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?