VAYERA_GENESIS XVIII -XXII
Some chapters of this week`s reading are used on the days of Rosh Hashanah. The obvious question is: Why were these episodes of the life of the first Jewish couple selected, when the Torah also contains, for example, the Ten Commandments, which serve as the moral basis for Western society, and which, therefore, would have been very appropriate as the main theme for that Day of Judgment. To have preferred the episode of Akedat Yitzchak, the “binding of Isaac” to the message of Sinai, implies that our Chajamim gave singular importance to this story for its exemplary teaching for future generations. The notion of sacrifice is apparently essential in every genuine human relationship and especially for our encounter with the Creator.
From another point of view, the basic message of these chapters is that God does not desire human sacrifices. An essential principle in our tradition is Vejai bahem, which means “and you shall live through them” (the Mitsvot). The Torah teaches how to live a fuller and more fulfilling life. Indeed, according to the Talmud, in the hereafter we will have to answer different questions and one of them will be: Why didn’t you take greater advantage of it and why didn’t you enjoy this world more? Of course, always within the framework of the parameters established by our tradition.
It is essential to remember that Akedat Yitzchak’s message has special significance for a humanity that included in its religious worship the sexual offering of virgin maidens to their gods and that, at some point, also promoted human sacrifices. Jewish tradition was therefore very revolutionary, declaring for all future generations that faith in a Creator implies, by definition, life and not death. The Torah has the goal of Vechai bahem, the directive and north to achieve a fuller life, with a transcendental content.
There are several hypotheses about the reasons why man of antiquity offered human sacrifices. In the end, none of them could explain what the human mind intended with this. It is possible that this was a reaction of fear to the “punishments” they received from their gods. These punishments were represented in some natural phenomena, such as earthquakes, floods or plagues, whose origin was unknown and were impossible to control. Man, then offered these sacrifices as a bribe to appease such destructive forces that he perceived as messages from capricious gods. Those conditional offerings, from incantations to the life of a loved one, such as a sibling or a child, in exchange for something, Did man seek to exert influence on the conduct of deities whom he considered arbitrary and capricious? Because by failing to obtain the desired response, he would remain at the mercy of the inexplicable lack of compassion of such higher beings.
An essential message of Judaism is that there is a reciprocal and dialogic relationship between man and his God. That is the notion of Brit, to which we alluded in a previous comment. God’s behavior and actions are not arbitrary. We, human beings, possess the means to influence Divine decisions. We have a voice; we participate in the making of heavenly decisions. That’s the extraordinary meaning of a conversation between Avraham and God, according to our weekly reading.
The Torah relates that three men visit Avraham and, among other things, announce to him the imminent destruction of Sedom and Amorah. This fact concerns Avraham, because his nephew Lot, who had accompanied him at the beginning of his journey to Canaan, had chosen to reside in Sedom. Avraham does not then focus his attention exclusively on his nephew and his family. The Torah reproduces a conversation between Avraham and God, which consists in an apparent questioning of Divine Justice.
How is it possible, Avraham questions, that He Who judges the entire earth not do justice? Surely there are righteous people in Sedom and Amorah, Can the righteous be destroyed at the same time as the wicked are eliminated? We are facing a totally different conception of the deity. Avraham is not an iconoclast because he destroys material idols. Avraham is a revolutionary because he breaks with concepts and formulations that do not allow any exchange, any dialogue, between a human being and the deity.
From then on, God will provide a constitution, a Torah which must govern His actions as well. What is written in the tefillin, the phylacteries belonging to God? The question makes sense only when God is also attributed responsibility for His actions, responsibility for His frequent absence from the stage of History, as is the case during the Holocaust years of World War II.
Lot is saved from the destruction of the cities, but his daughters conclude that the whole world has been destroyed. The fire and smoke, the sulphury smell and the fury of the heavenly rain led them to conclude that they were witnessing the end times. Faced with the possibility of the final eclipse of the human species, they decide to get the father drunk, have sexual relations with him and procreate the ancestors of new peoples.
It is very difficult to judge the action of Lot’s daughters. We are at the dawn of the history of civilization and many of the moral norms that we consider fundamental today were unknown then. This is a further example of human behavior that is being left behind to gradually evolve into norms and behaviors that belong to a higher moral stage.
The current reality is that we are still in full evolution. At present, there are versions of Lot’s daughters in our societies: for example, parents who abuse their sons. After millennia of development and evolution, we still regress to the primitive. Periods of oppression lead new generations to wish to completely free themselves from the taboos of other eras. The result, on many occasions, is an inclination toward debauchery and the stripping away all inhibitions. The sexual revolution of our times, to mention one example, has eliminated many hypocrisies, but has brought with it the weakening of the institutions that have been the basis of our society. Notwithstanding the distance in time, Avraham’s teachings continue to be relevant.
