the appearance of 3 angels to announce that Sarah would have a child in her old age,

 Abraham’s almost comical bargaining with the Divine to save Sodom if there were at least 10 good people in the city,

Lot’s hospitality to 3 guests in his home – to the point of offering his daughters, instead of allowing the townspeople do what they would to his guests,

the destruction of Sodom

Lot and his daughter’s refuge in a cave, the daughters’ plans to continue their family’s existence, their descendants becoming neighboring peoples of Israel – Moab and Ammon,

Abraham’s calling Sarah his sister in Abimelech’s camp to assure his own safety,

Abimelech’s dream and compensation for taking Sarah,

the birth of Isaac – laughter – for he was born to an old Sarah,

Sarah’s demand that Hagar and Ishmael be exiled from the camp, 

 the divine promise that Ishmael would also be the father of a great nation,

 Hagar’s despair that her child and she would die in the desert,

their rescue by an angel who showed Hagar a well,

Abraham’s treaty in Beer-Sheba, negotiating water rights,

the Divine test of Abraham’s loyalty – the potential sacrifice of Isaac.

Each of these stories would be good topic for a discussion.  In the next paragraph, I will explore another idea – the emphasis on seeing in this week’s portion.

 A source for determining the readings of a week may be found at http://www.hebcal.com/sedrot/.  The reading for פרשת וירא for the first third of the triennenial cycle is Parashat Vayera Genesis 18:1-33, according to http://www.hebcal.com/sedrot/vayera.html.  The Haftarah for Ashkenazim is II Kings 4:1 – 4:37 – about Elisha and his reviving of the son of a Shunammite woman.

The entire portion, Genesis 18:1 – 22:20 is filled with references to seeing.  Using http://bible.ort.org/books/torahd5.asp?action=displaypage&book=1&chapter=18&verse=1&portion=4, I found over 20 references to seeing, related to the Hebrew root – Yod-Resh-Hay, or to the Hebrew for eyes.  There were also references to a related word – fear/afraid – from the same root, for seeing may lead to fearing.

There are other phrases in the Torah that focus on seeing, or hearing, or remembering.  I would suggest that there is no other place that has as concentrated emphases on one way to gain information in the world as in this portion.  The portion starts with the Divine appearing to Abraham in the form of 3 strangers, with whom Abraham shares a festive meal, demonstrating the hospitality that was one of his greatest virtues.   

Seeing is also dangerous;  Lot’s wife looked back at the destruction of Sodom and became a pillar of salt.  Hagar placed her son at a distance so that she would not see him die, then her eyes were opened and she saw the path for survival. 

Abraham’s test – the Akedah – the binding of Isaac, also refers to sight.  Abraham tells Isaac when asked that the Divine will see to the lamb.  Abraham sees Mount Moriah – the Divine will see – from a distance.  Abraham saw a ram caught in the thicket.

The emphases on seeing, all of the references, suggest that one does need to see to believe.  Seeing may lead to fear but it may also lead to solutions to problems.  Avoiding seeing, like Hagar did, may be overturned when one opens one’s eyes to the options and resources in life, when one sees new ways to accommodate the difficulties of life.  Belief may allow one to use sight for the benefit of oneself and others. 

The mount that was the site of the near-sacrifice of Isaac is now, by tradition, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the site where the followers of the three religions of the children of Abraham wrestle to share its holiness.  It is known as Mount Moriah, “the Divine will see”.  With belief, one will also see the best in life and see on the horizon the coming of better days.  May we see it in our own days.

Al-Qaeda (also al-Qaida or al-Qa’ida or al-Qa’idah) (Arabic: القاعدة‎ al-qāʕida, translation: The Base)

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaida#The_Name_Al-Qaeda

The name of the organization comes from the Arabic noun qā’idah, which means “foundation, basis” and can also refer to a military “base”. The initial al- is the Arabic definite article “the”, hence “the base”.

Osama bin Laden explained the origin of the term in a videotaped interview with al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni in October 2001:

The binding of Isaac, Akeidah, and the term that became used often after 9/11, al-Qaeda, sound very similar to these ears. The bounds of a son being sacrificed in war may form a network of sons fighting for a cause worldwide. The stones that served as an altar may also found a base. Mount Moriah, the place of the altar according to legend, is also the site of the contested Temple Mount, where Akeidah and al-Qaeda might meet again to sacrifice others for their causes.

Let us hope that in a safe world both the non-rational sacrifice of sons and the need for armed struggle to shake loose injustice will both become stories and legends and not evident in our daily lives.

Debbie and I have been honored during the past years to read/chant the story of Hannah and the birth of Samuel as the haftorah (I Samuel 1:1-2:10), the reading after the Torah. 

This was a year when I chanted the story.  Elkana of Ephraim had two wives, one of which, Hannah, did not have any children.  Hannah went to Shilo, the northern kingdom’s Temple site, and prayed silently at its entrance.  Eli, the priest, observed her distress and accused her of drunkenness.  After explaining her despair, Eli wished that her petition for a child be granted.  In due time, Hannah had a child whom she had pledged to have the priests raise, lending him to the Lord.  That child was Samuel, who would be the prophet that would establish Saul and David as kings of Israel.  Debbie read what is known as the song of Hannah, a poem that expresses a theme of the season, that the Lord determines the future directions of people, that “the barren woman has borne seven children, while the mother of many is forlorn.”  With faith, and patience, “and not by one’s own strength”, does one succeed in this life.

The Torah reading (Genesis 21) that precedes this story is of the birth of Isaac, the conflict between Sarah and Hagar over the place of their sons in the future of Abraham’s descendants, the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, the promise of Ishmael’s future as a father of a great nation, and a peace treaty between Abraham and local kings over water rights and wells.  This is a story first told over 3,000 years ago, but pertinent for today for the Arab people and Islam sees Ishmael as the true inheritor of the Divine’s promise to Abraham.  Israel today is in need of the diplomatic skills of Abraham to resolve the conflicts of water and territory with its neighbors.  And women still fight over the place of their children and of themselves in a community.

This year, I focused on the notion of weaning found in both of the Torah and haftorah stories.  Over second evening dinner at the Rabbi’s home, we discussed that the Hebrew word for weaning has the consonants G-M-L, which are also the consonants for GaMeL – camel.  It was fun to play with these words and to try to make the connections, but we are no longer desert people who know camels and weaning well.  Both Abraham and Elkanar and Hannah had great celebrations when their sons were weaned.  It is too bad that we have lost this custom.  Perhaps it is because sons are no longer ever psychologically weaned from their mothers in this culture now. 

The three members of our family remaining in our home this season developed a new year’s card and e-newsletter that we sent to our family and friends via email, with a few copies going to relatives who do not use computers.  Our e-newsletter included a photo of our camel-riding last December in the northern Negev near Dimona, a blurry picture of the Temple Mount, a photo of Debbie and me in a cistern on Masada, and family photos from other happy events throughout the year.  We look forward to another year of health, happiness, peace, and learning – which is our wish to all we know and all with whom we share this lovely planet during these always interesting times.  L’shanah tovah.

This morning in our congregation there was an auf-ruf – a calling up of an engaged couple before their wedding to receive a blessing for their pending wedding.  It was auspicious this week for the haftorah read from Isaiah VXI, 10-LXIII, 9, compares the relationship of the Divine with the people Israel as a bride-groom and a bride.  It is a fitting reading for the seventh haftorah of consolation and is read the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah. 

The Torah reading is part of the closing narrative of Moses’ life, preceding the song of Moses, the blessing of the tribes, and his death at 120, read in the next weeks, the last readings of the yearly cycle.   Of particular note for our congregation is Deuteronomy, XXX, 19, which includes “choose life, so that you may live, you and your seed.”  These words appear in large, stylistic bronze letters on the congregation’s ark.  I am thinking of using this wisdom within my speech to my daughter at her bat mitzvah ceremony.  This phrase follows Deuteronomy, XXX, 11-14, “for this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for ou, neither is it far off.  It is not in heaven, that you should say: ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say:  ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?’  But the sord is very near you, in your mother, and in your heart, that you may do it.”

 I joked with Rav Jeremy that these Shabbat readings should be read for every auf-ruf or perhaps all engagements should be on this Shabbat.  Right after the 9th of Av, a day of national mourning, on the 14 of Av, the full moon in mid-summer, legends tell us that the young women would run in the fields and in the cities in their fineries to attract men.  Perhaps 7 weeks later, these new couples would announce their engagements while listening to these readings.  Perhaps they would marry during the readings of Chayei Sarah, about 7 more weeks from now, which relates the early love story between Rebecca and Isaac and the late love story between Batsheva and David.  Chayei Sarah was the reading the day before Debbie and I were wed.  We met at the end of July, were engaged in September, and wed in November – following the schedule that I am suggesting would be a good pattern for others, for these traditions and readings would be supportive.

The reading that includes “choose life, so that you may live, you and your seed” is found as an alternative to the second paragraph of the Sh’ma in the prayer books that are used by Reconstructionist synagogues.  It is a simple message, choose the life-affirming over negative actions.  The Hebrew of the phrase is intriguing.  The Hebrew word translated as choose – beharta – may be a command for “you choose”, with you as a singular, male noun.  Behar is also related in Hebrew to the concept of desire, a behor is a desired male.  Behar is followed with the preposition in – choose in, desire in.   The word for life Haiim is used as toast of good wishes – l’haiim – to life.  Haiim is a plural noun, hai is a life.  Chayei Sarah is the life of Sarah. The Hebrew that I have translated as “so that” is also translated as “for the sake of” or “to the path of”.  “You and your seed” are in the singular form.  The word for seed may also be understood as plantings or descendants.  The simple message is that you should desire life so that you and your children will live. 

It was a warm, late summer day.   We prepare for the new year by sending names in for the synagogue’s memorial book and by writing our annual new year letter to our family and friends.  Some of these letters will be copied on paper in color and sent to some of our relatives, others will receive an email version.  We add that we hope that we have not offend or hurt anyone during the past year and ask for forgiveness.  We continue to believe in life and pray for the health, happiness, peace, and fulfillment of all.  Happy new year – may you be inscribed in the book of life, affirming the wonders and miracles of each day, week, month, and year.

The portion of this week was Ki Tavo – when you come into the land - details the connections between the people and the Divine.   The section read in our community was Deuteronomy 27:11-28:3, dealing with a mystical scene with half of the tribes standing on one mountain, the older 6 tribes standing on a facing mountain, with the Levites shouting curses on those who did not follow the commandments of the Divine, blessings for those who do observe, then another series of terrible curses on those who hearken to the voice of the Divine.  The closing curse concludes a threat that the Divine would bring the people back to Egypt in ships.  The slave market would be so over-saturated that the people would not even be able to be sold as slaves.

The haftorah for this sixth Shabbat of Consolation is from Isaiah LX.  It presents an optimistic, mystical, messianic image of a future in which the Divine will be an everlasting light and the days of mourning wll be ended.  Written at the time of rebuilding of the second Temple after the Babylonian exile, it is a rallying song for those returnees from the empire’s capital, near Baghdad now, to recreate a society that had been overturned one hundred years before. 

With these readings, we climb into a bright future if we make the right choices, choose life-affirming plans and are positive about tomorrow.   On Labor Day weekend, we celebrate the last days of summer and plan for the future school year, prepare for the coming fall and winter, and hope for right choices and positive days ahead.

Our family have discussed the concluding section of this reading, about blotting out the name of Amalek from the families of the world.  We thought it gave a strange message of remembering to forget Amalek, a tribe that attacked the weak and old at the end of the travelling tribes as they were escaping from Egypt and in the desert.  Descendants of Amalek were said to be among the evil of the world – from Haman in the Purim story to Hitler in the last century. 

I have read that some find that this section – Deuteronomy XXV, 17 – 19 – describes the first recording of ethnic cleansing in history.  Since Amalek no longer existing as a nation, one might say that there are elements of these brutal, brutish people in all nations, even within oneself.  Yet, Amalek continues to be remembered and evil continues to exist.  The prior sections of the reading dealing with relationships between people – being fair in business, rules on fighting if conflicts do flare, taking care of the widow and children, kindness to animals – may provide the only strong response to human evil.  Building a just world may bring light to the darkness of base evil and not caring about each other.

The haftorah for this fifth reading of consolation was from Isaiah LIV, 1-10, one of the shortest readings in the year.   The reading compares the Divine’s relationship to Israel as a beloved barren wife.  The Divine is universal and will not destroy the world again as with a flood. 

Our two oldest sons returned to UCONN, one middle son decided to go to the University at Buffalo so that we would not even just drop in to visit him.  He thought that we was leaving our community forever, except for short visits.  He plans to be a world-travellers but was not sure of what he would study.  His grand-parents live in the same town, so we will see him often.  When he went forth, we started a new life.  When he left us, we returned to an emptier home and a new phase of our lives.  Let it be a life free of evil and filled with compassion for others and ourselves.

The haftorah, the fourth of the haftorot of consolation, Isaiah LI, 12-LII, 12, is one of optimism, although it starts with the reminder that the son of man is made of grass.  The Divine will comfort the people, redeem Jerusalem, and protect the nation.

This Shabbat I joined the community in a bike tour of 20 miles, known as the Steeple Chase.  Bikers go from church to church for snacks along the way, including one stop called the Holy Cow Shelter in a field along a country road.  It is a fund-raiser for the Perceptions Program – a treatment house in the community – and WAIM – the Windham Area Interfaith Ministry – a program that collects and distributes clothes and organizes a fuel bank in the winter.  The community is the hand of the Divine within these and other programs. 

My role as a tourist in a difficult world does not do justice directly.  We find ways to help others and ourselves for the problems are too complicated to be effective without the societal structures outlines in this portion.  People of good will do add good to the world. 

We will be on vacation in central Maine, north of Bangor, and not in our community this weekend.  The short Torah reading describes the spring holiday that we know of as Passover, the holiday seven weeks later for the first harvest and the remembrance of the giving of the Torah at Sinai that we know as Shavuot, and the fall harvest festival, Succot, and these holidays’ practices.  Key to the practices is that the whole community would celebrate, with one’s family, one’s neighbors, all who serve, the poor, the widow, within the gates of the community.  One would give to the celebration and the practices as one is able, according to the blessing of the Divine that was given to the individual.

 The prophetic reading is also short and focuses on the security from the people’s enemies by their trust in the Divine.  “All of your children will be taught of the Divine and great will be peace for your children” (Isaiah LIV, 13).

This week for me was one of blessings – the blessings of completing one’s summer programs and classes – and the curses of losing the stability of the routine and the added problem when one’s tools are not reliable.  My office workstation went to the technology hospital for what seemed to be a virus and now seems to be a major malfunction, taking with it many of the tools that I rely upon.  With the problems came learning to find alternatives to deal with the daily email, writing, online course teaching, and webpage development.  The curse of unstable technology is strengthening one’s reliance on creative problem-solving.

 I had an opportunity to celebrate our community when invited to speak on the phone about Willimantic and my impressions of its diversity, schools, and future.  I spoke of first seeing Willimantic when visiting with Debbie  to hear several regional/national bands at Recreation Park one Sunday afternoon in August 1985.  Coincidence, or the Divine’s sense of humor, there will be another day in the park with music and fireworks next weekend;  this time, Debbie and I will be going as members of a community with a lot of friends and a lot of blessings.  We celebrate our community and its holidays and events, its diversity, our neighbors.  There is a peace that comes for seeing the blessings of what we have and striving to turn curses into ways of learning more.

Last Shabbat, we had Bible and Bagel study before our services.  In our community, we gather for this study brunch on the first Shabbat morning of the month.  Rav Jeremy led us with a discussion of whether the Divine might be humble.  This discussion echoed in the Torah reading.  The Divine was seen as being patient with a wayward people, promising the rains in the right season, good harvests, strong children, a fulfilled life for those who follow the ordinances in the Torah.  The haftorah, the prophetic reading, spoke of the Divine not forgetting the suffering people, would a mother forsaken her child.  For those who trust in the Divine,there would be joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of song. 

During the past weeks, I have been reading Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan’s Judaism as Civilization.  Initially written over 60 years ago, Rabbie Kaplan laid out a plan to allow Jewish Americans or American Jews to live in two civilizations – the ever-evolving civilization of religion, tradition, history, folkways, contemporary expresssions, pride in the accomplishments of other members of the tribe and the secular nation defined by boundaries in space and communities.  Rabbi Kaplan called for a strengthening of Judaism in the home, the community center, the synagogue – the gathering place.  He also suggested that Jews, a strange shortened form of those from the tribe of Judah – just a historic surviving subset of a larger people – who be active, local members of their secular communities.  Compromises – like allowing one to break bread with one’s neighbors, to join in the secular holidays of a nation – Thanksgiving,  Memorial Day, July 4th – should be encouraged as long at they don’t stretch beyond one’s comfort zone. 

Trust was needed when our close ancestors, 200 years ago, were allowed to participate in the larger national community and trust was needed when some of our community formed our own nation or returned to enclosed communities.  The compromise to accept the best of the two civilizations and to mold one’s own world requires one’s trust that the Divine will continue to support and care for the short-lived beings that are here to serve each other, to learn, and to strive to make a better world without harming others. 

This Shabbat in mid-summer began the readings of the haftorot of consolation after our remembrance on the 9^th of Av. In our congregation, we discussed the section of the Torah reading that many know – the Shema and the following paragraph which begins with loving the divine with all one’s heart, one’s soul, and one’s might (6:4-6:10). Rav Jeremy noted the repetitions of “bet” or “in” in this paragraph – perhaps we are to reflect about the inwardness of this biblical reading that stresses both one’s own love and one’s need to be extroverted about speaking of the divine to one’s children, in the street, within one’s gates, in the time when one rises and when one lies down at night.

Rav Jeremy and I commented on the nature of chosen-ness in the readings when I went up for an aliyah. I mentioned that the 7^th aliyah discussed that the divine chose the people Israel and that this would not be a beloved passage for Reconstructionists. Rav Jeremy responded that Reconstructionists recognize that this notion of being chosen by the divine is part of the past civilization of the people but may need to change in these days. He also thought that the previous section on intolerance to the other nations’ ways of worship would be more problematic.

This Shabbat is known as Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Comfort. The haftorah starts with 40:1 “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God” and relates the primacy of the divine in comparison to the vanity and temporary state of people – 40:7 “The grass withers, the flower fades beneath God’s breath; surely the people are like grass”. 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades; but God’s word will stand forever.”

My college room-mate and his wife came to visit us on Saturday afternoon. They might describe themselves as secular Jews, not synagogue-goers. We discussed the variety of expression of ethnic feelings among Jews in the United States. I introduced Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan’s writings on Judaism as a civilization – based on the religion but included other forms of spiritual and communal experiences. Does not a social worker fulfill the need for repairing the world expressed in the prophetic readings? Does not someone who participates in Passover sederim and in high holiday services not also expressing their support for the ongoing culture that is Judaism? How much of Jewish allegiance is in reaction to others who identify Jews as being different from the general US population?

I differ with Rabbi Kaplan’s notions of chosen-ness, which seems to be that believing that Jews have a special relationship with the divine denies the path of spirituality for others and places us as separate from our neighbors. I believe that Judaism is a choosing tradition, we choose to accept the culture and try to find a way to both live in a contemporary life and in a life that is eternal, balancing the present with the comforts of the past and the promise of tomorrow. The divine will last forever and our time in short, yet there are many ways to expression of connectiveness with each other and some greater than we might ever imagine.