top of page

Vayera – A thought for the week by Mike Lewis

There are more words in this weeks’ Parasha than in any other part of Bereishit. There are so many themes but the most perplexing is the Akedah, the binding of Isaac. The behaviour of Abraham seems to go against the very grain of being a parent.


The God who gave him a son is now telling him to sacrifice his son. The gravest sin is child sacrifice; that is what the pagans do.


The instruction, Lech Lecha, which began Abraham’s journey, is repeated towards the end of his life when he is told:

וְלֶ֨ךְ־לְךָ֔ אֶל־אֶ֖רֶץ הַמֹּֽרִיָּ֑ה
Lech Lecha al Eretz Moriah
Go to the land of Moriah

Rashi' makes a connection between Moriah and the Hebrew word for instruction; the Hebrew term for teacher, moreh or morah; he is to go to the land of teaching.


Abraham responds to God by saying “Hineni”, “here I am”. It is usually understood as unquestioning obedience, but it can also be seen as a readiness to learn. So what does he learn?


Parents do not own their children; we are their guardians on God’s behalf.

4 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Vayechi is the last Parasha of Bereishit. Winston Churchill used the phrase “the end of the beginning but not the beginning of the end” after the Battle of Britain in the 1940’s. It could well apply t

The Joseph story fills the last 4 chapters of Bereishit. This week, Vayigash, is the longest of them all. In the Torah scroll there are no paragraph breaks since we read Miketz last week. We continue

How do we maintain our Jewish identity in a strange land? That has been a question that resonates throughout our history. There are times when we consider our own land is estranged from us! On Shabbat

bottom of page