Parshat Vayishlach, 5773/2012 thoughts

Basics here.

• New thought #1, for your amusement:

Genesis/B'reshit, chapter 32

יד וַיָּלֶן שָׁם, בַּלַּיְלָה הַהוּא; וַיִּקַּח מִן-הַבָּא בְיָדוֹ, מִנְחָה--לְעֵשָׂו אָחִיו. 14 And he lodged there that night; and took of that which he had with him a present for Esau his brother:
טו עִזִּים מָאתַיִם, וּתְיָשִׁים עֶשְׂרִים, רְחֵלִים מָאתַיִם, וְאֵילִים עֶשְׂרִים. 15 two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

טז גְּמַלִּים מֵינִיקוֹת וּבְנֵיהֶם, שְׁלֹשִׁים; פָּרוֹת אַרְבָּעִים, וּפָרִים עֲשָׂרָה, אֲתֹנֹת עֶשְׂרִים, וַעְיָרִם עֲשָׂרָה. 16 thirty milch camels and their colts, forty kine and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten foals."

Yaakov (Jacob) sent Esav (Esau) "milch camels."  Camels are not kosher, therefore camel's milk is not kosher.  If I hear one more rabbinic statement that our ancestors obeyed the entire Torah even though most of the laws hadn't been given yet . . .

DovBear and his commenters had fun with this, too.

• New thought #2:

Genesis/B'reshit, chapter 35

יא וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ אֱלֹ-ים אֲנִי -ל שַׁדַּי, פְּרֵה וּרְבֵה--גּוֹי וּקְהַל גּוֹיִם, יִהְיֶה מִמֶּךָּ; וּמְלָכִים, מֵחֲלָצֶיךָ יֵצֵאוּ. 11 And God said unto him: 'I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;"

A bit slow, isn't G-d?  All but one of Yaakov's children had already been born.

My oldies:

• Vayishlach: A family of con artists benefits from a rape (Wednesday, December 01, 2004)

" . . . the story of the rape of Dinah simply cries out for “kol isha,” a woman’s voice. For me, as a committed Jewish woman, this is one of the most difficult texts in the Torah/Bible, not only because Dinah was raped, but, even worse, because, while we know how her father and brothers felt, we have no idea how she felt (or, for that matter, how her mother felt), nor do we know what, ultimately, became of her. Unfortunately, we can only speculate, because the voice of this woman named Dinah was silenced."

• Parshat Vayishlach: An old but good post (Thursday, November 18, 2010)--Mostly about my 2004 post, but with update and good DovBear link.
• Parshat Vayishlach--old and new thoughts (Saturday, December 10, 2011) Tons of comments.

A highlight of the post itself:

"•Much has been made of the fact that Dinah went out alone, but much of the blame has been placed on Dinah herself. I'd flip that blame on its head: If it was dangerous for a female to go anywhere unescorted, why the heck could none of Dinah's 10 older brothers--or any of Yaakov's servants, if the boys were too young--find a free minute to accompany her? As my husband speculated, did Yaakov and/or his sons expect this poor girl/woman with no sisters to be content never to have any contact with other girls/women of her own age?"

• DovBear and commenters chime in again this year
• Conservadox credits Yaakov with having made up for his past sins against Esav.

Saturday, December 1, 2012, 11:09 PM update

I forgot to link to my Book review:"Esau's Blessing," by Ora Horn Prouser (Thursday, February 02, 2012) and mention this thought:

"The biggest surprise, though, was Dr. Horn Prouser's theory that Jacob/Yaakov, after having been injured by, er, whomever or whatever wrestled with him all night, was changed for life, and not just in name. Whatever happened to the guy who conned his brother out of his birthright and blessing, and managed to outsmart his exploitative uncle and strip him of most of his wealth? . . .  with his newly-acquired limp, he can't keep up, and doesn't want to admit it. . . . what happened to that brave fellow who stood his ground against Lavan? When his daughter Dina is raped, he won't even say anything until his sons get home. And when Shim'on and Levi take their revenge against Dina's rapist and kill all the men of Shechem, Yaakov's only complaint is that they've made the neighborhood unsafe for him?!"

When Avraham's nephew Lot was captured, Avraham sent an army to free him.  When Yaakov's daughter Dina was raped and abducted, Yaakov did . . . nothing, and then complained that his sons had taken matters into their own hands in a manner that endangered him.  Yaakov doesn't come out of this story looking particularly good.  :(

Israeli doctors treat Gazan children, even mid-war

The Sandman and colleagues try to treat a Gazan baby while missiles fly overhead.

Seeing the Big Picture (West Bank Mama)

Concerning the cease fire between Israel and Gaza, West Bank Mama wrote the following on November 22 (sorry about the delay):  " . . . we cannot rely on miracles and we must use our G-d given intellectual capabilities to look at the map clearly. It would be foolish to put ourselves in a position where we need to fight on all fronts at once. Destroying most of the rockets held in Gaza, and killing key operatives there has gained us some quiet in the south. If we go after Iran, and Iran’s proxies in the form of Hizbullah in the north start to fire rockets from there, it will be easier to fight on two fronts rather than three."

I recommend that you read the rest here.

Invisible Victims OfThe Gaza Conflict(NYJewishWeek)

What the media ignores:  Being constantly under fire has long-term psychological and developmental effects on the children of southern Israel.

"Sderot’s children have become the invisible victims in the Arab-Israeli conflict. As their suffering often does not result in death due to Israel’s security measures, their psychological despair has become largely ignored. For the readers of the international media, this has meant that we have been deprived of an accurate depiction of the events taking place in Israel and the Gaza Strip."

Parshat Vayetze, 5773/2012 thoughts

You can read the basics here.

B'reshit/Genesis, chapter 31:

Yaakov flees from Lavan without advance warning :
לא וַיַּעַן יַעֲקֹב, וַיֹּאמֶר לְלָבָן: כִּי יָרֵאתִי--כִּי אָמַרְתִּי, פֶּן-תִּגְזֹל אֶת-בְּנוֹתֶיךָ מֵעִמִּי. 31 And Jacob answered and said to Laban: 'Because I was afraid; for I said: Lest thou shouldest take thy daughters from me by force."

How common was it, in the Ancient Near East, for a father to use force to reclaim his daughter(s) from their husband(s)?


SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2012, 10:02 PM UPDATE:

מג  וַיַּעַן לָבָן וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל-יַעֲקֹב, הַבָּנוֹת בְּנֹתַי וְהַבָּנִים בָּנַי וְהַצֹּאן צֹאנִי, וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר-אַתָּה רֹאֶה, לִי-הוּא; וְלִבְנֹתַי מָה-אֶעֱשֶׂה לָאֵלֶּה, הַיּוֹם, אוֹ לִבְנֵיהֶן, אֲשֶׁר יָלָדוּ.	43 And Laban answered and said unto Jacob: 'The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that thou seest is mine; and what can I do this day for these my daughters, or for their children whom they have borne?

What my husband read in the commentaries of the Plaut Chumash regarding verse 43 answers my question regarding verse 31:  "Lavan places Jacob's marriages in a special Assyrian legal category, erebu, in which the husband lived with his wife's family; if he left, he could not take his wife or her belongings with him."

Old Vayetz posts of mine:

• The "Fear of Isaac" (Tuesday, December 16, 2008) JDub gives me a dikduk/grammar lesson.
• Midrash madness (Sunday, December 06, 2009)  There's quite a comment fest here.
• Parshat Vayetze, and a "family round-up" (Thursday, November 11, 2010)

Conservadox warns against trying to force G-d's hand.

Monday, November 26, 2012 update regarding the midrashim about Leah and Rachel:

• I've changed my mind about any indirect evidence in the Torah that Rachel helped Leah con Yaakov into marrying her.  (See my Midrash madness post, linked above.)  I think it could probably be more easily argued that, in such a strongly patriarchal society, any protest on Rachel's part would have been completely disregarded.  A female did what her father or husband told her to do, or else (for the most part).
• On the one hand, I tend to take these midrashim with a grain of salt (if not a box thereof!), because I see no evidence in the text to indicate that anything other than a fierce competition to produce babies was going on between the sisters.  On the other hand, I credit the ancient sages--who were not exactly 21st-century feminists--with having been sufficiently uncomfortable with a text that, basically, portrays Rachel and Leah Our Mothers as little more than baby-making machines that they made sincere efforts to improve upon the original in their midrashic interpretations.  Kol hakavod (my respects)!

Progress report, etc., from the kitchen

When last we encountered our experimenter, she was attempting to make butternut squash soup and a nightshade-free low-fat pasta sauce.  I'm happy to report that my second pot of soup was a resounding success, once I boiled off some of the excess liquid.  But everybody and his/her cousin seems to think that I should roast the squash, apple, and onions first, rather than just cooking them in the pot.  I'll try that next time.  Also, I got some good news--one of my spies on the Upper West Side says that Fairway sells peeled and cut butternut squash marked kosher by a local rabbi.*  We usually get to Fairway at least once a week, since we go to the UWS for Israeli folk dancing and/or for shiurim/classes at Mechon Hadar.  So I can save myself at least 15 minutes of hard labor in the future.  Yay!

Regarding my attempt at making a nightshade-free pasta sauce, my husband was kind enough to saute the onions and warm the cannelini beans in them, at which point he handed the pot to me, with his best wishes.  So I took my trusty new immersion blender and had a go at the combo.  I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that the blenderized beans were much closer in texture to chummus than to a sauce.  So I added water, which helped the texture considerably.  Then I added Italian seasoning.  By the time I was finished trying to make this concoction taste like something, I must have added at least a teaspoon of Italian seasoning, plus some extra basil and oregano, and, following TOTJ Steve's suggestion, even some nutmeg.  After something like an hour on the hot-tray--this was our Shabbat dinner--the sauce had dried out considerably.  I'll need to use more liquid.  I also noticed that the "sauce," such as it was, tasted better when I mixed in some of the zucchini and yellow squash that my husband had cut and cooked while I was playing chef.  So maybe next time, I'll try adding some of the squash combo before applying the immersion blender.  And maybe I'll borrow an idea from this recipe and add some fennel, too (if I feel daring enough to make "licorice"-flavored sauce).  Any other suggestions cheerfully considered.

* Update, Tuesday, November 20, 2012:  Apparently, I was looking in the wrong aisle--the peeled and cut squash to which my "spy" wished to introduce me has an OU parve hechsher!  Unfortunately, the cubed squash is also expensive.  I can compromise by getting the peeled and seeded halves with the OU parve hechsher, rather than the chunked version, and still save myself about half the time and hard labor, but that means I'm still going to have to get a decent knife with which to finish the job.  Sigh.

Update, Thursday, December 6, 2012:
Update:  Courtesy of TOTJ Steve, here's a link to instructions showing an easier and less messy way to cut cauliflower.

The "mitzvah tantz": I don't get it

From Menachem Kaiser's Forward article:

"In one of a half-dozen such offerings [videos], mitzvah tantz (difficult to translate beyond “mitzvah dance”), a bride, dressed and veiled so that the only skin you see are her hands and a flash of bare jawline, grips a long sash that serves both as an umbilical attachment and a barrier to the dancing rebbe at the other end: From a modest but breached distance, the two circle each other at mismatched tempos in front of a pulsating wall of Hasidim.

It’s a weirdly intimate moment, in a different spiritual key than we’re used to: There are no other women in the frame. Although the bride’s movement is restricted to stepping in time with the way-more-excited rebbe, they are without question dancing together."

As a long-time Israeli folk dancer, I honestly don't understand what a bride gets out of a mitzvah tantz.  If someone covered my eyes, handed me a sash, and insisted that I step in time and in place while someone else danced all around me, I'm be bored to tears.  I stopped attending ballet performances when I realized that, dubious skill-level notwithstanding, I wanted to do the dancing.  :)

Parshat Toldot thoughts for 5773/2012

Basics here.

I can't think of anything new (yet), except that it seems to me that another, different reason for the city of Beersheva's name (see B'reshit/Genesis 26:33) had already been given in a previous parshah.  Of course, I can't find the quote.  :)

Oldies:

• Toldot: Yaakov the ganiff (Jacob the thief) (Monday, November 15, 2004)
• Parshat Toldot:Aftermath of 1st recorded shidduch crisis (Wednesday, November 18, 2009)
• Parshat Toldot:Callous indifference,or senile dementia? (Monday, November 23, 2009)
• DovBear defends Esav (November 05, 2010)
• Parshat Toldot & Haftarat Machar Chodesh (Monday, November 08, 2010) (Yes, I know that we'll be chanting the regular haftarah instead of  Haftarat Machar Chodesh this year.)

•Parshat Toldot


Genesis Chapter 26

5 because that Abraham hearkened to My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.'
[ ¶ ]
What commandments, statutes, and laws? As best I recollect, the only laws that had already been given were "p'ru u-r'vu, be fruitful and multiply," and the law of circumcision.
[ ¶ ]
I'm guessing that it's from this verse that the rabbis derived the highly-anachronistic notion that the Avot and Imahot (Patriarchs and Matriarchs) knew of and obeyed all of Jewish law, even thought it wouldn't be given until after the Exodus."

• Parshat Toldot: Disabled persons on our family tree? (Wednesday, November 23, 2011)

"Here's a new thought: Was Esau/Eisav/Esav learning disabled? He couldn't actually name the pottage/stew, calling it "that red red stuff" (ha-adom ha-adom ha-zeh), and didn't seem to have understood the value of a birthright (until later, after he'd sold it). (See B'reishit/Genesis, chapter 25, verses 30-32).

And here's an old-new thought, something that I've heard for years: Some say that Yitzchak/Isaac was developmentally disabled. . . ."

Speaking of which, see:

• Book review:"Esau's Blessing," by Ora Horn Prouser (Thursday, February 02, 2012)

Friday, November 16, 2012 update:

• Conservadox has some interesting thoughts about Parshat Toldot.

"We Need to Retreat from the Beach" (NY Times)

A lesson from Hurrcane Sandy.  Read here.

Related:  "A New Manhattan Project" (NY Times).

Bloggers post about storm winds & winds of war

Hurricane Sandy and nor'easter reports by blogger Leora in Highland Park, NJ:  Before and during Hurrican Sandy, after Hurricane Sandy, after nor'easter, review.

Jameel at the Muqata, a volunteer with Magen David Adom/Israeli Red Star, live-blogs about the new Gaza war, Operation Amud Anan.  Note that the most recent news is on top, so start reading each war-report post from the end, and work your way up.

A problem with the language of chiyuv (obligation)

As promised, I'm continuing the conversation regarding kids, careers, and Jewish observance started last week.

In the comments to my Conflicts of principle post, Al [frequent comment Miami Al?] said, " . . . we're . . . reducing the obligations of men to increase them for women. . . . Further, taking on the obligations by women doesn't relieve the men of there obligations, so you haven't solved a problem."  In the comments to the linked post from last week, JDub said, "In Orthodoxy -- even modern orthodoxy -- men are obligated to daven, women aren't. So when men are in shul, they are supposed to be "in shul" and not running childcare groups. No amount of saying "oh, everyone can fill these roles" will change that."

But that's exactly what I think needs to be changed--not to reduce the obligations of men, but to increase the obligations of men in other areas.

And here's where the language of chiyuv (halachic obligation) becomes an issue.

By way of illustration, I present two examples:

• P'ru u-r'vu (Be fruitful and multiply)

The Torah sheh-bi-Ch'tav/Written Torah (Bible) commands us to have children, and to circumcize a son on the eighth day of his life (barring a health-caused delay).  The rabbis add the obligation to teach them (at least the boys) Torah, teach them a trade, teach them to swim (according to some), and help them get married.  (In the old days, and among the more traditional, that means match-making; among the more modern, that means paying for the wedding.  :). )

But what happens before, after, and in between?

There's no chiyuv to tell Bible stories to your kid (one of my favorite forms of entertainment during long subway rides home with our son), no chiyuv to read your kid bedtime stories (my husband's specialty), no chiyuv to take your kid for a dental check-up, no chiyuv to make sure your kid wears his/her glasses to school everyday . . .

Yet no child is going to growing up healthy and properly-educated without these efforts.

• Seudat Mitzah (a "commanded" meal)

Every Jew is required to eat a meal on certain particular occasions.  We're specifically required to eat three meals on Shabbat/Sabbath.  (In the old days, one usually ate only two meals on other days.)  We're required to eat festive meals on the Pilgrimage Festivals (Shalosh R'galim) of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, as well as on Rosh HaShanah/Jewish New Year and Purim.  We're required to eat a festive meal upon the completion of a mitzvah/commandment, such as a brit milah/ritual circumcision, a wedding, or when we've concluded the study of a tractate of Talmud.

Every Jew has a chiyuv to eat a Seudat Mitzvah.

But no one has a chiyuv to make a Seudat Mitzvah.

Does dinner get cooked by itself?!

I'm truly convinced that some of the laws of chiyuv are going to have to be adjusted to acknowledge the fact that not only can't one have a structure without an infrastructure, but, that, in this day and age, not every women is going to be willing always to be the construction crew and never to be the architect.  As Rejewvenator commented here, "there's nothing non-egal about the idea that each family has one primary 'prayer representative' at any given prayer. In other words, if young kids means only one spouse can make it to shul for the bulk of the service, so be it, but I know lots of couples that switch off who that person is each week."  [Before anyone complains that the obvious halachic solution is to have one of the parents go to an earlier minyan to enable the other to attend a later minyan, I'd like to point out that there are plenty of  communities (such as mine) in which there's only one service, which means that only one person gets to go to shul, unless the kid(s),  no matter how young, go too.]  But this idea won't function unless and until the definitions are changed.  Only if child-rearing becomes as much as a chiyuv as child-making, and preparing a seudat mitzvah becomes as much as a chiyuv as eating a seudat mitzvah, will there be true equality of men and women among traditional Jews.  We can't blame a guy for walking out the door and leaving his wife to make a special Yom Tov lunch for the invited guests as long as his obligation to davven/pray at specific times, preferably with a minyan, is written into halachah/Jewish religious law, but his obligation to prepare a Yom Tov meal is not.  Only if the chiyuvim (chiyuvot?) are equal will men and women be free to chose.

The floor is open.

Ms. Kitchen Klutz experiments with a recipe

I'll write the post promised here when I'm awake.  That's what I get for going Israeli folk dancing until 10:45 on a Sunday night.  On the plus side, I may be tired, but at least I enjoyed getting that way.  :)

In the meantime, here's a story for your entertainment and amusement:   Ms. Barely-Boils-Water Tries to Boil Up a Pot of Soup.

Sure, that organic butternut squash soup from a box is delicious.  But the fourth ingredient is rice syrup, which is a form of sugar, and who needs sugar in soup?!  Worse yet, each serving contains a wopping 19% of an individual's sodium requirement for the day, which is way too much sodium for Mr. and Mrs. Kidney Stones to eat in a single serving of anything. 

So I thought I'd try my hand at cooking up my own.

First, I found this recipe online:

Ingredients


1 (2 to 3 pound) butternut squash, peeled and seeded

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium onion, chopped

6 cups chicken stock

Nutmeg

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Cut squash into 1-inch chunks. In large pot melt butter. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add squash and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove squash chunks with slotted spoon and place in a blender and puree. Return blended squash to pot. Stir and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Serve.

Serves 6
Calories: 125
Total Fat: 5 grams
Saturated Fat: 2.5 grams
Protein: 3 grams
Total carbohydrates: 19 grams
Sugar: 4 grams
Fiber: 3.5 grams
Cholesterol: 10 milligrams
Sodium: 1044 milligrams

By fortunate coincidence, I got this one (along with other squash recipes) in my inbox a few days later from the Orthodox Union:

WINTER SQUASH AND APPLE SOUP (pareve)

Roasting squash and apples intensifies their flavors. Use a mixture of winter squash varieties for a more complex taste.

Ingredients:

3 pounds winter squash such as butternut, kabocha, acorn or delicata, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks (about 8 cups)

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 yellow onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, sliced

1 teaspoon ground ginger

3 cups vegetable broth

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Line two rimmed baking sheets or shallow roasting pans with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, toss squash, apples, onion, garlic and ginger until mixed well. Spread mixture on baking sheets in a single layer. Roast squash mixture until tender and beginning to brown, about 45 to 50 minutes, rotating pans between oven racks halfway through baking.

Remove from oven and purée squash mixture with broth and 1 cup water in a blender or food processor in 2 batches until smooth. Transfer to a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add more water if needed to thin soup to desired consistency. Serve garnished with parsley.

Modified from wholefoods.com.


So, of course, I decided to take a little from one recipe and a little from the other.  I ditched the salt (see above), the pepper (which my tummy can't tolerate), the butter and the chicken stock (because I wanted the soup to be pareve--I used olive oil and low-sodium kosher parve vegetable broth instead) from recipe #1, and the garlic (another thing that my tummy doesn't like) and fresh parsley (I didn't see any point in adding a "grassy" taste to a sweet soup) from recipe #2.  And I decided to cook the soup directly in the pot, rather than baking the ingredients first--why take twice as long and get the apartment twice as hot?

Thus far, I've made my version twice.  The first version came out too thick because I used only one box of veggie broth.  The second came out a tad too thin because (a) I ran out of broth and so did the local supermarket, so I add 2 cups of water to the 4 cups of broth, and (b) the squash may have been smaller.  Note to self:  When working with a squash that weighs closer to 2 1/2 pounds rather than 3, try using less liquid.  Meanwhile, bring yesterday's batch back to the boiling point and leave the lid off for about 5 minutes to evaporate since of the excess liquid and thicken the soup.

Also, trying using at least one Granny Smith apple instead of 2 sweet apples next time--the hint of tartness may be refreshing. 

Other things that I've learned:

• Use 2 small-medium yellow onions (yes, I increased the quantity of onion to compensate for the lack of garlic) rather than 1 giant Spanish onion--smaller onions are easier to cut.
• If you like your onions well cooked (which we do), your first step should be to cut the onions and put them in olive oil (or another healthy oil--enough to coat the bottom of the pot) to brown, because it takes a while to get onions thoroughly cooked.
• If you use fresh ginger--I used 1 thin slice--and don't like the taste of a piece of ginger (as opposite to the taste that it imparts), be sure to remove the ginger from among the onions before adding the veggie broth, squash, and apples.
• Unless you have a fairly large food processor, which we don't, it really pays to invest in an immersion blender/blender stick/hand blender (whatever)--after spending something like 20 minutes transferring small quantities of cooked squash and apples to the food processor and then back to the pot, I went out the very next week and bought an immersion blender, and saved something like 15 minutes pureeing yesterday's batch of squash and apples directly in the pot.  Hurray for current kitchen tech!  I will offer one note of caution, though:  When making this particularly recipe, ignore the instructions suggesting that you move the blender up and down in the pot, because the level of liquid for this recipe is not deep enough, and you don't want to get splashed with hot soup when the blade accidentally exits the liquid--by moving the blender back and forth across the pot, you can more easily keep the blade submerged and avoid getting yourself boiled along with the soup.

My next project:  Learning to cook a tomato-free pasta sauce, now that cooked tomatoes have been added to my aggravates-my-gout list.  Any low-fat suggestions cheerfully accepted.

Update, Thursday, December 6, 2012:
Courtesy of TOTJ Steve, here's a link to instructions showing an easier and less messy way to cut cauliflower.

"A New Manhattan Project" (NY Times)

This is how we should rebuild after Hurrican Sandy.

Parshat Chayei Sarah, 5773/2012 thoughts

You can read the basics here.

I have nothing new to add at the moment, but Conservadox casts a vote for Rivkah's competence.  (Better late than never:  I forgot to link to his D'var Torah last week re the Akeidah.)

Saturday, November 10, 2012 post-Shabbat update:
Okay, now I have some new things to add.  See end of post.

Here are some previous posts of mine on this week's parshah:

• Chayei Sarah (Sunday, November 07, 2004)
• Chayyei Sarah (Tuesday, October 26, 2010)
• 
  "6 But unto the sons of the concubines, that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts; and he sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.

[ ¶ ]

Say what?! He did this for the sons of his later concubines, but he didn't do this for Yishmael/Ishmael, his firstborn son, son of Hagar?!" Saturday, November 10, 2012 post-Shabbat update:  See end of post for a correction.

• The Sacrifice Of Sarah (by Chessler & Haut) (Sunday, October 31, 2010)  Please check out the linked essay--I'm not sure I wouldn't be violating a copyright by pasted a quote on my blog.
• Parshat Chayei Sarah (Wednesday, November 16, 2011)

• "•I don't remember where I heard or read this, but someone commented that Avraham showed more respect for Sarah after her death than he'd shown for her while she was alive. Sadly, I think one could make a case (see B'reishit/Genesis, chapter 23) for that."

. . .

• •Rachel (Sat., Nov. 10, 2012 post-Shabbat correction--Rivkah) fell off her camel before she inquired as to the identity of the man whom she saw in the field. Was it customary in the ancient Near East for a woman to dismount from her "ride" in the presence of a man of her own social class?
  
  
  •Interestingly, much of the story of Rachel's (Sat., Nov. 10, 2012 post-Shabbat correction--Rivkah) encounter with Avraham's servant would be, for all practical purposes, impossible in current Chareidi (fervently Orthodox) society, in which, especially for an unmarried person, speaking to just about any person of the opposite gender other than one's parent is considered scandalous behavior."

And regarding Haftarat Chayei Sarah (I Kings, 1-31, acording to Ashkenazi tradition):

• Avishag: Drafted for "mistresshood" (Sunday, November 04, 2007)
  
  
  "How delightful (quoth she sarcastically). The king's servants brought a real, live female to the king to play the part of an electric blanket.
  
  :( "

Saturday, November 10, 2012 post-Shabbat updates):

• Note that Rebeccah/Rivkah, in listing her own yichus ("pedigree"), names her father and his parents, but her mother is never once mentioned by name by Rivkah or anyone else.  Apparently, the Redactor(s) who collected and wrote down the received traditions didn't think it necessary to connect her with her mother's family at all, only to Avraham's brother.  Mom doesn't count.  Ouch.  (Those who wish to protest that I'm thinking like a 21st-century feminist are right, of course.  So sue me.  :) )
• Am I the only who found it odd that Avraham's servant lauded--and demonstrated--his master's wealth to the nth degree, but never said a word about Yitzchak/Isaac himself?  Sure, Avraham said that he wanted his servant to find a wife for Yitzchak from among his family, rather than from among the locals, and also insisted that Yitzchak never return to the family's former home, but couldn't that be as easily explained as an attempt to ensure that Yitzchak's wife marry him sight unseen, rather than rejecting him because she could see that he had a disability?
• Why on earth did Yitzchak/Isaac take Rivkah into his late mother Sarah's tent instead of his own?  And why didn't Avraham have anything to say about that?  Was Avraham already deceased, as my husband theorizes, or was he too busy fooling around with Keturah to care?  All theories cheerfully entertained--feel free to chime in in the comments section.
• The text doesn't say that Avraham only gave gifts to the later concubines--that was my error.  But what good did it do for Yishmael to get a go-away present from his father when he was already in his fifties and well-established?  He needed the help when he was a teenager and almost died of thirst in the wilderness.  This was too little, too late, rather like a father who abandons his child as a teenager and refuses to pay child support, but offers the kid--who became a plumber/archer instead of a pharmacist/shepherd because his mother couldn't afford to send him to college/buy him goats--a guilt gift forty years later.

Bottom line:  Avraham has a much better relationship with G-d than he has with his relations.  He shows Sarah precious little respect while she's still alive, never thanking her for either saving his life by allowing herself to be passed off as his sister and taken into a harem twice or for giving him Hagar as a surrogate mother so that he could have a child.  He shows no concern for Hagar at all.  He sends one son out into the wilderness with nothing but a bottle of water and a loaf of bread, and, obeying HaShem's command without so much as a "shall the innocent be slain with the wicked?  Will not the judge of all the earth act justly?" almost slits the other one's throat.  As a family man, he's almost entirely a negative role model--we learn from him how not to treat a spouse and a child.

• Regarding the haftarah, I just find it an interesting coincidence that we read this about this palace intrigue/ancient Israelite politics right after an American election.  :)

From Garnel: Avraham Avinu's Torah

An excellent post addressing the tradition that the Avot (Our Fathers [I don't know whether the Imahot/Our Mothers are included by the rabbis]) observed the Torah. 

The Hillel version (standing on one foot):

"The "whole Torah" doesn't mean performing the Taryag mitzvos but rather it means participating in the progression of history in total consonance with God's plans."

This is a worthy response to my perpetual complaint about people obsessing over Avraham serving dairy and meat at the same dinner.

Combining careers,kids,&Jewish observance(Forward)

Aurora Mendelsohn has some interesting thoughts on the subject (and, on her linked blog, complains--quite rightly--about the missing-the-point subtitle that the Forward gave her article).

The Hillel version (standing on one foot):

"The door to the bimah and the synagogue boardroom is not fully open to women until men also charge (or are led through) the doors that are the sites of so many other mitzvot — the doors to the nursery, kitchen, the Kiddush or youth programming committees, the retirement home volunteers, the parent-teacher associations and junior congregations."

Related:  Seeking a Judaism that's good for men*&*women*&*kids

Lessons (satirical & serious) from Hurricane Sandy

Satirical.

Serious.

Parshat Vayera,5773/2012thoughts:Grammar gaffes?

You can read the basics here.

Below are links to some previous Vayera posts of mine, along with some new thoughts about them.

But first, some new thoughts from this year's reading.

In the first verse of this parshah, HaShem appears to Avraham/Abraham; in the second, Avraham looks up and sees three men (yes, men, not angels--the text says "anashim," not "mal'achim") and runs to greet them;  in the third verse, he speaks in the singular, asking his guest not to leave him; in the fourth and fifth verses, he speaks in the plural, asking his guests to wash their feet, rest under the tree, and have a bite to eat.  (One wiseguy at our synagogue's weekly Torah discussion during Seudah Shlishit commented that it was as if Avraham put G-d on hold while he talked with someone else on Call Waiting.:) )  It's no wonder the rabbis comment that G-d waited patiently while Avraham showed hospitality to the guests whom Avraham thought were human, thus teaching us the importance of welcoming strangers.

Also, check out B'reshit/Genesis, chapter 11, verse 2:  Within a single verse, Lot address his guests as--depending on your point of view--my lord or my Lord (again, ignore the incorrect English translation), then switches from the singular to the plural.

Judging by the inconsistent grammar, it would appear that two or more stories were cobbled together to create this parshah/weekly Torah reading.

Here's another goodie to consider:  What, exactly does B'reshit/Genesis, chapter 21, verse 6 mean?  In this case, I don't think that the grammar is garbled, but rather, that  the Hebrew is deliberately ambiguous.  After all, G-d has already rebuked Sarah for having had the supposed chutzpah/gall to laugh when she was told she'd have a child at her ridiculously-advanced age.  (See chapter 18, verse 13.)  I don't think she would have dared to say, straight out, "G-d has made a laughing stock of me, everyone who hears will laugh at me."  But, if, as some theorize, Yitzchak was intellect-challenged, and particularly if he had the visible difference in appearance that's common in those with Down's Syndrome, Sarah may, indeed, have thought that someone who'd waited well over a decade to have a child only to bear a baby with an obvious disability would be a victim of communal mockery.

As promised, here are links to some previous Vayera posts of mine, along with some new thoughts:

• "Would you take your only son . . .?" (Thursday, September 29, 2005)
• Yishmael--disowned by Hashem (Wednesday, November 23, 2005) 
• Lech L'cha/Vayera smackdown, or G-d's a sexist (November 01, 2009) "I've complained before that G-d isn't very fair to Sarah. For openers, if G-d's already planning on Sarah getting pregnant, why doesn't G-d bother telling anyone before Sarah gives Hagar to Avraham as a surrogate mother? For closers, why is that the only time G-d ever speaks directly to Sarah, it's to yell at her?
• Parshat Vayera:  Something old, something new (Monday, November 09, 2009)  New title:   "Sarah, abused by men and G-d"  "why does Sarah disappear from the text? Where is her reward for having ensured the perpetuation of Avraham's lineage by offering her handmaid as a surrogate mother? Where is her reward for having waited over a decade after the birth of her handmaid's son to have a son of her own? [why is that the only time G-d ever speaks directly to Sarah, it's to yell at her?]  Where is her reward for having saved Avraham's life twice--and enriched him in the process--by allowing herself to be passed off as only his sister and not his wife?  Her reward is to have G-d, with her husband's cooperation, threaten the life of her only child? My own midrash: No wonder she dies in the next parshah--if this is her reward, why live?"
• Vayera round-up, and this year's thoughts (Monday, October 25, 2010)

• "What's the big deal about Avraham having served his guests dairy and meat in the same meal? The laws of kashrut couldn't possibly have been binding then because the Torah hadn't been given yet! (In my opinion, the rabbis created unnecessary problems for themselves by articulating the idea that there's no early or late [ein mukdam u-meuchar?] in the Torah.)
• Sarah did not lie when she told G-d that she had not laughed--the text says quite clearly that she laughed "b'kirbah," "within herself," which is not the same as laughing out loud."
  
  
  
  
  This year's thought:  Look carefully at the Hebrew of B'reishit/Genesis, chapter 18, verse 10.  Never mind that the English translation uses an upper-case H--the Hebrew says that "he" said that Sarah would have a son.  The Hebrew does not indicate that it was G-d who was speaking.  How could she have known that G-d would read her mind? 
  
  
  
  
• "It appears that HaShem wasn't so thrilled with the fact that Avraham went along with the Akeidah without protest--afterward, HaShem never spoke to Avraham again. (I don't think that this observation originated with either of us, but I can't remember where I read it.)
• Last but not least comes my big gripe of the year: Why is Avraham nicer to strangers than to his own family? He argues repeatedly with G-d not to destroy S'dom and Amorah (Sodom and Gemorah), but says not a word when G-d tells him to sacrifice his son Yitzchak. He shows hospitality to total strangers, yet sends his son Yishmael packing with nothing but bread and water. All HaShem said was "Sh'ma b'kolah," listen to her (Sarah's) voice. HaShem never suggested that Yishmael and his mother Hagar should be sent off into the desert with limited means of short-term survival and no means of long-term support. Judging by the text, Yishmael had to have been over 14 years old at the time of his expulsion. Avraham could have given him a parting gift of, for example, a small flock of goats. Why didn't he?"
  
  
  
  This year's thoughts:
  
  I'm not terribly impressed with either Avinu sheh-ba-Shamayim (Our Heavenly Father) or Avraham Avinu (Abraham Our Father) as role models for  fatherhood.  Yishmael/Ishmael was expelled with no means of survival; Yitzchak/Isaac nearly had his throat slit.  Is either "father" serious about creating and preserving the lives of children? Both G-d and Avraham treat both boys as toys, born only to make a point.  Let's call a spade a spade, folks--in our day, this kind of treatment would be called child abuse, child endangerment, child abandonment, and/or attempted murder.
  
  
  Nor am I impressed with either G-d's or Avraham's callous indifference to the suffering of Sarah, who seems to be present only to help Avraham acquire greater wealth and to prove that G-d can perform a miracle and enable a barren woman to become pregnant at any age--if and when G-d jolly well feels like it.
    
• Parshat Vayera:  Tons to write about (Thursday, November 10, 2011) Yep, more goodies not mentioned above, including this thought:
• "So let me get this straight--HaShem orders Avraham to sacrifice Yitzchak/Isaac, but an angel tells him not to?!!! (See chapter 22, verses 1-3 and 11-12.) I'm not impressed with either HaShem's command or Avraham's willingness to go along with it. For openers, "Why on earth (or in heaven) would HaShem want to stoop to the level of a pagan god and demand child sacrifice?"

Better-late-than-never update, Friday, November 9, 2012:  Conservadox blogs about the Akeidah.

I wish they were kidding:Another storm's on the way:(

"There could be a nor'easter on Wednesday.  That could mean heavy rain, gusty winds, and minor coastal flooding."  So I heard on NY1 News.  The New York City metro area can't catch a break.  :(

I hope the storm leaves heavily-flood-damaged New Jersey and Connecticut, and West Virginia, currently buried in snow from Sandy-cause blizzards, alone, at least--they're still digging out, too.