל-נֹחַ לֵאמֹר.	15 And God spoke unto Noah, saying:
טז  צֵא, מִן-הַתֵּבָה--אַתָּה, וְאִשְׁתְּךָ וּבָנֶיךָ וּנְשֵׁי-בָנֶיךָ אִתָּךְ.	16 'Go forth from the ark, you, and you wife, and you sons, and you sons' wives with you.

 

0	אֶפֶס
1	אַחַת
2	שְׁתַּיִם
3	שָׁלוֹשׁ
4	אַרְבַּע
5	חָמֵשׁ
6	שֵׁשׁ
7	שֶׁבַע
8	שְׁמוֹנֶה
9	תֵּשַׁע
10	עֶשֶׂר

 

 

 

 

 

11	אַחַת-עֶשְֹּרֵה
12	ֹשְתֵּים-עֶשְֹרֵה
13	ֹשְלֹש- עֶשְֹרֵה
14	אַרְבַּע- עֶשְֹּרֵה
15	חֲמֵֹש-עֶשְֹרֵה
16	ֹשֵֹּש-עֶשְֹרֵה
17	ֹשְבַע-עֶשְֹרֵה
18	ֹשְמוֹנֶה-עֶשְֹרֵה
19	תְֹּשַע-עֶשְֹרֵה
20	עֶשְׂרִים

 

 

#2 Textsploration

#3-  Noach

Ilana Dvorin Friedman, PhD

 [Our son] Zev may have caused a "mabul*" through the house while we baked, but in the end we celebrated the beautiful rainbow challahs we created in honor of Parshat Noach. Over the years, I have read very powerful ideas about the word keshet which means both a rainbow and a bow (like bow and arrow). It amazes me how this word connotes both a symbol of love and trust/faith and an image of war and pain. This duality in meaning reflects our complex emotions as humans as we interact with the world and develop relationships. Right now, as we experience many conflicting emotions and needs, this parsha with ideas of destruction and hope (and quarantine on the teyva/ark) may resonate in new and surprising ways... 

 

*Mabul is the Hebrew Bible’s  term for the flood.

5.    Noah’s Ark.  Any scientists? Problems with the story? 

https://ncse.ngo/yes-noahs-flood-may-have-happened-not-over-whole-earth

1) BEFORE THE FLOOD  (Bereysheet Ch. 6)

This is the family of Noach.—Noach was a righteous man; he was blameless in his generation; Noach walked with God.   Noach fathered three sons: Shem, Kham, and Yafet.  

The earth became ruined in front of God; the world was filled with cruelty.  When Adonai saw how ruined the land was, for all humanity has ruined everything in their way on land,  Adonai said to Noach, “I have decided to put an end to all humanity, for the earth is filled with cruelty because of them. I am about to destroy them with the land….

“For My part, I am about to bring Ha’Mabul— the deep waters onto the land—to destroy all flesh under the sky in which there is breath of life; everything on land shall perish.  But I will establish My brit/covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives.”

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AT THIS POINT IN THE STORY,  we get instructions for the ark, which is built, and then it gets really wet everywhere, and all sorts of people realize they should have bought boats

Now, everyone thinks the ark looked like this:à

But the description in the Torah makes more of something like this: à

Pretty darn different.  It’s meant to float, not sail.   It’s long. It’s not pretty.   But it is big…

 

Questions on that chunk of Chapter 6:

1)     Noach is called  a ish tzadik/righteous man in the Torah. How do you define a righteous person?  Explain what makes them different from other people. Give three examples.

 

 

 

2)    What the heck does it mean to “Walk with God” if God is not a human being with feet?         What is your interpretation of this phrase?   Give your own definition and an example.

 

 

 

3)    What ruins the land enough for God to want to destroy it?    And just how does that ruin the land?  Explain your logic- clearly.

 

 

 

 

4)    God says that God will establish a brit/covenant with Noach.  What the heck is a Covenant?   And why do you think that should that give Noach comfort in the face of disaster?

 

 

 

 

 

2) AFTER THE FLOOD (Bereysheet Ch. 8 and 9)

God spoke to Noach, saying,  “Come out of the ark, together with your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds, animals, and everything that creeps on land; and let them swarm on the land and be fertile and increase on land.”  So Noach came out, together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives.

Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that stirs on land came out of the ark by families.  Then Noach built an altar to Adonai and, taking of every clean animal and of every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Adonai smelled the pleasing odor, and God  said to God’s self: “Never again will I doom the land because of humanity, since the inclination of the human mind is evil from its youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature, as I have done.

“So long as the earth endures, 
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
Day and night
Shall not cease.”

Adonai blessed Noach and his sons, and said to them, “Be fertile and increase, and fill the land. The fear and the dread of you shall be upon all the beasts of the land and upon all the birds of the sky—everything with which squirms on the ground—and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand. Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these.  You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood still  in it!

And for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow man!  For whoever sheds the blood of (kills)  a person,
By people shall his blood be shed;
For in God’s image
Did God make man!”

 

 

Questions on the bits of Chapter 8 and 9

1)     The waters are gone at  last, and God tells Noach and his family to leave the ark.  Why, in your opinion, do they have to be told?  Why don’t they just leave the ark on their own?

 

 

 

2)    God says “the inclination of the human mind is evil from its youth.”  What is an inclination?   What do you think that tells us about human beings and our world today?

 

 

 

 

3)    If human beings have an inclination to do evil, do they have an equal inclination to do good? Give three supporting reasons  or examples to your argument- either way.

 

           

 

 

4)    God allows humanity to eat what it wants after the flood, but not animal flesh that still has blood within in.  What will this law possibly prevent or achieve?

 

 

 

 

5)    God makes murder a capital crime.    Why does God need to make this rule clear to the survivors of the flood, or attach this punishment to it?  Isn’t it obvious that murder is wrong?   Give an explanation with two reasons!