Va-Yeira: A Most Terrifying Conversation Before Halloween

We’re back, baby! Our latest trip to Israel has concluded, and all 38 of us have returned stateside (more or less). It was an absolutely fabulous experience, and while I’m tempted to talk endlessly about our travels here, I’m not going to do so. Instead, I invite you to read our trip blog, dedicated specifically to everything we did in Israel. You can find it at: NomadicOhevites.blogspot.com Furthermore, in a couple of days I am going to post my synagogue newsletter article for November, where I ALSO talk about my feelings on traveling to Israel, so I don't feel a need to harp on the subject here. Instead, let's look at the Torah portion and an important upcoming program at Ohev.

I've often written about on the blog, and discussed in sermons, different ways that one can read our Biblical texts. If you pick a theme - say who names whom in the text;
when does water appear and why; when are women present or absent, etc. - and read the text with a singular focus on THAT theme, you see new and interesting phenomena rise to the surface of the text. One such device is death. How is death treated in the text? When does the Torah seem urgently concerned about someone committing a murder, and when is life treated with shocking disregard? What do we make of the Biblical allusions to an afterlife, e.g. Sheol? And perhaps more interestingly, what are we to do with the Torah's frequent (and glaring) LACK of interest in explaining to the reader what happens after we die? Our parashah this week gives us an excellent opportunity to employ this device... and feel utterly bewildered.

The Torah portion of Va-Yeira includes the infamous story of the Binding of Isaac, where God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son as a sign of his true and complete devotion to the Divine. Abraham doesn't even flinch,
but sets about preparing to commit the heinous act. At the last second, an angel stops Abraham from going through with it, and the text insists that we have our happy ending; Abraham passed the test, no one was harmed, and we should all be inspired when we read this story of flawless faith. And yet, we feel terrible. Along with perhaps EVERYONE in this story, we too are shocked, traumatized, and left questioning what the hell religion is trying to pull here anyway?!?! Most of the time, our distress is directed at the concept of blind faith, the purpose of such atrocious tests, and the cruelty towards parent(s) and child alike. But let's set all that aside for a minute. Let's put on our "special" glasses, and view our story through the lens of considering how the text treats death. You ready?

Not long before our story, God allowed Abraham to talk God out of killing the people of Sodom and Gomorrah IF some righteous individuals could be found in these settlements. Abraham was adamant and indignant; doesn't innocent life matter???

So context makes our chapter even MORE disturbing. Is the Torah trying to tell us that a mass of lives matter, but a single life does not? Whether it's an innocent child or a modern-day journalist? How can we understand the Torah's portrayal of God as asking the unimaginable of Abraham, and neither of them seemingly even ACKNOWLEDGING what an impossible price Abraham is being asked to pay? For me, the answer is simple: We can't. We cannot justify this, we cannot defend this, and I am honestly not even sure the text wants us to. It is trying to push us and provoke us. I believe, wholeheartedly, that the real question - for BOTH our ancient ancestors and for us today - is how we handle the topic of death in our society.

Which leads me to encourage your attendance at our second installment of a program we're calling Death Cafe. Rabbi Miller and I didn't coin the term; Death Cafes are organized all across the globe. And yet, most people today are still uncomfortable with, and HIGHLY reluctant to confront, death.

In part, I would say, it's because we only ever encounter death at funerals and shiva houses, so it's always gut-wrenching, tragic, and filled with wailing. But what if, instead, we came together on a Monday evening (October 29th), with refreshments, fancy table cloths, and a relaxed atmosphere (and possibly Steve Smith's Halloween-themed table decorations...)? No, it's not coincidental that it's being held at the end of October; I think the only other way we seem to handle death is with horror and trick-or-treating, and that isn't healthy either! We CAN talk about this subject in a different way, and I would argue that we NEED to do this. Our tradition is actually FILLED with interesting stories of "good" and... "less-good" deaths, and we want to look at all of them with you. Death is really just another part of life, though I of course understand why it's so hard for many of us to face. And yet, we need to face it and learn to grapple with it. So come join our Death Cafe, and maybe by the time you leave, death won't seem quite so scaaaaaaaary!!

Images in this blog post:
1. CC image courtesy of B Rosen on Flickr
2. CC image courtesy of Hans on Pixabay
3. CC image courtesy of Wikipedia
4. CC image courtesy of pxhere