Category: Bereishit

The Book of Genesis is full of movement, of entering and leaving. Àdam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden, Abraham and Sarah enter the Land of Canaan, and leave and enter again; Jacob leaves and then returns, only to leave once more — this time with his whole family. Rebecca, too, in this week’s parsha, begins her life of drisha (Gen. 25:22) — of seeking, inquiring — and travels from afar to join Isaac. Only Isaac stays put, never leaving the confines of the land eventually named “Yisrael” after his son. As Rebecca approaches her new home, she encounters Isaac, seeing him first from a distance — a dot in the beige-brown expanse of the Negev — studying him as she gets closer, analyzing what she sees: “Who is the man over there that is walking in the field to meet us?” (Gen. 24:65).

“And Isaac went out ‘lasu’ah’ in the field toward evening” (24:63).

The verb lasu’ah is a hapax legomenon, a term that appears only once in the entire Bible. It is therefore a veritable field-day for etymologists and exegetes alike. Some (e.g., Rashi, following Hazal) say lasu’ah derives from the noun si’ah or siha — conversation, musing, meditation — and conclude that Isaac was praying. Others (such as Rashbam) interpret lasu’ah from the alternate meaning of si’ah, a shrub or plant, and conclude that Isaac was out planting in his field. Some modern translations (see Fox, Alter) suggest (based on an Arabic cognate or a slight change of the text, or perhaps influenced by Rebecca’s question) that he was simply out for a stroll.

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The Binding of Isaac is one of the most complicated and disturbing of biblical stories. Tomes have been written throughout the centuries to try to make sense of this event. Perhaps the key to unlocking this complicated story lies with the unsung and often overlooked “hero” of the story — the ram. This animal gives its life and saves the life of Isaac, who until that moment had been designated to be the sacrifice, requested by God “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and get you into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell you of” (Genesis 22:2). Once Isaac is bound on the altar, the knife in Abraham’s hand, an angel forbids the harming of Isaac, leaving Abraham to spot a ram caught in the thicket. The timing of the arrival of a replacement for Isaac that was easily accessible to the elderly Abraham can be viewed as nothing short of miraculous.

According to the Mishnah (Ethics if the Fathers, 5:8), the six days of creation were topped off, right before the onset of Shabbat. These several critical products of God’s handiwork were inherently miraculous — in place as essential for select future events. Abraham’s ram is on this list, indicating that God had planned from the very beginning of the world for an animal to take the place of Isaac.

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Why did God choose Abraham?

At the beginning of Parashat Lech Lecha, it seems that God’s command to Abraham comes out of the blue: “Go forth from your land, and from your birthplace, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” We don’t know anything about Abraham except his lineage, which was just described at the end of the last parasha. The question becomes even stronger when we compare this to the beginning of Parashat Noah, when we hear very clearly why Noah is chosen to build the ark and survive the flood: “Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generation; Noah walked with God.”

The Midrash famously describes how Abraham as a young child recognized the Divine, and even tried to convince his father of the falsehood of idolatry, breaking his idols and placing a hammer in the hand of one of the idols to highlight how silly it is to think that the idols have power. However, in the simple reading of the Torah, there is no mention of this. So why was Abraham chosen?

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Somewhere over the rainbow, during Bein Hashmashot, the time “between the suns” — twilight — the rainbow was created. At least according to the Mishnah in Avot 5:6.

The rainbow does not appear on our radar until this week’s parsha, where it serves as a sign of the covenant between G-d and mankind that the world should never be destroyed by flood again (Genesis, chapter 9).

And G‑d said to Noah and his sons: I will keep my covenant with you and your descendants… and never again will a flood destroy all life, and there will not be another flood destroying the earth…. This is the sign I am making, testifying to the covenant between Me and you and all living souls, forever.

I have put my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between Myself and the world. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the clouds, and I will remember the covenant between Myself and yourselves and all living souls, and there will never again be a flood to destroy all life. The rainbow will be in the clouds and I will see it and remember the eternal covenant between G‑d and all the living souls on earth.

If you ask any little girl about the most drawn phenomena of nature — after unicorns, that is — the answer would be rainbows. While writing, I asked my fourth grader when she had last drawn a rainbow. Only a couple of hours before our conversation.

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Many people have established what they call Plan A for themselves. It is their first-choice unfolding of their lives. It is more than a plan; it is an ideal life.

Every so often, people also prepare a Plan B. As its name suggests, it is the backup plan, the less desirable alternative to Plan A.

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When you read the first chapter of Genesis carefully, you might well conclude that God too had a Plan A and a Plan B. Moreover, you might perceive much of what actually occurs during Creation as the secondary, less desirable plan. But how can that be? For while people, mere mortals, cannot know how their futures will pan out, to the extent that they make arrangements for alternative outcomes, the Divine surely knows the future! How could God end up stuck with Plan B? How is it even possible that His Plan A did not succeed?

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