SAN DIEGO — This week’s Torah portion (Va-Yera) begins with three men stopping to visit Abraham and Sarah. They might have been messengers of God or even God’s angels, coming to tell Abraham that Sarah would give birth to a son within one year. Because they are old, Sarah laughs at this idea, but the messengers assure them both it will happen.
After a few other adventures that also occur in this parshah, Sarah does, indeed, give birth to a son. They name him Isaac, which means laughter, since Sarah (and Abraham last week) laughed at the thought of being able to have a child at their age. God had promised to make Abraham the forefather of many nations and declared that Isaac would also be one of the forefathers.
Sarah, whether because she was jealous or because she knew Abraham’s first son, Ishmael (born to Hagar) stood to inherit everything from his father, told her husband to send Hagar and her son, Ishmael, away. When Abraham hesitated to send this son into the desert, God intervened and said Ishmael would also be the father to a great nation.
The next story in the Torah is a scary one. God tells Abraham to bring Isaac, his beloved son, up the mountain and sacrifice him to God. Abraham begins to carry out God’s command, but he is stopped by an angel before any harm is done. The Torah describes this as a test of Abraham’s faith in God. Because Abraham was willing to follow God without questioning it, God promised to make Abraham’s descendants “as numerous as the stars in heaven and the sands on the seashore.”
What this means: I believe there is a second message in this part of the story. God asks Abraham to follow his request without questioning it, even though the request is wrong and unreasonable. Then God stops him from completing that request. The Torah says Abraham “looked up and saw a ram” in the thicket to use instead of his son. Abraham heard God and saw there was a better way to proceed. Perhaps the Torah is telling us to stop before we do something wrong and choose a different path.
What you can do: Stopping to think, before making a mistake is good advice. It is especially true if someone is telling you to do something you feel is wrong. Perhaps you wouldn’t jump from a high tree just because a friend tells you to, but what if that same friend tries to convince you to lie to your parents, or to steal something? If you believe it would be wrong to follow your friend’s suggestion, then open your eyes like Abraham did and choose a different path.
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Marcia Berneger is a retired elementary school teacher as well as a teacher at Torah school. She is the author of such children’s books as Buster the Little Garbage Truck, and A Dreidel in Time.